Fairytale – Korea

“Once upon a time there lived a lumberjack in the mountains. Every day he would climb up the mountain to cut tress and talk to the animals. So one day he comes across this doe, and in a really urgent voice it says “Hey lumberjacks please save me a hunter is chasing me!” and so he hides the doe in like some bush and moments later the hunter came and asked him “hey did u see a doe run by here”, the lumberjack pointed in the wrong direction.  After he saves the doe it comes out and says “Oh thanks” and the doe tells the lumberjack “Hey if you go to the top of this mountain there is a pond that nobody knows about and when there is full moon goddesses from the sky come down and bathe there.” The doe continues and says “when they arrive, hide one of their cloths (which they use to fly, something called wing cloth) and then the goddess who loses it can’t fly up anymore so she will be bound to live with you.” The doe also warns him sayings “hey there is one thing you need to do and that is not to mention the cloth until she has 3 kids!” So the lumberjack went to the top of the mountain and there was a pond and saw the goddesses coming down, so he did as instructed. So one goddess loses her cloth and cannot leave with the rest, now apparently she is the most attractive out of all of them. The others leave her to find the cloth and rejoin them later. The lumberjack then confronts her and gives her a pair of his clothes; eventually she decides to live with him and they have two kids together. But one day the cloth comes up in a conversation and the lumberjack grudgingly shows her the cloth. She immediately takes it and the two kids and leaves the lumberjack. This is the end and it is very very sad.”

Bada learnt this fairy tale at a young age in Korea from a book he read. Apparently, it is a very popular children’s fairy tale in Korea and most young children know of it. He wouldn’t usually relate the story to anyone, except maybe one day when he has kids of his own. One reason he remembered this story, although from the recitation it’s obvious that some things are forgotten (why did the lumberjack have to wait till the goddess had 3 kids to tell her?), was due to the sad ending. He said that he was extremely saddened by it at the time.

This was the first time I heard this tale and although it seems like a normal fairy tale I feel it addresses some important morals. For example, on a deep level, it is warning against keeping secrets in a relationship, some things should not be kept hidden. It also addresses that sometimes good deeds don’t always benefit the individual who helps. At first it looks as if the doe returned the favor to the lumberjack. But, although the lumberjack gets to marry a goddess and have kids with her, she eventually leaves him because she finds out that their meeting was based on deceit, one that the doe instigated.

While I don’t always analyze fairy tales this deeply, this specific tale carries heavier weight, it has a sad ending and I feel there is an important lesson to be learnt from it.