Korean Mythology

Korean mythology consists of national legends and folk-tales which come from all over the Korean Peninsula. The origin may be a blend of Korean shamanism, Buddhist, Chinese myths, Confucian and Taoist legends and myths. The legends may also vary greatly by region, even within the country. For example, the people of Jejudo have a very different lifestyle from that of the mainland and so can generate different forms of the same myths.
In Korean shamanism, animism was dominant as the prime source for religious life for the Korean people. Particular worship of mountains, animals, plants stem from the belief that they had souls and often show up in the folktales as well as talk about tributes and sacrifices, whether literal, or figurative.
At the same time, there were gods that occupied certain domains and they would often show up in folktales as distant protectors that called on humans when asked to rather than interfering with every day life.

Early in Korean history, the shamanistic religion was dominant and because early Korea was divided often into smaller domains, such as Silla and Goguryeo, Baekje, the folktales and myths tended to differ also by those regions. With the arrival of Buddhism in the 3-4th century, the myths and native religion began to change as did the myths. With the advent of Neo Confucianism, the native religion was suppressed by the government where shamans were often killed for practicing and so many of the legends either changed or were blended into existing legends.

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This Book contains:

- Creation myth
- List of Deities and Famous Figures
- Explanation about korean shamanism.
- The Flood Myth
- Collections of stories, myths and legends

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2018
-Completed-