The Man Who Lost His Legs

A merchant of Chong-ju used to sail to the island of Quelpart to buy seaweed. One time, as his boat drew up to the shore, he saw a man shuffling along the ground toward it. The man crept closer and closer, then grabbed the side of the boat with both hands and swung himself in.

“When I looked at him,” said the merchant, “I saw that he was an old man with no legs. ‘Old man,’ I asked in astonishment, ‘how did you lose your legs?’

“‘I was shipwrecked on a voyage,’ he told me, ‘and a great fish bit them off.’”

“However did that happen?” the merchant asked, and the old man told him this story.

“We were caught in a gale and driven along until we struck some island or other. On the shore in front of us stood a tall castle with a great gateway. There were about twenty of us in that storm-tossed boat, all worn out with cold and hunger, so we landed and went up to the house together.

“Only one man lived there, and he was terrifying to look at. He was enormously tall, his chest was many spans around, his huge eyes rolled. His voice was like the braying of a monstrous donkey. We made signs that we wanted something to eat. He gave no answer but bolted the front gate fast. Then he brought an armful of wood, piled it in the middle of the courtyard and lit a fire. When it blazed up, he rushed at us and seized one of our company, a young lad, and the poor boy became the giant’s supper right in front of us. We were frozen with horror and stared at each other, not knowing what to do.

“When he had eaten his fill, he went up onto the veranda, opened a jar and drank some kind of strong liquor. Then he let out the most horrible noises, his face turned bright red, and he lay down and fell asleep, snoring like thunder.

“We tried to escape by opening the great gate, but each of its two doors was about twenty-four feet wide and so thick and heavy that, pull as we might, we could not budge it. The walls were a hundred and fifty feet high, so there was no climbing them. We were like fish in a pot, with no way out at all. We held each other’s hands and wept.

“Then one of us thought of a plan. We had a knife, and while the monster lay drunk and asleep, he would put out his eyes. ‘We’re doomed anyway,’ we said. ‘Let’s try it.’ So we crept up onto the veranda and struck at his eyes. He let out a terrible roar and lashed out on every side to catch us. We scattered and ran out of the courtyard into the back garden, where there were about sixty pigs and sheep penned up. In among the animals we dashed. He blundered about, sweeping his arms after us, but he could not catch a single one of us, because we were all mixed up together, sheep, pigs and people. Whenever he grabbed something, it was a sheep, and when it was not a sheep, it was a pig. So he opened the front gate to send all the animals out.

“Each of us took a pig or a sheep on his back and made straight for the gate. The monster felt each one, and finding a pig or a sheep, let it pass. So we all got out and ran for the boat.

“A little later he came and sat on the bank and roared threats after us, and many other giants came at his call. Taking strides of thirty feet or so, they raced after us, caught hold of the boat and held it fast, but we struck at their hands with axes until they let go, and at last we got away to the open sea.

“Then a great wind rose up a second time, and we were driven onto the rocks. Everyone was swallowed by the sea and drowned except me. I caught hold of a piece of timber from the boat and lived, but a horrible fish came swimming after me and bit off my legs. At last I drifted home, and here I am.

“Even now, when I think of it, my teeth chatter and my bones shake. My lucky stars must be very bad indeed for such things to happen to me.”

About this story

“The Man Who Lost His Legs” appears in Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies, James Scarth Gale’s 1913 translation; unlike most tales in the book, it is signed simply “Anon.” Quelpart is the old European name for Jeju, the large island off Korea’s southern coast.

Readers who know the Odyssey will recognize the story: a one-house giant who eats sailors, a blinding with a sharpened weapon and an escape among the animals of his flock. Those shared episodes make an interesting comparison, but resemblance alone does not establish how this version travelled. This telling ends with the survivor describing lasting fear and blaming his luck.

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

Suggested for older readers within ages 9–12 with an adult: includes a child being eaten, blinding, drowning and loss of limbs.

Escape is not the end of danger

The sailors solve the problem they can understand: a blinded captor checks animals by touch, so they carry animals over their bodies. The second storm defeats them without offering an equivalent puzzle. The survivor’s disability is the result of that ordeal, not evidence of failure or wrongdoing. His shaking voice also makes the adventure an account of remembered terror.

Separate choice from chance

Make a sequence of the two shipwrecks and the castle escape. Mark where a decision changes events and where the sailors lack control. Does the ending support blaming the survivor for what happened?

Questions to ask

• How did the sailors trick the blinded giant?
• Why do you think the giant opened the gate?
• Does this story remind you of any other tale you know?

Related stories

• The Old Man Who Became a Fish — another strange Korean sea tale
• The Sneezing Colossus — another Korean giant
• The Snake’s Revenge — another eerie tale from Gale’s collection