[KS] legend of mangbusok

Mark Peterson Mark_Peterson at byu.edu
Wed Nov 17 13:33:13 EST 2004


Dear Ann and others interested in manbusøk.  I can offer the 
following, though it only broadens the question and does not answer 
it.  When I have visitors from Korea visit Provo, we often comment on 
a dominant mountain scene to the north of us.  The mountain is called 
Timpanogous, and it means "sleeping maiden" -- it's an indian word 
the implies the legend of a maiden who waited for her brave to return 
from the hunt.  She waited and waited, and he didn't return, and she 
lied down, turned to stone, and you can see her outline along the 
ridge line.

Well, it's a mangbusøk legend.  When I tell Korea visitors, they 
usually say, Oh, it's a mangbusøk; we have those in Korea.  I get the 
impression that they are ubiquitous and every region that has a 
mountain that might look like a maiden has the legend.

For what its worth.  Good luck tracking it (them) down.

Mark



>Dear Korean studies list members,
>
>Can anyone help me find sources to the manbusok (husband-waiting-rock)
>story that tells of the faithful wife who waited so long for her husband
>to return from the sea that she turned into a rock?   There's a mangbusok
>rock formation in Haeundae in Pusan, the only site I am aware of that
>carries a physical remnant of this folktale/legend.  Something tells me
>that this was also a story that circulated in Northern Korea in early
>twentieth century, as Kim Sowol alludes to it in one of his poems.
>
>Much obliged,
>Ann Choi
>
>----
>
>Ann Y. Choi
>Asian Languages and Cultures
>Rutgers University
>New Brunswick, NJ  08901





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