The Bear(-woman) Fell for the Man

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Why don’t we pull back a little? We focused on beings found in Korean folklore and mythology in the past posts, so let’s switch things up a little. All mythologies have an origin, their own story of creation. Korea is no different.

Reading myths, Korea’s foundation and birth is all thanks to a couple of gods that cast their gaze to the Earth and a tenacious bear that wished to be more.

Hwanung Casts His Gaze to the Earth.

An image of a summit from Taekbaeksan National Park, the grounds are covered with snow and many people in winter gear are walking along the path to reach the stone altar at the peak.

Teakbaeksan National Park from This is Korea tours

In the ancient times, Hwanin, known as the Heavenly Emperor, noticed his son, Hwanung, has cast his gaze towards the Earth, and expressed the desire to rule it. In some versions of the myth, Hwanin was the one to cast his gaze upon the Earth and tasked Hwanung to rule. Either way, with his father’s blessing, Hwanung descended onto Mt. Taebaek and sought to build his kingdom.

Though this number can vary depending on the myth, he was accompanied by three thousand devotees and built Sinsi, the holy city where he ruled. Aside from the three thousand followers, the Wind God, Rainfall God, and Cloud God came with Hwanung.

Along with them, Hwanung also had the Three Seals of Heaven (Cheonbuin)—which is said to be a divine mirror, divine sword and a divine rattle or drum—as proof of his rule.

Hwanung, the Bear and Humanity

acarriganart’s depiction of Ungnyeo, emerging from the cave as a woman.

While Hwanung began overseeing the numerous affairs of the human world—from grains to life to diseases to mediating between good and evil—two animals caught his attention.

A bear and a tiger prayed to him with the desire to become human and Hwanung instructed them to stay inside a cave for 100 days, with only mugwort and 20 cloves of garlic as food (in some versions, instead of divine mugwort, they had to eat garlic and wormwood) to earn in their humanity.

Partway through, the tiger grew impatient and left the cave. This left the bear alone, but through perseverance, the bear emerged from the cave as a human woman. She took on the name Ungnyeo meaning Bear-Woman.

Ungnyeo is happy with her new life as a human, but eventually as a result of loneliness, she prays to Hwanung and asks for a child since she had no one. Hwanung having heard her prayers and feeling pity, turned himself to a mortal man and married her. Together they had a son Dangun who eventually established Gojoseon that became the Korean peninsula.

Dangun and Gojoseon

Dangun became known as the first mortal prince of the land. He later established his own kingdom, Gojoseon or the Ancient kingdom Joseon.

Dangun set up capital at Pyeongyang Fortress. The capital moved several times before finding its way back to Pyeongyang Fortress. Dangun continued to rule for approximately a thousand and five hundred years  before the Zhou dynasty, a Chinese dynasty, came into the picture and appointed Jizi to govern Joseon. Dangun moved to different states, Jangdanggyeong then to Asadal, before he went to the mountains nearby Asadal and ascended into godhood as a Sansin or Mountain God at the age of 1,908 years.

Historical Notes

Some suggest that the myth of Dangun actually parallelizes the actual founding of Korea. Hwanung and Ungnyeo’s union representing the union between foreigners—Hwanung, God and Sky—that settled the land that Korea now stands, and one of the Indigenous tribes in proto-Korea—Ungnyeo, bear, woman, and Earth— to unify their people under a marriage alliance, although some say the Bear Tribe Ungnyeo represented was still subjugated by the former.

Some Irony

An image of a family of tigers drawn on a scroll with ink, titled Tiger Family. It is estimated to be from Korea's Joseon Dynasty.

Tiger Family, The Cleveland Museum of Art

Funnily enough, despite referred to as the Dangun Myth, most of the focus of the myth is on Hwanin and Hwanung. The myth does acknowledge Dangun as the founder of Korea. So, while in folklore Dangun can be attributed to the creation of Korea, the creation of Dangun is the focus of the myth itself instead of a detailed account of his life and rule.

Furthermore, it was mentioned earlier in Ungnyeo’s myth that a bear and tiger begged for a human form, the tiger left early due to its impatience and hunger. Despite this portrayal, the tiger is a revered animal in Korea. Portrayals of tigers as creatures that protect humanity against evil spirits is depicted throughout Korean history and artwork. This reverence may be the reason why the tiger is Korea’s national animal.

Rica Equibal, a Philippine-born writer and artist, started Algonquin college with the goal to find her way into publishing. She went into her Algonquin journey with from her literature degree and proofreading experience supporting her, but she’s always up to learn more to add to her knowledge and repertoire. Aside from that, she also writes fiction—with hope to turn those little scenes and moments into a full story or novel—and draws.

She writes as inspiration strikes and primarily draws digital—that is, if she's not distracted by whatever video game she has in reach.

Philippine Creation and Origin Myths

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There are many different creation and origin myths from the diverse cultures of the Philippines. These are some of the most well-known ones from the three different regions. 

Malakas at Maganda

A painting of a man and a woman resting within the halves of a bamboo that's been split open.

Credit: Cenon Rivera

The Tagalog creation myth is often referred to as “Malakas at Maganda” (meaning “strong and beautiful”) and is about the origin of the first man and woman.

When the world began, there was only the sea and sky. The eagle Amihan, deity of peace and wind, flew about for days on end with nowhere to rest. Amihan, in frustration, stirred up the sky and sea, which caused them to fight.

Amidst their stormy battle, the sky threw rocks at the sea, which became islands that the eagle could finally rest on. After sky and sea calmed down and the islands were made, bamboo was born.

Amihan was curious about these new bamboo shoots and began pecking at one of them, causing it to split. From one of the split halves emerged Malakas, and from the other Maganda. It’s worth noting that the words malakas and maganda are gender-neutral, and so Malakas and Maganda in the story could be either gender.

Bakunawa

This myth is about the Visayan moon-eating dragon Bakunawa, often thought to be an explanation for the lunar eclipse.

Bathala, ruler and creator of the universe, created seven moons, which shone bright and beautiful and illuminated the night.

Deep within the ocean lived a massive serpent called Bakunawa. The serpent looked upon Bathala’s creations with envy, for in his cave he was surrounded by darkness.

An illustration of a long, giant lizard in the sky, clutching the moon and opening its mouth as if about to eat it.

Credit: Eve Berthelette, Artstation

Bakunawa decided to steal one of the moons. He rose from the ocean, causing the earth to quake, and swallowed the moon whole. However, to his dismay the moon melted away in his stomach.

He stole another moon, and another, but each of them would all melt away. Soon, there was only moon one left in the sky. 

As the Bakunawa began to swallow the last moon, the world became shrouded in darkness. Humans, terrified by the darkness and of losing their last moon, shouted and banged drums and made as much noise as they could. 

“Return our moon!” they screamed.

Bakunawa was scared by the noise and retreated to his cavern in the ocean. The moon returned and lit up the night sky once more.

To prevent the last of his moons from being stolen, Bathala planted bamboo on the moon. From then on humans remained vigilant, and whenever the Bakunawa would try again to steal the moon, they would shout and make noise and scare him away. 

Tambanokano

Another myth associated with the eclipse, these two stories from Mindanao tell of a colossal crab responsible for floods and the tides.

The first variation is a tale from the Mandaya people. The great crab Tambanokano was a child of the sun and moon. He is such a powerful being that lightning flashes every time he opens and closes his eyes.

Tambanokano rests in a large hole at the bottom of ocean. When he sleeps, there is high tide. When he rises, water floods in the hole and there is low tide. As he moves about, the surface of the sea churns and causes big waves.

Sometimes, when Tambanokano is angry at his mother, the moon, he tries to eat her, causing the eclipse. It’s also said that the crab is so massive that when he rises, he blocks out the moon. Just like the Bakunawa, people scare Tambanokano away by making noise.

In this Bukidnon story, Tambanokano crawls into the sea and causes a massive flood.

A colourless drawing of a giant, angry crab, standing above an ocean and holding a crescent moon in its right claw.

Credit: Anthony Kristan dela Cruz, Wix

A wise man warns the people of his village that they must build a raft. Over the next month, the people cut down many trees and tied them together, then fastened the raft to a large pole in the ground.

Shortly after they finished building the raft, the water rose. 

Tambanokano went into the sea, and because of his gargantuan size the water flooded the land. It rose as high as even the tallest mountains. 

The people and animals were safe on the raft, and the pole kept them from drifting away. After the flood, they were the only people left on Earth.

There are many more myths in the Philippines about how the world and its wonders came to be. If you found these three myths interesting and would like to hear more, let me know in the comments!

Koda Hann is currently a student in Algonquin College’s Professional Writing Program. He loves learning about different cultures and his latest hyper-fixation is anything and everything Philippines-related (shoutout to all the Titas and Titos out there, mano po).

His dream is to be a scriptwriter for animation, and he has several ideas for compelling fantasy stories that he plans to put to screen. Two of his biggest inspirations are Avatar: The Last Airbender and How To Train Your Dragon.

He’s just a lil’ guy.