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Korean Folk Tales for Children #6
The Snail Lady ; The Magic Vase
Volume 6 of the 10 volume set Korean Folk Tales for Children. Bilingual: Korean and English.
A king steals the beautiful Snail Lady away from her husband, a farmer. The farmer must then defeat the king in a series of contests in order to obtain the return of his wife.
A fisherman finds a magical vase floating on the sea. It brings him good fortune, but it gives nothing but bad luck to his greedy wife.
- GenresFolk TalesChildrens
48 pages, Library Binding
First published September 3, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 9, 2021
The traditional Korean folk tales in this bilingual Korean-English version were OK, but I didn’t love them. In the first, a snail is turned into a virtuous wife. When an arrogant king covets her for her beauty, her husband uses magic help three times from her father, the Sea Dragon, to defeat him. In the second, a goodhearted fisherman catches a magic vase that can grant three wishes. His greedy wife quickly burns through the three wishes but is still unsatisfied, leading the Dragon King to undo all of the granted wishes. The Dragon King lets the fisherman live in his sea palace and pick out a new, better wife. Both stories have a lesson about greed leading people to lose everything, and both present the Dragon King as some kind of benefactor of marital bliss. But they just weren’t all that entertaining or memorable. Each story had a different illustration style.
June 4, 2021
This book has two separate stories in it, so I will give them each their own review.
The Snail Lady:
The Snail Lady, also sometimes translated as The Snail Bride is a Chinese and Korean folktale. The specific version I am reviewing is a translated Korean adaptation of the tale.
A poor lonely bachelor is hoeing his garden and bemoaning the fact that he has no one to share the meals which he harvests. He hears a voice of a woman say to share his meals with her, but he cannot find the source of the voice. The next day he again complains that he does all this work in his fields to harvest wonderful food from, but he has no one with which to eat his meals as he is all alone. Yet again he hears the voice offering to eat with him, but there is no woman to be found. He looks around and spots a small snail shell which he decides to bring home and place in a small clay pot. The next day when he awakes, there is a full table spread of breakfast set out, yet he cannot find who made it. He eats the delicious meal and goes back out to his fields, but when he returns for the evening, another meal is again set out. He plots to hide near his kitchen so he can find the creator of this delicious food. He is surprised to find a beautiful woman step out of the pot where he had placed the snail and he watches as she cooks and cleans and sews for him. That evening, she again comes out to make dinner and tends to the house. He falls in love with her and the next day when she comes back out, he proposes and she happily accepts. They live in peace together until the mean king rides by and plans to steal the man’s wife by means of beating him in competition. He creates a race to see who can cut down a tree fastest for the woman’s hand in marriage. The man worries, but his snail bride gives him her wedding ring with a note and tells him to throw it into the ocean so that her father, the Dragon King, can help him win. He does so, and his father-in-law gives him a gourd to use during the competition. On the day of the contest, the king cheats and picks a small tree for himself and a humongous tree for the man. The king commands 200 soldiers to chop his tree down, and the man cracks open his gourd. From the gourd spring several little men with little axes who chop down his tree quickly. The king, refusing to lose, plans another contest, this time to see whose horse can race across the river the fastest. Again, the man returns to the ocean and the Dragon King gives him a gift. The king’s horse looks strong and powerful, and the man’s horse is skinny and looks weak. But his horse races as quickly as lightning, and the man wins again. The king, again refusing to lose, then plans a race between their boats for the woman’s hand in marriage. The dragon king this time gives the man a small sailboat and the king brings his huge, bulky ship. Again, the man easily wins, and this time a big wave swallows the king’s boat. The man takes over the kingdom and takes back his wife. He gives back all the food and riches the mean king had stolen from the poor as well, and they all lived happily ever after.
I included a summary I wrote so you know the right version as it varies some. I think this is a very cute book with a similar premise to a lot of familiar folktales. I think it is very interesting to read tales such as these from other cultures as they have been translated from their native language. The book does provide the story in its original Korean, but my reading skills are too rusty to read it as is. I appreciate the publisher including both versions as I feel it makes it much more accessible to foreign audiences while still staying true to the original. This is a classic story of a mean monarch wanting someone else’s things, in this case it being a woman. The story shows that by being kindhearted you can achieve more than what big, rich, shiny things people may use. Even though the man looked to be at a disadvantage every time, he was able to win and help the people the king had wronged while the king was lost at sea. This shows that you can’t always get what you want by force and that being kind is always better.
The Magic Vase:
In this tale, a kind fisherman has a greedy wife. Even though the sea is turbulent and dangerous because of a snowstorm, she sends him out onto the water to try and catch fish for her. He is barely able to keep from capsizing, let alone able to cast his net. When he is finally able to do so, no fish are near and his net is completely empty except for an old vase inside. He brings it home to his wife and she berates him for being stupid. He brings it into the house anyway, deciding that they can clean and use it. As they argue about the vase, and then it makes a loud noise and begins releasing smoke. Suddenly, a young man emerges from the smoke standing in the room. They ask who he is and he explains that he is now their servant who must grant them three wishes. The wife suggests they ask for rice, so the fisherman does so and a mountain of bags of rice appears on their front porch. The wife immediately begins thinking of the things she can ask for and wishes for them to become the richest people in the village. Again, the wish comes true and glittering jewels and gold and jewelry appear. The greedy woman is delighted but still wants more. She demands that her husband go back out to sea so he can find another magical vase for her to wish upon. She tells him he can’t return until he has found what she wants. So he returns to the dangerous waters. The wife seats herself in front of the mirror admiring her riches but decides she is too ugly. She again wishes, using her last wish, to make her beautiful. She looks at her new face in admiration and decides that she is now too beautiful for her ugly husband and plots to kick him out of the house as soon as he returns with another vase. Suddenly, her face becomes the same ugly face as before and all the rice and gold disappear. The fisherman on the sea sees a large turtle beckoning for him to ride it, and so he does as it brings him to the dragon king’s castle. The king tells him what the wife had done and that the wishes were undone as her punishment. The fisherman then goes to live in the dragon’s castle and gets himself a new wife as they live happily ever after.
I believe there is also an English story similar to this one, but again this is translated from Korean. I remember hearing a similar story at OktoberFest as a child. This has a similar moral to the story above but is slightly different. In this story, we see that the incredible greed of the wife was eventually her undoing. Even though her husband was loyal and had brought home this magical vase, she selfishly used up the wishes for her own gain and decided her husband was useless now. The husband who was kind and only ever did what his wife asked of him was rewarded for his kindness and was allowed to live in a beautiful castle. This story again brings back the Dragon King and again he shines kindness on those who are fair and loyal people. This is a classic folktale complete with the lesson teaching kids to not be greedy or selfish because you stand to lose everything by carrying on that way.
I love these classic stories and again I appreciate that they include the original Korean stories with the English translations. It shows acknowledgment to its roots and shows how we can hear similar stories and lessons across different cultures. I think this is an interesting book to keep in my classroom and I hope it will encourage my students to learn more about and be more appreciative of other cultures and languages.
The Snail Lady:
The Snail Lady, also sometimes translated as The Snail Bride is a Chinese and Korean folktale. The specific version I am reviewing is a translated Korean adaptation of the tale.
A poor lonely bachelor is hoeing his garden and bemoaning the fact that he has no one to share the meals which he harvests. He hears a voice of a woman say to share his meals with her, but he cannot find the source of the voice. The next day he again complains that he does all this work in his fields to harvest wonderful food from, but he has no one with which to eat his meals as he is all alone. Yet again he hears the voice offering to eat with him, but there is no woman to be found. He looks around and spots a small snail shell which he decides to bring home and place in a small clay pot. The next day when he awakes, there is a full table spread of breakfast set out, yet he cannot find who made it. He eats the delicious meal and goes back out to his fields, but when he returns for the evening, another meal is again set out. He plots to hide near his kitchen so he can find the creator of this delicious food. He is surprised to find a beautiful woman step out of the pot where he had placed the snail and he watches as she cooks and cleans and sews for him. That evening, she again comes out to make dinner and tends to the house. He falls in love with her and the next day when she comes back out, he proposes and she happily accepts. They live in peace together until the mean king rides by and plans to steal the man’s wife by means of beating him in competition. He creates a race to see who can cut down a tree fastest for the woman’s hand in marriage. The man worries, but his snail bride gives him her wedding ring with a note and tells him to throw it into the ocean so that her father, the Dragon King, can help him win. He does so, and his father-in-law gives him a gourd to use during the competition. On the day of the contest, the king cheats and picks a small tree for himself and a humongous tree for the man. The king commands 200 soldiers to chop his tree down, and the man cracks open his gourd. From the gourd spring several little men with little axes who chop down his tree quickly. The king, refusing to lose, plans another contest, this time to see whose horse can race across the river the fastest. Again, the man returns to the ocean and the Dragon King gives him a gift. The king’s horse looks strong and powerful, and the man’s horse is skinny and looks weak. But his horse races as quickly as lightning, and the man wins again. The king, again refusing to lose, then plans a race between their boats for the woman’s hand in marriage. The dragon king this time gives the man a small sailboat and the king brings his huge, bulky ship. Again, the man easily wins, and this time a big wave swallows the king’s boat. The man takes over the kingdom and takes back his wife. He gives back all the food and riches the mean king had stolen from the poor as well, and they all lived happily ever after.
I included a summary I wrote so you know the right version as it varies some. I think this is a very cute book with a similar premise to a lot of familiar folktales. I think it is very interesting to read tales such as these from other cultures as they have been translated from their native language. The book does provide the story in its original Korean, but my reading skills are too rusty to read it as is. I appreciate the publisher including both versions as I feel it makes it much more accessible to foreign audiences while still staying true to the original. This is a classic story of a mean monarch wanting someone else’s things, in this case it being a woman. The story shows that by being kindhearted you can achieve more than what big, rich, shiny things people may use. Even though the man looked to be at a disadvantage every time, he was able to win and help the people the king had wronged while the king was lost at sea. This shows that you can’t always get what you want by force and that being kind is always better.
The Magic Vase:
In this tale, a kind fisherman has a greedy wife. Even though the sea is turbulent and dangerous because of a snowstorm, she sends him out onto the water to try and catch fish for her. He is barely able to keep from capsizing, let alone able to cast his net. When he is finally able to do so, no fish are near and his net is completely empty except for an old vase inside. He brings it home to his wife and she berates him for being stupid. He brings it into the house anyway, deciding that they can clean and use it. As they argue about the vase, and then it makes a loud noise and begins releasing smoke. Suddenly, a young man emerges from the smoke standing in the room. They ask who he is and he explains that he is now their servant who must grant them three wishes. The wife suggests they ask for rice, so the fisherman does so and a mountain of bags of rice appears on their front porch. The wife immediately begins thinking of the things she can ask for and wishes for them to become the richest people in the village. Again, the wish comes true and glittering jewels and gold and jewelry appear. The greedy woman is delighted but still wants more. She demands that her husband go back out to sea so he can find another magical vase for her to wish upon. She tells him he can’t return until he has found what she wants. So he returns to the dangerous waters. The wife seats herself in front of the mirror admiring her riches but decides she is too ugly. She again wishes, using her last wish, to make her beautiful. She looks at her new face in admiration and decides that she is now too beautiful for her ugly husband and plots to kick him out of the house as soon as he returns with another vase. Suddenly, her face becomes the same ugly face as before and all the rice and gold disappear. The fisherman on the sea sees a large turtle beckoning for him to ride it, and so he does as it brings him to the dragon king’s castle. The king tells him what the wife had done and that the wishes were undone as her punishment. The fisherman then goes to live in the dragon’s castle and gets himself a new wife as they live happily ever after.
I believe there is also an English story similar to this one, but again this is translated from Korean. I remember hearing a similar story at OktoberFest as a child. This has a similar moral to the story above but is slightly different. In this story, we see that the incredible greed of the wife was eventually her undoing. Even though her husband was loyal and had brought home this magical vase, she selfishly used up the wishes for her own gain and decided her husband was useless now. The husband who was kind and only ever did what his wife asked of him was rewarded for his kindness and was allowed to live in a beautiful castle. This story again brings back the Dragon King and again he shines kindness on those who are fair and loyal people. This is a classic folktale complete with the lesson teaching kids to not be greedy or selfish because you stand to lose everything by carrying on that way.
I love these classic stories and again I appreciate that they include the original Korean stories with the English translations. It shows acknowledgment to its roots and shows how we can hear similar stories and lessons across different cultures. I think this is an interesting book to keep in my classroom and I hope it will encourage my students to learn more about and be more appreciative of other cultures and languages.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 21, 2017
Two Korean folktales told in Korean and English. In the first tale, a young farmer discovers that a snail becomes a lady and is taking care of his house and cooking his meals. He marries her, but the king seas the woman and challenges the farmer to contests for her hand. Thankfully, the Dragon King is the lady's father, and he helps the farmer. In the second tale, a greedy woman berates her fisherman husband until he brings home a magic pot with a man who grants wishes inside. In the end, her greed is her undoing.
If you want to read a Chinese version of the first tale, check out The Dinner That Cooked Itself . The stories have subtle differences at first, and then a big difference in that the Korean version has a second part with the contests. I'd like to see someone write a chapter length story of this tale. It has promise. The second tale feels like a Korean djinn tale. I was hoping the wife would learn her lesson and be redeemed, but that's not the route this tale takes. If you read multiple books in this series of Korean folk tales it might be helpful to do more research on the Dragon King, a character who keeps popping up in multiple tales.
If you want to read a Chinese version of the first tale, check out The Dinner That Cooked Itself . The stories have subtle differences at first, and then a big difference in that the Korean version has a second part with the contests. I'd like to see someone write a chapter length story of this tale. It has promise. The second tale feels like a Korean djinn tale. I was hoping the wife would learn her lesson and be redeemed, but that's not the route this tale takes. If you read multiple books in this series of Korean folk tales it might be helpful to do more research on the Dragon King, a character who keeps popping up in multiple tales.
October 5, 2015
Two short folktales that tell a bit about Korean culture and history within the context of the story. The illustrations are simple, cartoonish watercolors and the stories are short, but interesting.
I purchased this book for our girls during a business trip to Seoul and we all enjoyed the stories. I read it to them again on 4 Oct 2015, and then we gave the book to a friend of ours for her daughter.
I purchased this book for our girls during a business trip to Seoul and we all enjoyed the stories. I read it to them again on 4 Oct 2015, and then we gave the book to a friend of ours for her daughter.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews