Korean Myth

Dan Gun - The First King of Korea
by Nam Kyu W.

One very very old day, a king lived in the sky. He had seven sons. His eighth son was very clever. His name was Hwan Oong. He was always thinking about the world. He asked his father to go to down to the land.

His father said"No! Down on the land is dangerous!" but Hwan Oong asked him ten times. He said "OK,my son! You go down to the land.But someone will go with you."

Hwan Oong said "Who will go with me?"

His father said "Rainman and Cloudman"

The land they came to was Korea. A tiger and a bear went to their house. They said "Please, king's son! We want to change in to people!" Then Hwan Oong gave them some onions. "If you live a hundred days in the cave you will change to people!"

They went to the cave and lived there twenty days. Tiger said "This cave is dark and cold. We don't have much food! We have only onions !"

Tiger got out of the cave. When it was a hundred days the bear changed to a person. Hwan Oong was coming. "Your name is Oong Na" he said, and they married. They had a child. He's name was Dan Gun and he became the first king of Korea.

(Note: Nam Kyu arrived from Korea 5 months ago unable to understand, speak, read or write a word of English. At first he amazed us all with his maths skills - especially his speed. Now he has amazed us all with his speed at learning English. This is his story of the creation of Korea, told entirely in his own words with no corrections by me! Maggie Hos-McGrane)