Reading traditional Korean folk tales for fun and reading them again in English

Let’s read traditional Korean folk tales in Korean and English!

The traditional folk tale is a genre widely read and beloved regardless of the era.

Transmitted from mouth to mouth over a long period, traditional Korean folk tales reflect the everyday lives, customs, joys and sorrows, and humor and courage of Koreans in the olden days. They are invaluable stories that can be enjoyed by people in distant lands and those who have come from afar and live in South Korea as well. - Kim Myung-Hwan (professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Seoul National University) -

As in the recommendation by Professor Kim Myung-Hwan at Seoul National University, reading old tales holds a special value. Publishing traditional Korean folk tales, which are thus meaningful, in both Korean and English, this series will reward children with both the joy of reading old stories and an opportunity to study English. Furthermore, the series has been planned so that it can be enjoyed by Korean children overseas, children from multicultural families in South Korea, and children around the globe as well. We hope that it will be used also as a good guide for naturally introducing Korean culture to foreign friends abroad as they are told traditional folk tales from Korea.

An Introduction to the Series

Out of the countless tales that are widely known to many Korean readers, 23 especially colorful and entertaining ones have been selected and edited into 12 volumes. Familiar to Korean children, stories such as “Yeonorang and Seonyeo,” “The Headstone Goes to Court,” “The King has Donkey’s Ears,” and “Kongji and Patji” will not only be fun to read in the original Korean but also heighten youngsters’ understanding as they read the English translations. In addition, children who know similar traditional folk tales from other countries can make comparisons, thus being provided with a fascinating approach to these works.

Table of Contents

01 “Tiger and Dried Persimmon”

Deep in a mountain, there lived a huge tiger. It was not only big in its size but also loud in its voice. One day, the animal went down to the village at the foot of the mountain and sneaked up on a large cow in a stable to eat it. At that moment, the sounds of a little child crying came from the room in the house by the cowshed. Quietly crawling up under the door of the room, the tiger then started to eavesdrop. The mother cited the names of fearsome beasts such as the leopard cat, huge rat snake, and tiger to make the youngster stop crying, but it was all to no avail. When she said that there was a dried persimmon, however, the child, wailing uncontrollably only a moment ago, suddenly stopped. Frightened out of wits by this, the tiger barely hid itself in the stable, where it by chance encountered a cow thief. Mistaking the man for the fearsome “dried persimmon,” the beast began to run for its life…

02 “Lazybones Who Turned into a Cow”

There once lived Lazybones, who hated to work. Even when everyone else went out to the rice paddies and fields and worked hard from early morning to late night during the farming seasons, he would only idle about. Unable to bear it any more, his wife yelled at him to go out and do some work. However, Lazybones then sneaked out from the wardrobe two bolts of cloth that she had woven and went outside. On the mountain behind the village, he encountered an elderly man who made cow head-shaped masks and was offered one to try on. Once Lazybones put on the mask, however, he strangely could not take it off. He was a real cow now! Following his bovine transformation, Lazybones was then sold off at the market by the old man. Would he be able to revert to his human self?