COLLECTION

Korean Folklore

Stories connected by a shared idea.

2 stories

Dokkaebi: The Goblins of Korea

They wrestle travellers all night and turn out to be an old broom by morning; they knock gold out of a club and run from the crack of a hazelnut. Their name is in Korean books from 1447, but the horns they wear today, a Korean folklorist argues, were drawn for them in colonial-era school readers.

Read story 10 min read

Gumiho: The Nine-Tailed Fox of Korea

Korea's oldest books know the fox as an omen, a demon in a monk's robe and, once, a mountain god who helped a famous monk. The gumiho who longs to become human, and counts the years or the livers until she does, comes mostly from television.

Read story 13 min read