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Eerie Tales from Old Korea
The tales in this book were originally translated by Homer B. Hulbert and James Scarth Gale, both of whom were missionary/scholars who arrived in Korea in the late 1980s. Hulbert published his tales in the magazine, "Korea Review" between 1902 and 1905 and Gale in the book "Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies" (1913). Both men were instrumental in founding the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch in 1900. The current President of this distinguished society is Brother Anthony of Taize, who collected the stories and edited them where necessary. The book is published in celebration of the 150th birthday of Hulbert and Gale, both of whom were born in 1863.
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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About the author
Brother Anthony of Taizé
62 books9 followersBrother Anthony is a translator, scholar, and member of the Taizé Community who has become a naturalized Korean citizen, and lives in Seoul.
AKA An Seonjae
AKA An Seonjae
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 1, 2019
I bought this book on a recent trip to Seoul, South Korea. Its a compilation of very short stories from the 1800s, all of which are based in Korea. Some were downright creepy, some not so much, but an entertaining read, none-the-less.
March 17, 2025
Me parece que este libro solo se compra como souvenir, es bastante sencillo y si da una buena idea del origen de los textos, es muy sencillo de leer, y hay varios cuentos que son más divertidos de leer que otros, pero en general es para tener una buena idea del folklore de Corea.
October 28, 2019
Review in English | Reseña en Español
I bought this book in Seoul during my trip to Korea in September 2018 as I’d like to always purchase a book of each new place I visit. Eerie Tales from Old Korea seemed like the perfect souvenir to bring back home. The book opens with a brief prologue on how these tales were gathered and published in the late 19th century and explains briefly the origins of the short story in Korea, which I found interesting. Then, we are immersed in a world of stories of unnatural beings and situations.
It was a good book but I was a bit disappointed by two things. First, the tales are not really eerie or scary and I was looking for something to scare me, as Halloween is approaching. Instead, the stories are more about Korean mythology and beings, and some of them do have a lesson –either on patience, hard work, perseverance, wit or consequences of evil doing. But for a few exceptions, there is not really a ghost or something scary –for example, I recall a compilation of Japanese ghost stories and that was scary as hell. These tales unfortunately lacked that mysterious/creepy element.
Second, there are no female characters in the book! I noted this almost as I finished the book and, this completely overwhelmed me. Why? I mean, I know why –if my understanding is correct, up until more recent times women have had a secondary role in the Korean culture. But I was just a bit shocked. Women that appeared in the stories were not even second characters –just wives and daughters. I think only the last tale included a more noticeable character –a woman who falls in love with a scholar but tells him they should be apart from sometime. To be sincere, this kind of bothered me, but that is completely up to my personal taste.
Stories are enjoyable and one reads them really fast, but I could not rate this higher as the two issues mentioned above did hinder a bit of my enjoyment.
___
Compré este libro en Seúl, en un viaje que hice en septiembre de 2018. Esto es porque, siempre que es posible, me gusta comprar un libro en cada lugar que visito, y creo que éste, que puede traducirse como “Cuentos de Terror de la Antigua Corea”, no podría haber sido mejor suvenir. El libro incluye un pequeño prólogo que explica cómo se compilaron estos cuentos –cuya publicación fue responsabilidad de misionarios americanos – así como una breve explicación de los orígenes del cuento en Corea.
Pienso que es un buen libro pero me sentí decepcionada por dos cosas. En primer lugar, las historias no son realmente de terror o misterio y en esta ocasión, en verdad que estaba buscando algo para asustarme, por la época del año. Los cuentos tratan más sobre mitología coreana, sobre entes, y lo sentí más como cuentos con alguna lección –ya sea sobre la paciencia, el trabajo duro, la perseverancia, o las consecuencias de malas acciones. Pero salvo bien contadas excepciones –uno o dos cuentos- no hay realmente fantasmas o espíritus malvados. Recordé una compilación que leí hace unos años sobre historias del Japón y vaya que ése sí me espantó terriblemente.
En segundo lugar, no hay personajes femeninos en el libro. Me dejó en shock. Y en verdad que no me di cuenta hasta casi terminar de leer y me pregunté, ¿por qué? Es decir, sé por qué, ya que entiendo que, hasta hace recientemente poco, las mujeres ocuparon un lugar muy secundario en la sociedad coreana. Pero igual no deja de sorprenderme. Las mujeres ni siquiera aparecían en las historias como personajes secundarios –eran apenas como incidentales, como esposas e hijas que lloraban ante la cama de sus padres. Quizá solo la última historia tuviera una presencia femenina rescatable pues se trata de una chica que se enamora de un estudiante pero le dice que deben separarse por un tiempo antes de volver a encontrarse. Siendo sincera, esto me molestó un poco, porqué se le niega un papel fundamental a la mujer en la tradición cultural contenida, por lo menos, en estas historias. Esto es definitivamente mi gusto personal.
En resumen, la lectura se disfruta y se lee bastante rápido, pero debido a los dos aspectos antes mencionados, no le pude dar una calificación más alta.
I bought this book in Seoul during my trip to Korea in September 2018 as I’d like to always purchase a book of each new place I visit. Eerie Tales from Old Korea seemed like the perfect souvenir to bring back home. The book opens with a brief prologue on how these tales were gathered and published in the late 19th century and explains briefly the origins of the short story in Korea, which I found interesting. Then, we are immersed in a world of stories of unnatural beings and situations.
It was a good book but I was a bit disappointed by two things. First, the tales are not really eerie or scary and I was looking for something to scare me, as Halloween is approaching. Instead, the stories are more about Korean mythology and beings, and some of them do have a lesson –either on patience, hard work, perseverance, wit or consequences of evil doing. But for a few exceptions, there is not really a ghost or something scary –for example, I recall a compilation of Japanese ghost stories and that was scary as hell. These tales unfortunately lacked that mysterious/creepy element.
Second, there are no female characters in the book! I noted this almost as I finished the book and, this completely overwhelmed me. Why? I mean, I know why –if my understanding is correct, up until more recent times women have had a secondary role in the Korean culture. But I was just a bit shocked. Women that appeared in the stories were not even second characters –just wives and daughters. I think only the last tale included a more noticeable character –a woman who falls in love with a scholar but tells him they should be apart from sometime. To be sincere, this kind of bothered me, but that is completely up to my personal taste.
Stories are enjoyable and one reads them really fast, but I could not rate this higher as the two issues mentioned above did hinder a bit of my enjoyment.
___
Compré este libro en Seúl, en un viaje que hice en septiembre de 2018. Esto es porque, siempre que es posible, me gusta comprar un libro en cada lugar que visito, y creo que éste, que puede traducirse como “Cuentos de Terror de la Antigua Corea”, no podría haber sido mejor suvenir. El libro incluye un pequeño prólogo que explica cómo se compilaron estos cuentos –cuya publicación fue responsabilidad de misionarios americanos – así como una breve explicación de los orígenes del cuento en Corea.
Pienso que es un buen libro pero me sentí decepcionada por dos cosas. En primer lugar, las historias no son realmente de terror o misterio y en esta ocasión, en verdad que estaba buscando algo para asustarme, por la época del año. Los cuentos tratan más sobre mitología coreana, sobre entes, y lo sentí más como cuentos con alguna lección –ya sea sobre la paciencia, el trabajo duro, la perseverancia, o las consecuencias de malas acciones. Pero salvo bien contadas excepciones –uno o dos cuentos- no hay realmente fantasmas o espíritus malvados. Recordé una compilación que leí hace unos años sobre historias del Japón y vaya que ése sí me espantó terriblemente.
En segundo lugar, no hay personajes femeninos en el libro. Me dejó en shock. Y en verdad que no me di cuenta hasta casi terminar de leer y me pregunté, ¿por qué? Es decir, sé por qué, ya que entiendo que, hasta hace recientemente poco, las mujeres ocuparon un lugar muy secundario en la sociedad coreana. Pero igual no deja de sorprenderme. Las mujeres ni siquiera aparecían en las historias como personajes secundarios –eran apenas como incidentales, como esposas e hijas que lloraban ante la cama de sus padres. Quizá solo la última historia tuviera una presencia femenina rescatable pues se trata de una chica que se enamora de un estudiante pero le dice que deben separarse por un tiempo antes de volver a encontrarse. Siendo sincera, esto me molestó un poco, porqué se le niega un papel fundamental a la mujer en la tradición cultural contenida, por lo menos, en estas historias. Esto es definitivamente mi gusto personal.
En resumen, la lectura se disfruta y se lee bastante rápido, pero debido a los dos aspectos antes mencionados, no le pude dar una calificación más alta.
November 8, 2025
Watch my review on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXLCs...
August 27, 2019
The first section's translator was a bit heavy handed, but it was an interesting set of folk tales. And both translators should be given credit for finding and compiling these stories in the first place when most missionaries of the day ignored converts' own cultural heritage.
January 30, 2014
This was a fascinating little book with lots of short stories from Medieval Korean society that the common person would tell. The language used was tiny bit obtuse since it was translated about a hundred years ago by Homer B. Hulbert and James S. Gale. However, it was written in a manner that would be quite easy for a modern westerner to understand. I think that my intimate knowledge of Korean society and history made the book easier to understand and appreciate.
I would have to say the reason that I enjoy the book so much is the fact the reader can take a peak at the Korean mentality from such a long time ago. There were quite a few common themes of people gaining wealth through the help of the spiritual world, just actions that are later rewarded, the reverence of old people, the evil nature of tigers, and loyal and chaste women.
I would have to say the reason that I enjoy the book so much is the fact the reader can take a peak at the Korean mentality from such a long time ago. There were quite a few common themes of people gaining wealth through the help of the spiritual world, just actions that are later rewarded, the reverence of old people, the evil nature of tigers, and loyal and chaste women.
March 5, 2017
A short but very informative introduction. The thirteen tales from James S. Gale's Korean Folktales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (1913) can also be found (with forty others) in modern reprints of the book, but the sixteen tales published serially by Homer B. Hulbert in the early 1900's are otherwise hard to find. This book is a great place to start an exploration of traditional Korean tales.
November 14, 2017
An interesting glimpse into the folklore of Korea; really glad I picked it up. I do wonder, though, if the translations, which are quite old themselves now, didn't go a little too far in aligning these tales stylistically with more familiar, European folk tales. The stories were far more familiar than I was expecting them to be.
July 21, 2017
Good simple read that gives a more in depth understanding of Korean mystical beliefs. I was sometimes a little taken aback by the writing style but enjoyed the stories overall.
March 6, 2019
Interesting and enjoyable to read.
August 21, 2019
Interesting to read about old tales from Korea. Though, I would not call them eerie, I found it quite pleasant to read. I'm not totally sure about the translation all the way through though.
November 16, 2022
This was pretty entertaining and interesting. Apparently I should trust magic door hinges, but be very wary of foxes for instance.
May 29, 2023
Not a long read and the stories are pretty enjoyable. However, it's not eerie or creepy at all. Fun read though especially the second last story 'Hong's Experiences in Hades' which describes the Buddhist Hells. The white-washed translation is quite annoying. Like why did they translate the Buddhist Hells into Hades. It doesn't make sense. But that is the translator's fault, nothing wrong with the stories neccesarily.
Although some of the stories are pretty mundane. Like a guy turns into a pig (literally in the story title) and so then his son lets him go out in the wild. The End.
Although some of the stories are pretty mundane. Like a guy turns into a pig (literally in the story title) and so then his son lets him go out in the wild. The End.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews