Dangun vs Ungnyeo

The son of the heavenly Hwanung and the bear-woman Ungnyeo, who in the Samguk Yusa founds the kingdom of Joseon (Gojoseon), rules for fifteen hundred years, and at last becomes a mountain god; honored as the founding ancestor of the Korean people.

Son of Hwanung, the son of the Lord of Heaven, and Ungnyeo, the bear who became a woman (Samguk Yusa, Book 1).

Iryeon's *Samguk Yusa* gives two accounts. From a Chinese 'Book of Wei' it quotes that two thousand years earlier Dangun Wanggeom set his capital at Asadal and founded a state called Joseon, in the time of the sage-emperor Yao. From the Korean 'Old Record' it tells the full myth: born of Hwanung and Ungnyeo, Dangun made his capital at Pyongyang in the fiftieth year of Yao, called his state Joseon, later moved to Asadal on Mount Baegak, and ruled for fifteen hundred years. When the Zhou king enfeoffed Gija in Joseon, Dangun moved away, returned to Asadal, and became a mountain god, having lived 1,908 years. Iryeon himself notes that the traditional year does not match Yao's reign.

The bear who, with a tiger, begs Hwanung to become human, endures twenty-one days in darkness eating only mugwort and garlic, becomes a woman, and by Hwanung bears Dangun, founder of the first Korean kingdom.

A bear living in a cave with a tiger, transformed into a woman through Hwanung's instructions (Samguk Yusa, Book 1).

In the Dangun myth of the *Samguk Yusa*, a bear and a tiger living together in a cave pray constantly to Hwanung to become human. He gives them a bundle of sacred mugwort and twenty cloves of garlic and tells them to avoid the sunlight for a hundred days. Both eat and withdraw; the bear keeps the taboo, and after three times seven days (twenty-one days) she obtains a woman's body. The tiger cannot keep it and remains a tiger.