Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 210

The Song Bag
Grandpa Lopside, a poor woodcutter with a wen (cyst) on his right cheek, is caught in the
mountains by a cloudburst one day and forced to spend the night in a deserted shack frequented
by goblins. Just as the goblins are approaching the shack, Grandpa launches into a song to ward
off the uneasiness he feels at being alone in the spooky woods at night. The goblins, who love
good singing but are notoriously bad singers, burst in on him and demand another song. At the
end of Grandpa’s song they offer him a sack of gold for the “song bag” on his cheek. He insists
that it is not a song bag, but they think he is just trying to keep it for himself. So they snatch it
from him and leave him the sack of gold. Within a few days Grandpa’s wen-bedecked friend
“Grandma” Lopside (as tone-deaf as the goblins) hears that Grandpa has become rich, and in his
greed schemes not only to get rid of his wen but also to get some gold. He goes back out to the
shack and tries to deceive the goblins. Meanwhile the goblins have discovered that Grandpa’s
wen is not really a song bag. So Grandma Lopside, instead of getting rid of his wen, ends up with
Grandpa’s wen on his other cheek. But this not all he gets.
The historical setting for this story is Korea’s transition from an agrarian economy to one that
is based on money. Grandma Lopside, Grandpa’s friend, represents greedy people, who wanted
to get money by any means. And Grandpa Lopside’s wife is another type of person in the new
economy: the aristocrat wannabe.
The Gourds’ Rewards
Wealthy Father has died, and first son Nolbu has control of the entire inheritance. This mean and
greedy Nolbu cannot stand the idea of sharing the inheritance with his virtuous younger brother
Hungbu. So he kicks Hungbu and his whole family out of the house. They barely survive a year
of hand-to-mouth existence. Then a swallow, whose broken leg Hungbu has fixed, returns the
next spring with a reward of magic gourd seeds, and when Hungbu opens the gourds in the
autumn, out pour treasure after treasure. This makes Hungbu even richer than Nolbu. Nolbu and
his wife hear about this and hunt down a swallow, then break its leg and fix it so they can reap
the same reward. The reward they finally get, though, is not exactly what they had in mind.
Virtuous Hungbu, of course, comes to the rescue, and Nolbu turns over a new leaf – in his own
way.
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