Korean Mythological Creatures

Korean legends are full of mythical creatures and today I will tell you about some of them.

Dokkaebi (도깨비) are mischievous creatures that play jokes on bad people and grants good people’s wishes during the night. When the morning comes, they disappear by turning into inanimate objects.

Dokkaeki became very popular after the drama 도깨비 (Goblin) came out. The main character was actually a Dokkaebie that was looking for the human wife to end his immortal life.

Gumiho (구미호) is a nine-tailored fox. There are different legends about it but most say that Gumiho usually took a form of a beautiful woman and really wanted to become human. Some legends say she had to starve for 1,000 or 100 days, some say that she had to eat human liver or heart 100 times.

Gumiho was also portrayed in a Korean drama called My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (내 여자친구는 구미호), a romantic comedy about a childish student and a Gumiho that wanted to become human. Starring Seung-gi Lee (이승기) and Min-ah Shin (신민아).

The Inmyeonjo (인면조) is the bird with the human face. It is said to come to this world when there’s peace on earth.

The Inmyeonjo took part in the opening ceremony of 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics as an important part of Korean folklore and the symbol of peace.

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