Some dragons were even said to be sentient, capable of understanding complex emotions. Follow our curriculum and chat with Lanny in Korean! Dokkaeki became very popular after the drama 도깨비 (Goblin) came out. Have I missed any other supernatural Korean creatures? Every culture has their own monster and each one tells its own story about what haunts or scares us. When the morning comes, they disappear by turning into inanimate objects. It has the body of a bear, buffalo's eyes, elephant's nose and tiger's claws. The Chollima has lent its name to a Pyeongannam-do (South Pyeongan Province) county, as well as the national soccer team, a movie studio, and even North Korea’s 1956 answer to China’s Great Leap Forward, intended to promote rapid economic development (wanna guess how that worked out for them?). The myth must explain how that feature was formed. The image of the dokkaebi ranges between a demonic figure and a conventional troll, right down to the club. Learn how your comment data is processed. Dokkaebi (도깨비) are mischievous creatures that play jokes on bad people and grants good people’s wishes during the night. Although, it should be pointed out, in My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox this is revealed to be a rumour that ruined the main character’s reputation and kept her from landing a husband. The haechi should be recogniseable to anyone who’s been to Seoul, as it’s been the city’s symbol since 2009. Also like western ghosts, most gwishin are depicted as floating, legless, and translucent. Thus, the Chollima could travel 393 kilometers in a single day, which is approximately the north-south length of the entire Korean peninsula. Korean mythology. Unlike European dragons which generally breathed fire and lived in caves, Korean dragons lived in bodies of water and helped humanity. Michelle Bachmann’s worst nightmare? The Chollima is one of the more straightforward creations of Korean legend, as it can be very easily likened to the Greek Pegasus. These mythical creatures are similar to the widely known Grim Reapers, and were charged with the duty of guiding both good and evil souls to the afterlife. Kala is a ferocious monster symbolic of time in its all-devouring aspect and associated with the destructive side of the god Shiva. The bonghwang is composed of the beak of a rooster, the face of a swallow, the forehead of a fowl, the neck of a snake, the breast of a goose, the back of a tortoise, the hindquarters of a stag, and the tail of a fish. Many believe the legend of this lone wolf actually comes from real-time ecological periods when the untraveled deep woods were indeed populated by larger varieties of wolves (like the better known dire wolves). A gumiho is said to be a fox that has lived 1000 years, after which it gains the power of shapeshifting. Dokkaebi (도깨비) are mischievous creatures that play jokes … Don’t live there? In recent times, illustration has become the core component to create the identity of any product…, This is what 500 years of graphic design in print looks like, Why Typography Matters — Especially At The Oscars. In old Tokyo, there was a tradition where people wrote their family members’ names onto cucumbers and sent them downstream to appease the Kappa. Most dragons were originally imugi, a type of lesser or juvenile dragon resembling a giant serpent. King Arthur and Excalibur, the Loch Ness Monster; the Boogeyman; Bigfoot, Leprechauns, and many others. According to the original legend, Chollima was a winged horse who wanted to be tamed. However, their image is striking and easily identifiable, and I’ve been taken aback by the strength of the belief so many Koreans have in ghosts, which are imagined to be found almost everywhere. Kappa. While some myths suggest Crataeis was Scylla’s mother, Hecate was also linked to be the mother in some other myths. The three-legged crow The gamtu (감투), or hat, grants them invisibility. Mogwai/Mogui. Other times, multiple urban legends are combined to create a new mythology. They look like they want to challenge you to a wrestling match. You can see gwishin all over Korean horror movies, and the Japanese version of the image went global thanks to the 1998 film The Ring. This list may not reflect recent changes (). In East Asian mythologies, the three-legged crow is a symbol of the Sun and is said to live there. Let the students share their myths with the rest of the class. Starring Seung-gi Lee (이승기) and Min-ah Shin (신민아). The Red Devils mascot is based on a type of dokkaebi (photo: Yonhap News). Please let me know. The Inmyeonjo (인면조) is the bird with the human face. The more I looked into it, the more I discovered that many of Korea’s legendary beings are still with us. But they tell us about more than mortal fear alone. It is romanised many different ways, with the Chinese version xiezhi (sure to give any Scrabble player a heart attack), and the more Korean haetae, or Haitai. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. A kumiho (gumiho) (Korean pronunciation: ; Korean: 구미호; Hanja: 九尾狐, literally "nine-tailed fox") is a creature that appears in the tales and legends of Korea. Required fields are marked *. The Korean Mythological Bestiary The bulgasari is an unusual hybrid creature. Although Korea’s dragons are comparable to Chinese dragons, there are a few factors that make Korean dragons unique. The gumiho has been depicted in Korean media numerous times; as well as the SBS drama they’ve been the center of the 1994 film The Fox with Nine Tails, the 2006 musical comedy The Fox Family, and the 2007 animated film Yobi, the Five-Tailed Fox. Gwishin are usually women or girls with long black hair, and most commonly they are depicted wearing white funerary clothes. For that matter, they are known to eat children as well, which anyone who’s ever flown in economy class with a crying baby the whole flight will probably see the logic to. HWANUNG – The god of the laws and father of the demigod Tangun, one of the important founder- … This is just like the Pegasus where the horse has wings. An imugi would become a dragon if it caught a Yeouiju falling from heaven. These two history books are based on much older records that are currently lost. Published by: JonDunbar On December 16th 2011. People are wont to carelessly refer to Korean dokkaebi or Japanese dokkaebi, but they are clearly mistaken. Their club, called a bangmangi (방망이), allows them to summon any item they want. Korean legends characterise a variety of mythical creatures, ghosts, monsters, and dragons. Korean spin don ’ t let your kids play with a haechi final! 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