Korean Folk Tales
Tigers, rabbits, spirits, magistrates and lovers facing unequal power appear in these Korean tales. English sources include H. N. Allen’s Korean Tales, James Scarth Gale’s Korean Folk Tales and William Elliot Griffis’s Korean Fairy Tales.
Their historical language and commentary sometimes reflect the translator’s assumptions. Source notes separate those judgments from the narrative, while individual audience guidance identifies stories involving captivity, violence, sacrifice or other mature themes.
72 stories are in this collection right now.
Browse by region: Korea.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Fancha and the Magpie
A Manchu emperor who wants heavenly ancestors hears an old storyteller’s tale of three sky maidens, a magpie’s red fruit and a boy saved in a forest.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
East Light and the Bridge of Fishes
A boy saved as a baby by pigs and mares grows into a great archer, and when a jealous king hunts him, the fish of a river form a bridge for him.
Korean Folk Tales
Faithful Mo
A slave’s beautiful daughter marries a scholar against a prince’s will, and after her death he meets her spirit one moonlit night on Camel Mountain.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Cursed by the Snake
When servants kill a giant snake found coiled in a flour jar and burn its body, deadly smoke fills a minister’s mansion and leaves the land cursed.
Korean Folk Tales
Charan
A governor’s son makes a dangerous winter journey to find Charan, who supports their life together and devises a plan to secure their return.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Cheung Puk-chang, the Seer
A brilliant scholar who learns any language at a hearing tells his worried aunt exactly where her overdue servant is, and why he is being beaten.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Cat-Kin and the Queen Mother
A farmer’s daughter named for a pussy willow calls up the Heavenly Queen Mother, who carries her by dragon chariot to the Island of Gems.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
A Visit from the Shades
A palace secretary dreams of his dead mother visiting a shaman's ceremony. A servant's matching account convinces him to change his offerings.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
An Encounter with a Hobgoblin
A young captain moves into an empty house in Seoul, where a vanishing woman, a rain of hot coals and a goblin who flings him across Korea await him.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
A Story of the Fox
Alone at night in his father’s garden pavilion, a governor’s young son is visited by a pretty stranger he suspects is really a shape-changing fox.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
A Bridegroom for Miss Mole
A proud father mole offers his daughter to the Sky, the Sun, the Cloud, the Wind and a giant stone statue, and each sends him on to someone greater.
Korean Folk Tales
A Frog for a Husband
A giant bullfrog moves in with a poor old farmer, fills his house with treasure, then insists on marrying the loveliest girl in the next village.