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Folktales, Myths, and other Legends you've heard.

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
The villagers are having a party at night. They drank, they danced, they sang around the fire. Suddenly, a dog barks loudly. One of the villagers goes to check it out... alone. He ventures into the woods and there he saw the dog barking at an unusually tall tree. He noticed a figure leaning against that very tree but he couldn't quite see who this stranger is. So the villager got closer. He saw a peculiar body but he couldn't see his face. The stranger is pretty tall, so the villager looked up. The further he raised his head, the more he grew horrified. That tree was no tree. That was the stranger's head and he gazed upon the villager with long eyes and a wide grin. On that night, the villager vanished.

What did you think? Spoooooopy? It's a tale from Korean folklore. It tells of a ghost with a large head and a long hat as tall as a tree. If you look up, you vanish.





With that said, any folktales, myths and legends to share or discuss? It can be happy, philosophical, spoopy, funny, or something you probably loved as a child. Come. Share. Sit around the campifire. Oh! But what ever you do... don't wander alone into the woods at night mwahahaha.
 
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shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
Oh! I have one that my mom used to tell me as a kid. It's about "La Llorona," which basically translates to "The Crying Woman." She used to tell it to me and my brothers so we wouldn't play near water alone.

Here's the gist of it. Be forewarned, I'm not the best at explaining these kind of things and this was the way my mother told it to me.

There is the family with a couple of children who appeared to be happy. They lived in a rural area near a river. The father would go off to work, while the wife would stay home and take care of the children. Rinse and repeat every day. One day the wife decided to go out, and she spotted her husband with another woman. She was furious and returned home. In a fit of rage she dragged her children to the river and drowned them to spite her husband. Realizing what she had done, she immediately showed regret and began crying. She then fell forward into the river and drowned herself. However, she wasn't able to go to the afterlife for the deed she committed. Instead she became a ghost who is constantly crying and who roams river edges looking for her children's spirits (which did pass on to the afterlife, because they were innocent).

My brothers and I were told that if we heard a woman crying near a river, to never go near it. If we did, we would come face to face with La Llorona. She would see us, realize we were not her children, get angry, drag us into the river, and then drown us.

Kind of dark to tell kids, don't you think? It worked though. My brothers and I never went to river edges alone.
I've heard of this one. This is a popular story among girls, especially those of Mexican descent for obvious reasons if one knows it's origins. I remember them having a big smile on their face, going "OOOOH! I LOVE THIS STORY!" as if they were kids at a candy store to hear such a dark tale.

ninetailsfox.jpg


Speaking of scary women, does anyone know what the Korean equivalent to Europe's vampire is? Fox Spirits. In Korea, there are tales of many fox spirits who shape shift into beautiful women and feast upon the livers of young unmarried men. Beware of gorgeous women smiling at you at the cementary in the midst of night. Beware the foxes who wear human skulls on their heads. Beware floating wisps of fire. Beware the three-headed fox who will offer you advice on life on the condition you eat his foot. Beware of old magical monks who strangely seem scared of hawks and dogs. Beware the elderly fox woman who lures children to her house. Ah but the most famous fox spirit among the korean mythos, the second most dangerous of them is the Gumiho or Nine Tailed Fox.

It is similar to the Kyubei of Japan but there are some differences. The Gumiho is an energy vampire that goes after men, tongue kissing them so it can push a small marble down their throats, grab it back with that same tongue, and the victim won't even notice it. Though afterwards, the man may feel strangely tired. What's the marble for you ask? It's to steal their life energy. However it's more than just that. If you manage to outsmart a Gumiho and take it's marble for yourself, you are granted great knowledge. It's a reflection of how clever fox spirits are. Don't ever underestimate Fox spirits. They aren't strong but their claws cut deep and they're blazing fast that you need a horse to outrun them.

However not all fox spirits are evil. Why, there was even a time that the Korean Kingdom of Silla worshiped the Fox more than any other animal as guides and helpers. A very popular tale among Koreans is the tragic tale of a Gumiho who desires to be human. How does the Nine Tailed Fox become human you ask? You must resist the temptation of sucking the energy out of humans but you must also learn to become a vegetarian, refrain yourself from eating any meat. Anyone knows the transition from meat lover to vegetarian is a mentally difficult one. But there is another route the Gumiho can take. Instead of being human, it can live on for a 1000 years and become the most dangerous of Fox Spirits, one powerful enough to trick Sanshin (Mountain Gods) out of their mountains and become the new mountain ruler, the Maegu. It is said if a mountain is filled with ghosts and other evil spirits, a Maegu has tricked a Sanshin and made that mountain her home. Although some would say the Maegu is literally just a 1000 year old Gumiho under a different name.
 
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