Wednesday, October 13, 2010

단군 [TanGun] - Folklore

A long time ago, there was a king called Hwan-In ruled the kingdom up there on the sky. King Hwan-In had a son whose name was Hwan-Woong. The life the the kingdom was really nice, but Hwan-Woong intended to go down to the earth and live there. King Hwan-In understood what his son wanted and he let him to go down to rule the earth. Hwang-Woong then brought people to help him rule the earth.
And then, Hwan-Woong went to mountain Bekdusan and made a village. Not far from the village that he made, there were one bear and and one tiger who were willing to be human. They asked to Hwan-Woong if it was possible. Hwan-Woong then told them some condition which if they follow those condition they can become human. The conditions were they have to get inside a very dark cave that even a dot of light can't get in, and for 100 days they can't eat anything except mugwort and garlic.
They accepted that condition and went inside that dark cave and only brought garlic and mugwort to eat. The tiger couldn't hold his hunger and couldn't help to only eat garlic and mugwort, he went out before 100 days passed. On the other hand, the bear with patience only ate garlic and mugwort stayed until 100 days and transformed into a very beautiful lady.
This beautiful lady wanted to get married, and she got married with Hwan-Woong. Their first child of them was called 단군 [TanGun]. TanGun then went down from Bekdusan and ruled the Korea peninsula. That area was called 조선 [JoSeon] which is actually the first name of Korea.

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