Halloween is coming soon! I love decorating the house for Halloween and preparing seasonal sweets for witches, wizards, ghosts and monsters – big, small, scary or sweet! For me and my husband, who always seem to be busy, Halloween is the one special day each year when we enjoy taking the time to entertain and be entertained by the supernatural beings that roam the neighbourhood. 

Halloween was not part of the traditional childhood celebrations in Korea when I was growing up, but Korea certainly has no shortage of eerie ghosts, monsters and supernatural beings. As you will see, not all of them are frightening or evil. Some are just mischievous tricksters or restless spirits. A monster is often born out of misunderstanding or mistreatment. 

Here are a few of them.

1. Gwisin 

Gwisin basically means a ‘ghost’ or a ‘spirit’ – especially the soul of a deceased person. In popular ghost stories, a gwisin is often a spirit who never made it to the afterlife because of unfinished business, unrequited love, or even a terrible injustice. Feared and warded off, some can be malevolent, but others are completely harmless and appear simply because they wish to appeal to the living for help.

2. Dokkaebi 

Dokkaebi is often translated into English as a ‘goblin’ or a ‘troll’, but there is no exact Western counterpart, really. Unlike a gwisin, a dokkaebi is not the soul of a dead person. Traditional folk tales attribute their existence to old, discarded household objects, like brooms and pokers, that have absorbed human energy through repeated contact with people over time. They can be mischievous and troublesome, playing tricks on unsuspecting travellers; incredibly strong, sometimes challenging humans to wrestling contests; generous, bringing wealth, abundant harvests or good fortune; and surprisingly gullible, despite possessing extraordinary supernatural abilities.

3. Kumiho (aka ‘Gumiho’)

As described in Youngho and Chadori: The Door to the Spirit World, a kumiho is    

‘a mythological fox with nine tails in Korean folklore. Kumiho was said to take the form of a beautiful woman, often luring unsuspecting travellers to their deaths and eating their livers.’ 

I write ‘kumiho’ with K, because the Korean counterpart of the English G is subtly aspirated – almost the sound between G and K in English. A kumiho can possess a fox bead, which allows the nine-tailed fox to absorb human energy or transfer supernatural knowledge. In the TV series I watched as a child, a kumiho was very close to becoming a human by collecting fox beads, but she had to give up this lifelong dream because of her love for a human man. He kept asking for her gem and gambled it away every time. Oh, the fragility of female hearts – even that of a kumiho!

4. Imugi (English pronunciation: ‘immuggi’ )

Imugi is a supernatural, serpent-like being associated with water. It can turn into a yong (the Korean dragon) when it reaches one thousand years of age. It lives in a deep pond, river or lake while awaiting its transformation. Some are dangerous, while others are benevolent, bringing rain during a particularly dry season. An imugi typically turns malevolent when it fails to transform into a yong, often due to its own greed and misdeeds, despite having fulfilled the one-thousand-year requirement. 

5. Cheuksin (English pronunciation: ‘Chewk-sin’)

Cheuksin is a household deity associated with the outdoor latrine. A toilet ghost, in other words! Usually a woman, the lavatory spirit can be dangerous if offended or disturbed. She can push an unsuspecting victim into the toilet hole full of … you know what I mean. 😉 

Are you warming up to Korean ghosts? One or more will feature in Youngho and Chadori, Book II, which I’m working on right now.  

한국어 요약: 

이제 곧 할로윈입니다! 저는 해마다 할로윈이 다가오면, 집 밖에 장식을 달고, 붙이고 …  동네의 크고 작은, 혹은 무섭기도 혹은 귀엽기도 한 귀신과 괴물, 마녀와 마법사들을 맞이하고 사탕과 과자를 나누어 줄 준비를 합니다. 항상 왠지 바쁜 저와 남편에게 있어 할로윈은 일 년에 한 번이라도 동네 아이들을 즐겁게 해주고 또 거기서 오는 기쁨을 만끽하는 특별한 날입니다. 

제가 자라던 80~90년대만 해도 한국에서는 할로윈이 그다지 보편적인 행사는 아니었습니다. 요즈음은 많이 달라졌겠지만요. 하지만 소름 쫙 끼치는 귀신 얘기하면 한국이 절대 뒤지지 않죠. 그런 차원에서 이번에는 할로윈 특집으로 한국의 요괴 및 영물들을 소개하는 글을 써 보았습니다. 

너무나 자연스레 한국 문화에 녹아들어 있는 존재들이라, 한국어로는 설명까지 일일이 번역하지 않은 것 이해해 주세요. 이 중의 한 마리(?) 이상이 현재 집필 중인 『영호와 차도리 제2권』에 등장할 예정이니 기대해 주세요. 🙂 

1. 귀신

2. 도깨비

3. 구미호

4. 이무기

5. 측신(뒷간 귀신)

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