西洋오랑�

The past two books I read were a collection of Korean fairy tales, and a comic book about ghosts and other crap that goes bump in the night that one of my former students left in the classroom. So today you’re going to suffer through my obsession you have the priviledge of reading a fairly non-scholarly exploration of the supernatural beings of Korea. (cue X-files theme music)

신선 (神仙 / Taoist Immortal) / 산신 (山神 / Mountain God)

A supernatural Korean man with a rockin’ beard.

Like I said, this is an extremely non-scholarly work here, so I’m grouping these two beings together, since I’m not sure of any difference between the two, and I’m can’t be bothered to research if any difference does actually exist. In the stories I’ve read, both come across the same. They are old men with crazy ass long white beards who can do magic…basically they are Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, only they never kick Balrog’s ass.

Golden Axe, Silver Axe

One of the most popular of the stories involving these immortals or spirits is the story of the Golden Axe or Silver Axe. The story tells of a poor lumber jack who tosses his crappy axe into a pond. A spirit comes up with a silver axe, and asks the lumber jack if that was the axe he tossed. The man honestly answers that it was not. The spirit presents a golden axe. The man again says that it is not his. The spirit finally shows the man the crappy axe that was his. The man says that the axe is his and as a reward for his honesty the spirit gives all three axes to the man. This story is popular and parodied in all forms of media here in Korea, but the best one is this comic found in 아색기가 (which I found online with extremely little trouble).

Anyhow, a more indepth look into the world of ì‚°ì‹  can be found at http://san-shin.org/

�깨비 (Tokaebi / Goblin)

Next up is the ë�„깨비. These creatures are kind of goblin like. Sometimes they are helpful, sometimes they are real bastards. They play tricks on people, but I’ve never come across any stories in which ë�„깨비 kill anyone, which makes them different from the similar looking Japanese creature 鬼 (the oni).

Tokaebi clad in taekwondo garb…these are pretty a-typical looking tokaebi.

�깨비 are usually clad in animal hides (that usually come from some sort of yellow animal with black dots), and carry large knobbed clubs. These clubs are magical and according to some �깨비 fact sheet I came across once, the �깨비 could use this club (방��) to create anything it desired. They are most often depicted as large green human-looking (albeit incredibly ugly human) beings with a single horn on their head, though colors and number of horns can vary.

해태 (Haetae / Magical Lion)

Haetae rocking the scene.

Ah the 해태. Carvings of these creatures were put on the grounds of important buildings such as palaces to prevent fires. 해태 were said to be made of water and for this reason fire wanted nothing to do with them. Oh and now there is a company that produces snack foods that uses 해태 as it’s mascot and namesake. I’ve yet to encounter these beasts in any sort of literature, but they are a quite common icon here, so there you go.

호랑� (Horang-e / Tiger)

Tyger tyger burning bright…

While 해태 was a magical lion (or according to my electronic dictionary “magical unicorn lion”), these tigers, which frequent Korean fairy tales are just normal tigers, although some tend to have human characteristics (ie. the ability to speak, or wear pants). Tigers in Korean fairy tales and folk lore, often play the same role that the “Big Bad Wolf” plays in western fairy tales. A malevolent force to scare children into behaving.

귀신 (鬼神 / Ghost)

A Korean style ghost…see also “The Ring”

Ghosts in Korea are not of the same ilk as the white sheet sporting, moaning ghost of the west. If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Ring,” the ghosts of Korea tend to follow the same archtype as the fiend in that film. Female ghosts look bedraggled with hair in their face, and they are always clad in white (the color worn in funnerals).
Males tend to behave themselves after death, but the few male ghosts I’ve seen (in books, movie, and television shows) tend to have pasty white flesh, and dark lips. They also tend to being wearing a ê°“ (horse hair hat worn during the ì¡°ì„  period).

빨간마스� (Bbalgan Mask / Red Mask)

Red Mask Ghost sans mask.

This is a fairly modern addition to the pantheon of stuff to creep out elementary school students. The story behind 빨간마스� leads me to believe that she is a Japanese import. 빨간마스� is a woman (some tellings specify she is Japanese), who underwent plastic surgery, but it went horribly wrong. She ended up with the edge of her mouth cut into a huge freakish smile (see picture for yourself).
She covers this mouth up with a medical red mask (hence the name), and asks people if she is pretty or not. She then reveals her mouth, and proceeds to cut the victim with a sickle. For some reason people who put the Chinese character for “dog” (犬) on their hands will be left alone by this ghoul.
빨간마스� became emensely popular here in Korea, spawning a host of other colored mask sporting fiends. I think one of them (초�마스� perhaps) shoots acid out of their mouth, and another has a long tounge like a frog.

Hella disturbing picture of Red Mask Ghost.

So there you have it people. Some of the monsters and supernatural beings that exist here in Korea and creep out my students on a regular basis. Feel free to discuss, or leave information about creatures I may have left off this list.