Prince Sandalwood, the Father of Korea
단군, 한국의 아버지
William Elliot Griffis, after traditional Korean mythology (1843–1928)
The Story
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Long ago, before Korea had a king, a bear and a tiger both lived on the same mountain.Both animals watched the people in the villages below and wished, more than anything, to become human.One day they climbed to a cave and prayed to Hananim, the Great One of heaven and earth, to grant their wish.
Hananim heard them and sent down one simple test: eat only garlic, stay inside the dark cave, and never step into the sunlight, for twenty-one days.The bear and the tiger agreed, and together they began to count the long, hungry days.The tiger lasted eleven days before he could bear it no longer.
Growling with hunger, the tiger burst out of the cave and ran back to his old life in the forest, human no more.The bear stayed behind in the darkness, sucking quietly on her paw, and kept counting.On the twenty-first day, her thick fur and claws fell away from her like an old coat, and she stepped out of the cave a woman.
She knelt beside a clear brook and saw her own new face in the water for the first time.Around that same time, Whanung, a prince of Heaven, came down from the sky to rule over the Land of the Dragon's Back, which is Korea.Walking through the forest, Whanung found the bear-woman beside the brook, and he chose her to be his wife.
In time, the two of them had a son, and the boy grew tall and wise beneath the mountain sky.When he was grown, he called the people of the land to gather beneath a great sandalwood tree."I have come from my ancestors in Heaven to rule over you, my children," he told them.
The people saw that he spoke the truth, and they made him their king, calling him Tan-gun — Prince Sandalwood.Even now, Koreans call Tan-gun the father of their nation, and remember that a bear once waited patiently in the dark until she became his mother.
Comprehension Check
1. Why did the tiger fail to become human?
2. How did the bear become a woman?
3. What did Tan-gun tell the people when he called them together at the sandalwood tree?
Vocabulary
noun
cave
동굴
One day they climbed to a cave and prayed to Hananim, the Great One of heaven and earth, to grant their wish.
어느 날 그들은 동굴로 올라가, 하늘과 땅의 큰 어른이신 하나님께 소원을 들어달라고 빌었어요.
Your Summary
In 1–2 sentences, say how the bear became a woman, and what Tan-gun told the people beneath the sandalwood tree.
Source: Adapted from "Prince Sandalwood, the Father of Korea," William Elliot Griffis's English retelling of Korea's founding myth — the bear who became a woman, and the birth of Tan-gun — in "Korean Fairy Tales" (1911; Project Gutenberg #67180). Griffis (1843–1928) is long in the public domain in the US and in life+70 countries. This simplified retelling and its Korean translation are original text written for SeoJae Story.