[Korean Culture & Language] I won’t devour you if you give me one of the rice cakes

Hello, this is Uptempo Marketers!

Tigers (호랑이), wells (우물), rice cakes (떡), hills (고개) and ropes(동아줄) appear frequently in Korean mythology.

The following is a story about a brother and sister who became the sun and the moon. 

Once upon a time, a family with a mother, brother, and sister lived in a small town. Mom headed downtown to work, and she warned the kids to not open the door for anyone. 

After finishing her work and earning some rice cakes, she got on her way home. A 호랑이(tiger) appeared and said “떡 하나 주면 안 잡아먹지(I won’t devour you if you give me one of the rice cakes)”. She gave him one rice cake (떡).

A tiger appeared again on the second 고개(hill) and demanded a rice cake. “떡 하나 주면 안 잡아먹지(I won’t eat you if you give me one of the rice cakes)” She gave another rice cake to the tiger. 

The tiger kept appearing on the hills, and she gave away all of her rice cakes. There was one more hill to climb, but she was out of rice cakes.

Because the mother didn’t have any more rice cakes to give, the tiger devoured the mother. He dressed up as the mother and went over to the house where the sibling was. He asked the sibling to open the door. “It’s not our mom’s voice,” the sister said. The tiger said, “That’s because it’s cold outside and I have lost my voice”. The brother demanded to see its hand. The hand was covered in hair. The brother realized that it was a tiger, and grabbed his sister’s hand, and bolted out the backdoor. They climbed up to the top of a tree near a 우물 (well).

When the tiger discovered that they had fled through the backdoor, he ran after them. The tiger saw the sibling’s reflection in the well (우물).

He tried to pull them out of the well The sister giggled and said “You’re silly. We’re on the tree”. The tiger raised his head, spotted them, and attempted to climb the tree. However, he couldn’t. ‘How did you get up there?” the tiger asked. The brother responded “We climbed after glazing our hands with sesame oil”. The tiger applied sesame oil to his hands and tried to climb again. The sister giggled and said “You’re stupid.” “We used an axe to climb”

The tiger took her advice and used an axe to climb up the tree. 

The sibling became terrified and prayed to God to send them a 동아줄 (rope) from the sky. A rope descended and they were pulled up into the sky. The tiger also prayed and got a rope from the sky. He climbed up, but because the rope was rotten, he plummeted to the millet field.

The millet field was said to have turned crimson as a result of this incident. On the other hand, the brother became the sun and the sister became the moon to light up the sky.

Like many other Korean folktales, this story is also based on 권선징악 (poetic justice).

When asking a Korean friend for a bite of their food, joke with them by saying “ ____ 한입 주면 안 잡아먹지 (I won’t devour you if you give me a bite of the ____”. I’m confident you’ll brighten their day.