Ungnyeo

From bear to woman

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.

Mother of Dangun

The bear-woman has no one to marry, and prays beneath the sacred altar tree for a child. Hwanung takes human form for a time and marries her, and she bears a son, Dangun Wanggeom, who founds Joseon. The text names her only as Ungnyeo, 'bear woman'.

Meaning and afterlife

The twenty-one days (samchil-il) of her seclusion echo a Korean custom of observing twenty-one days of taboo after childbirth, and her story is often read as a story of patience and transformation. Mugwort and garlic remain everyday foods and medicines in Korea. Scholars have long debated whether the bear reflects a bear-honoring people or a wider northern Eurasian bear cult; the myth itself gives no such explanation.