written by innofir

Note: A lot of Korean Mythology has been lost due to many battles and were possibly burned or damaged when foreign armies attacked Korea. Please keep in mind that the folktales mostly take place in the Choseon Dynasty, and the myths usually takes place before that.

•✦──────✧✦✧──────✦•

The Creation of the World and the first Kingdom In Korea

At the beginning of the world, there was a giant goddess who was called 'Mago-Halmi (마고할미)'. (Halmi refers to 'old woman' in Korean, although it is seen as informal nowadays in Korea.) The soil that she moved with her skirt became the mountains and the islands. Giant rocks on land that seemed to be out of place were placed by Mago-Halmi, who had rolled the rocks with her whip and hands until she threw them away.

Later on, Hwan In (환인), the King of the Skies sent his son Hwan Woong (환웅) to the land which is now Korea with thousands of subjects. The most notable three was Poong-Baek (풍백), Wooh-Sah (우사), and Woon-Sah (운사). Poong-Baek represented the wind, Wooh-Sah represented the rain, and Woon-Sah represented the clouds They all represented something crucial to weather, which shows that agriculture was known to people back then. Hwan Woong arrived at where the humans lived and was soon praised as a good ruler. He retained his immortality during this period.

One day, a bear and a tiger came to Hwan Woong, asking to become human. Hwan Woong agreed to make them human, but under one condition – they had to eat only garlic and mugwort to eat without seeing sunlight for 21 days. The bear and the tiger went into a cave and started to do as Hwan Woong said. Soon the tiger gave up, frustrated by the mission Hwan Woong gave. (It is thought that two tribes, each worshipping the bear and the tiger battled, with the bear tribe being victorious as the result) However, the bear finished the 21 days and became a beautiful woman, who started to call herself Woong-Nyeo (웅녀).

But Woong-Nyeo soon found out that life didn't become any easier than when she was a bear; she couldn't find a lover. This led her to pray for a husband and child, and Hwan Woong, who was passing by, saw Woong-Nyeo and fell in love with her. (This indicates that the tribe worshipping the bear and the tribe worshipping Hwan Woong unified.) As their romantic relationship developed, Hwan Woong became a human (temporally, it seems that the myth about what happened to him and Woong-Nyeo after is lost) to have a child with Woong-Nyeo. A baby boy was born and was named 'Dan-Goon (단군)', who would later become found and become the first king of Gochoseon, the first kingdom in Korean history. Dan-Goon is also called 'Dan-Goon- Wang-Gum (단군왕검)' in Korea.

After time passed, Gochoseon also fought the tribe that worshipped Mago-Halmi and won. Mago-Halmi escaped with nine generals and plotted revenge but was surprised by how good Dan-Goon treated her tribe. She later visited Dan-Goon, recognized his leadership, and fully surrendered.

•✦──────✧✦✧──────✦•

Did you find this interesting? Please let us know in the comments!

Thank you to innofir for providing this information to us and allowing more people to learn about Korean mythology!