The Magic Invasion of Seoul

One day a gentleman of Seoul was crossing the Han River by boat. Partway across, he nodded off, fell asleep and had a dream. In it he met a man with sweeping eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes, a face as red as ripe dates and the height of a giant. He was dressed in green, his long beard reached down to his belt and a great sword hung at his side. He rode a red horse, and he looked every inch a king.

The stranger asked the gentleman to open his hand, and when he did, the noble figure dashed a brush mark across his palm, the sign of the God of War. “When you have crossed the river,” he said, “don’t go straight on to Seoul. Wait at the landing. Soon seven horses will come by, loaded with hampers of netting, all on their way to the capital. Call the riders over, open your hand and show them this sign. When they see it, they will all fling themselves away before your eyes. Then pile up the loads, but don’t look inside them, and go at once and report the matter to the Palace and have them all burned. This is a matter of enormous importance, so don’t fail in the smallest detail.”

The gentleman woke with a great start of fright. He looked at his hand, and there, sure enough, was the strange mark, with the ink still wet. Astonished beyond words, he did just as the dream had told him and waited on the riverbank.

Soon, just as he had been warned, seven horses arrived with seven loads, coming from the far south. Attendants were in charge of them, and a man in an official’s coat rode behind. When they had crossed the river, the gentleman called them over. “I have something to say to you,” he said. “Come close.” Suspecting nothing, though they looked a little uneasy, the men gathered round. He showed them the mark on his hand and asked whether they knew what it was.

The moment they saw it, the man in the official coat turned and leaped over the cliff into the river with a single bound, and the eight or nine men with the loads all rushed after him and plunged into the water.

The gentleman called the boatmen and explained that the hampers held something dangerous, that he must report it to the Palace, and that in the meantime they were to guard the loads closely without touching them or looking inside. Then he hurried as fast as he could to the Board of War. The Board sent an official to have the loads brought into Seoul, and, as the dream had commanded, they were piled high with firewood and set alight.

As the fire took hold, the hampers burst open, and out came tumbling countless tiny figures of men and horses, each about an inch long. When the officials saw this, they froze with fear, their hearts seemed to stop and their tongues hung out. But soon the hampers had all burned away.

These little figures were the work of a magician and were meant for a monstrous magic invasion of Seoul, until Kwan, the God of War, gave warning of it. From that time on, the people of Seoul faithfully made offerings to the God of War, for had he not saved their city?

About this story

“The Magic Invasion of Seoul” comes from Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies, the 1913 translation by James Scarth Gale of tales collected by Im Bang. The god in the dream is Kwan, or Guan Yu, a famous general of ancient China who came to be worshiped as the God of War. The red face, long beard, green robe and red horse are the identifying features used in this telling.

The tale offers a legendary explanation for honouring Kwan in Seoul: it credits him with warning the city about an army of tiny magic soldiers smuggled in hampers. That supernatural episode is not independent evidence for the founding of a shrine.

Read the original: Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 9–12 — a dream of the God of War, seven mysterious hampers and an army an inch high.

A dream leaves a mark

The wet ink carries something from the dream into the waking scene. Then the strangers’ flight gives the gentleman another reason to trust the warning, before the hampers reveal anything. The instruction not to look delays the most startling image until the fire is already burning: an army appears, but too late to act. The order of these details creates suspense without showing a battle.

Storyboard the reveal

Draw four frames: the marked palm, the waiting man, the fleeing attendants and the opened hampers. Under each, write what the gentleman knows at that point. Which frame changes an unexplained warning into a visible threat?

Questions to ask

• What did the God of War tell the gentleman to do?
• Why do you think the riders fled when they saw the sign?
• What was hidden in the hampers?

Related stories

• The Temple to the God of War — another Korean tale of Kwan, the God of War
• The Man on the Road — magic that turns aside an army
• Yun Se-pyong, the Wizard — another Korean magician