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Chapter 1: What are the five interconnected stories from Korean folklore?
This week on Myths and Legends, there are five stories from Korean folklore.
We'll see that when it comes to creeping up to your neighbor's houses and peeking in their windows, you should only do that when you think what's going on inside is super weird, how faking it until you make it is not a great idea when it comes to practicing medicine, and what you should do if your spouse is a secret demon who wants to kill you.
The creature this week is the dergar, and why you shouldn't hassle mythological creatures in the woods. This is Myths and Legends, episode 436, Feet First. This is a podcast where we tell stories from mythology and folklore.
Chapter 2: What lessons do we learn from peeking into our neighbors' lives?
Some are incredibly popular tales you might think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories that might be new to you, but are definitely worth a listen. We're in Korean folklore with five interconnected stories, and they actually fit with a time period, the 15th century.
At that time, modern-day North and South Korea were a united kingdom called Joseon, which existed from 1392 until 1897. Today's story, though, takes place in and around Seoul, so mainly in modern-day South Korea. We'll jump in on the outskirts of Seoul with someone doing something they maybe shouldn't. the middle-aged man stepped back from the window.
It was not his window, and while windows are made for looking through, it's generally understood that the looking is meant to go from in to out. To go from out to in, well, It's going to happen. That's the nature of windows.
For instance, if I'm walking the dog at night, I'm going to have opinions about how many of my neighbors don't appear to understand the nature of color temperature when it comes to LED bulbs, or do understand, but like their house to be lit exactly like a middle school gymnasium. It's interesting to see what they do with the wall colors and trim.
But you take a glance and you keep walking because it is also the case that too much looking for too long, it gets weird. Proximity also matters. Street distance or greater matters.
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Chapter 3: Who is the creature known as the Duergar and what should we know about it?
Normal. Yard? Maybe, if the dog needs to go, but then quickly. Face pressed against the glass? You might not be a serial killer, but you sure are acting like one. The middle-aged man on the outskirts of Seoul, though, thankfully, was not a serial killer. or even a creep. He was just intensely curious about what was going on in the stranger's house.
Rushing back to the street, he scooped up his lantern, licked his finger, looked down at the flame flickering at the end of the candle, decided that even though it looked cool when Aragorn did it, he didn't want to burn his finger, and just blew it out. picking his way back up to the house. He went this time to the door and knocked. The mourner answered.
Good sir, the man, a wanderer dressed like a farmer, said in his most pitiful voice, my lantern has gone out. May I rekindle its flame in your honorable fire? The man in the clothes of a mourner stepped aside and invited him in. Bowing, the traveler stepped into the house, opened up his lantern, and handed the young man the candle.
There, in the flicker of the fire, sat an old man with tears fresh on his face, and a Buddhist nun, not in the robes, but bald all the same. So, if you don't mind me asking, the wanderer started, when I was outside, I saw this older man here weeping, this nun dancing, and I heard the most beautiful music, and it was coming from you, a mourner. Stooping toward the fire, the young man stopped.
Oh, and how did you see those things from the outside? Before I answer that, let me just say I'm not going to rob you and I'm not creepy. I heard the sound, noticed a tear in the window paper, and looked in from the window. The traveler smiled. Okay, well, that's very creepy, the young man replied. Oh, no, no, no.
See, I already addressed the creepy part by saying I'm not creepy, so that bit is settled. The wanderer grinned. Well, I know you're not here to rob us, the young man said, as he put the candle into the fire and then gestured to the kitchen. Notice anything about that kitchen? The wanderer squinted and then, no. Yeah, the young man in mourner's clothes said.
Pressing his face to the ground, the wanderer didn't see one.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of the 15th-century Joseon period in these stories?
The kitchen was completely ant free. That was amazing. That's one way of thinking about it. The young man pulled the wick back from the flame. The young man pulled the candle back from the flame. Another way was that they couldn't afford even a crumb for the ants, let alone themselves. They were starving.
There definitely wasn't enough rice, but they had just been getting by on a little bean porridge, with the lion's share going to their aged father. The sister was not a nun, but instead she had been cutting off a strand of her glorious hair each day to sell for beans. Now, though, that was all gone.
Oh, got it, so she's not a nun, and the father is weeping because... The traveler started and then stopped. Oh, he actually didn't get it. My father's mind isn't what it was. We can tell him all day that she's not a nun, but a few minutes later, it's like he's seen her head for the first time, and he breaks into tears anew. So I sing, and she dances, and it helps.
Okay, now I understand two parts of it, but the mourner's clothes, the wanderer said, gesturing up and down toward the man. "'Poverty!
Chapter 5: How does the story of the curious wanderer unfold in Seoul?
Crushing abject poverty!' the young man reiterated. His mother had died. Well, it had been longer than the appointed three years for him to wear the mourner's robe, but it was the only robe he had left. A scrap of paper fluttered, pinned to the wall, and the wand replaced the lit candle in his lantern and held the light aloft.' That poem, he gasped when he finished reading. It's perfect.
I've never read it before. Who wrote it? I did, the young man said, forcing a smile. Why are you not a scholar for the king? Have you never sat for an examination? The wanderer was nonplussed. My sister is selling her hair for bean porridge. There's no way I could afford the brushes, ink, the paper, reserving a place. Not even at the one in two weeks' time? The wanderer asked.
There is no exam in two weeks' time, the kid said. They're only once a year. He glanced to his father and then looked to the stranger. Also, that didn't change their economic circumstances. They're announcing it everywhere, the middle-aged wanderer shrugged. Well, I still need brushes and paper. My sister doesn't have enough hair for that.
At the mention of hair, the father gasped and looked his daughter over. No, no, no, no. She took the vows? This was all his fault for being unable to provide for them. He shook with sobs. I need to get back to it, the son said. The wanderer understood. And as the son rushed to comfort his father, the stranger announced that he was leaving a little money for the flame.
We don't need alms from a beggar. She's not an actual nun, the son called back. But the wanderer wouldn't be deterred. Dropping a few coins on the table in the remarkably ant-free kitchen, the wanderer slipped from the house. Hey, the worms called out, honey guy. They tried to wave to the traveler, but you know, they didn't have arms.
The words too were really more like interpretive dance because worms maybe can't really speak. Honey guy, the stranger, did not see the worms trying to get his attention in the street. and they worm sighed before relaxing. Must not have been him.
Dodging is also tricky if you're a worm because you don't have eyes and you move so slowly across the dry ground that it's less dodging and more so fate if you're not squished by passersby. As we know with humans, though, just because you were extremely lucky and had no control over the outcome doesn't mean you can't take ownership of your success.
High-fiving each other, really just slapping each other with their heads, to celebrate the deft dodge, the worms took off after Honey Guy.
... ...
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Chapter 6: What sacrifices does the sister make for her family?
No, market day will be almost over before I get him to town. Time to get him up.' Then the door opened. "'Oh my gosh, sorry, let me get my clothes on,' Timber Top yelped as he scrambled to his pants.' Not seeming surprised, the butcher looked the sticks in his hand over. The dokebi said to touch his back three times, like, poke him or just lay it on him.
I literally have all the information that you do. I was at the same meeting with them. The wife, holding a halter, rope, and thick iron ring, said... Don't they be like the little goblin ogre things? Timbertop asked, jumping into his pants as the husband approached. Too bad they're not demons or else we could make a reference to K-pop. Hey, that tickles.
The tickling was the first and last thing that Timbertop noticed about the stick because of what happened next. Hunching to the ground, his skin became hide and the hide became hairy. His fingers fused together and his nails grew out until they were hooves. Horns shot from his skull and his nose stretched out, drawing his mouth with it before they both rounded off.
In seconds, an ox was laying on the floor, bellowing. "'Okay, I'm actually really scared of these sticks now,' the husband said, and wondered aloud if they should put them in a bag or something. The wife went to work with the halter and handed the iron spike to the husband." I learned a little bit about the nose rings for bulls for this.
Apparently, for adult animals that could potentially be dangerous, they will pierce the nasal septum and put a ring in there for control, because it's a very sensitive area of the body. I don't know enough about this to say anything one way or the other. Seems like it hurts the animals. Also seems like that's kind of the point in the event of them getting dangerous.
It does not look fun to do or to have done. That was Timbertop's estimation as he screamed, but his curses came out only in bellows. The couple slipped the ring through and it was done. They looped a rope through the ring and halter and led Timbertop out.
Getting a full-grown male ox out of the house designed for not a full-grown male ox was a challenge, and Timber Top got in a few good kicks to their furniture and walls as he left. But when he was outside, the butcher stopped him and looked him in the eyes. They told me you'd still be in there. The man we met last night was smarter than an ox. Most oxen, anyway.
so it should take less training for you. Holding up the rope attached to the halter, the butcher said that this rope was so the ox knew which way to go. Giving a brief tug on the nose ring rope and waiting for Timber Top to stop crying about it, the butcher said that that one was the incentive to follow the leadings of the first rope.
Neither of them wanted him to have to pull on the second rope. Let's go, the butcher commanded. And when they made it to market, he could honestly say to the ox's buyer that he had never worked with a more obedient animal. "'I'm a human man!' the ox yelled. But Shin, the stable hand, only heard bellowing. The rice offerings weren't working. The innkeeper just kept suggesting bowls of rice.
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