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A son was borne to a fairy and a laurel tree; the fairy returned to heaven when the boy was seven years old. One day, rains came and lasted for many months, flooding the earth with a raging sea. The laurel, in danger of falling, told his son to ride him when it came uprooted by the waves. The boy did so, floating on the tree for many days. One day a crowd of ants floated by and cried out to be saved. After asking the tree for permission, the boy gave them refuge on the branches of the laurel. Later, a group of mosquitoes flew by and also asked to be saved. Again, the boy asked the tree for permission, was granted it, and gave the mosquitoes rest. Then another boy floated by and asked to be saved. This time the tree refused permission when its son asked. The son asked twice more, and after the third time the tree said, "Do what you like," and the son rescued the other boy. At last the tree came to rest on the summit of a mountain. The insects expressed their gratitude and left. The two boys, being very hungry, went and found a house where an old woman lived with her own daughter and a foster-daughter. As everyone else in the world had perished and the subsiding waters allowed farming again, the woman decided to marry her daughters to the boys, her own going to the cleverer boy. The second boy maliciously told the woman that the other boy could quickly gather millet grains scattered on sand. The woman tested this claim, and the first boy despaired of ever succeeding, when the ants came to his aid, filling the grain bag in a few minutes. The other boy had watched, and he told the woman that the task hadn't been done by the first boy himself, so the woman still couldn't decide which daughter to marry to which boy. She decided to let the boys decide by chance, going to one room or another in total darkness. A mosquito came and told the Son of the Tree which room the old woman's daughter was in, so those two were married, and the second boy married the foster-daughter. The human race is descended from those two couples.

Zong In-Sob, Folk Tales from Korea (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1952), 16-18.

The River Dedong flooded the countryside. An old man in Pyongyang, rowing about in a boat, found and rescued a deer, a snake, and a boy from the waters. He carried them to shore and released them, but the boy had lost his parents in the flood and so became the man's adopted son. One day the deer came and led the man to a buried treasure of gold and silver, and the man became rich. The foster-son became reckless with the money, and he and his father argued. The boy accused the man of theft, and the man was imprisoned. The snake came to him in his cell and bit his arm, which then swelled painfully. But then the snake returned with a small bottle. The man applied the medicine to his arm, which cured it at once. In the morning, he heard that the magistrate's wife was dying of a snakebite, so he sent word that he could cure her. This he did with the snake's ointment. He was released, and the foster-son was arrested and punished.

Zong In-Sob, Folk Tales from Korea (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1952), 94-95.

Long ago there lived a Minister Gim who had a son. While young Gim was away from home once, robbers came to his house, murdered his father, and carried away his mother and all their treasure. Despite his youth, young Gim resolved to find the robbers and take revenge. He set out on a search.

On the way, he heard shouts and found a boy fighting with a bear. He rushed to save the boy. The boy told him that his home and family had been destroyed by the same band of robbers and that he, too, was seeking revenge. They agreed to become sworn brothers.

They set out together, but as they were crossing a river, a storm came and capsized their ferry. When Gim came to, a different boy, who happened to have been fishing nearby, was tending him, and there was no sign of his first friend. Gim learned that this boy was also a victim of the robbers, who had killed his father and mother and carried off his sister. So Gim proposed that they should become sworn brothers.

The two set off together and came to another big river. As they crossed it, another storm came and sank their ferry. Gim's second companion was lost, and Gim was rescued by an old woman who lived on an island. She told him that the island was ruthlessly ruled by the chief of the robbers he was seeking. But Gim was bedridden and helpless from his injuries.

One day, a messenger from the robber chief told the woman to send away the strange boy she had found. She instead let him stay in a small thatched hut by the river. A ship came by a few days later and anchored before the hut. A venerable old man on the ship recognized Gim and said he was there to rescue him. Gim went with him to his mountain retreat and studied magic with him.

When Gim was sixteen, the old man sent him back to his homeland, saying, "The robber chief is at war with the King, who is in great danger. You must go to his rescue. I shall meet you again in exactly three years."

As Gim was heading home, a horse came to him. Gim guessed it was a dragon horse and mounted it. Before long, the horse stopped and pawed on the ground. Gim dug there and found a set of magic armor, spears, and swords. He took these up and rode on.

He arrived at the King's castle when it was on the point of surrender. With his magic, he transformed himself and his horse to birds, flew over the enemy host to the King's castle, and returned to his proper form. "Your majesty," he said, bowing low, "I am the son of Minister Gim. Have no fear, I shall defeat the enemy." The delighted King conferred on him the rank of Great Marshal.

Spying out the enemy in the form of a dog, Gim found a fearsome black face, the incarnation of a thousand-year-old bear, belching fire at the castle; a genii, the incarnation of a thousand-year-old fox, studying a book of astrology; a dwarf, the incarnation of a ten-thousand-year-old rat, whose swinging tail produced a flood that threatened to submerge the castle; and a giant which threw daggers of flame against the King's camp. Gim fought these with his magic, calling forth rain against the fire and a mountain to block the flood, but he was overwhelmed by the enemy's numbers.

Gim and the King escaped to an island, but the astrologer discovered their location, and the dwarf created an even greater flood from its tail to submerge them. In a dream, a butterfly led Gim to a cavern in a distant mountain. There he found the first boy he had met, who had been studying strategy. He offered his help against the robbers.

With their magic, they reached the island in an instant and renewed the battle. But Gim's friend was killed and the island completely submerged by the flood.

Gim and the King retreated to a second island, but soon it too was nearly submerged. Again in a dream a crow led Gim to a cavern in another mountain, where he met his second companion, also practicing the crafts of war. He too returned to fight with Gim, but he too was killed in battle. Gim and the King fled to another island. When it, too, was nearly flooded, they went on the ship to open sea.

There, the three years having elapsed, Gim's mentor came to him on the ship. As Gim's training had not been completed and the situation was desperate, the old man undertook a rescue. He recited a magical hymn which called down lightning on the enemy, and soon they were all killed.

Gim and the old man went to the enemy's island. There Gim found his mother and the sister of his second friend, whom he married soon afterwards. They returned home with the King.

Zong In-Sob, Folk Tales from Korea (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1952), 62-63.

A man with no son once found an abandoned baby boy and took him in. He was an unusual baby, for he ate solid food and grew at a phenomenal rate. When but a month old, he asked his foster-father to make a pack-carrier for him to carry firewood with. His father made one of corn stalks, which the boy rejected as useless, and he likewise rejected one made of wood, so the father had one made of iron. The son took this, and a little later the father was astounded to see him carrying an immense pile of wood back from the mountains. The son continued to grow in strength, and he earned the nickname "Iron-shoes" for the shoes he wore in his work.

He left on a journey and met others along the way. First he met Nose-wind, a man whose breath while snoring was so strong it caused a nearby tree repeatedly to fall and rise. They became sworn brothers and travelled together. Next they met Long-rake, who caused a mountain to become a level field with his rake. The three next met Waterfall, who created a river by making water. All four became sworn brothers.

Coming at nightfall to a big house with a tile roof, they knocked and requested something to eat. An old woman invited them inside, led them to a room with stone walls, and brought them supper. But the food was human flesh, which they did not eat, and they heard the woman lock them in.

As they pretended to sleep, they heard the woman's four sons come. The family's conversation made it clear that they were tigers in disguise who meant to cook and eat the four brothers. Soon the four brothers felt the stone floor getting hot; the tigers had lit a fire beneath it to roast them. But Nose-wind kept the room cool by his blowing, and the tigers were surprised to find the brothers unharmed when they opened the door later.

Next morning the woman suggested that the four brothers have a wood-cutting contest with her four sons, the losers to be put to death. So the four brothers went out, pulled up trees by their roots, and threw them down by the house for the tigers to pile up. The old woman saw that her sons were in danger of losing, so she reversed the tasks; the tigers chopped wood while the brothers stacked. But the brothers worked so fast that they had to wait for more wood to be brought down. Fearing defeat, the old woman set fire to the stack of wood while the four brothers were standing on it. Her sons saw the fire and came back to watch their rival's plight.

The four brothers, though, soon worked out a plan. Waterfall made water which not only put out the fire, but created a flood that submerged the others up to their necks, though the brothers were safe upon the pile of logs. In the flood, the woman and her sons changed to their normal tiger shape. Nose-wind blew on the water with his cold breath, instantly turning it to ice and killing all the tigers. Their heads and forepaws still showed above the surface. Iron-shoes skated out on the ice and broke off these parts when he kicked them. Finally, Long-rake broke up the ice with his rake and scattered it far and wide, so no trace remained of the flood.

Zong In-Sob, Folk Tales from Korea (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1952), 162-166.