Like all far Eastern countries, Korea has a wealth of folk tales suitable for children of all ages. Some tales are cheerful—ending in happiness ever after—but others are frightening or even weird. After all, children worldwide love scary and terrifying tales, and Korean children are no exception.

Late in life, the old man would catch a glimpse of his lost wife's beauty in the glimmer of the moon in a mountain stream, in the morning sun shimmering on a lake, or in the song of a bluebird perched nearby.

The following selection of stories represents only a tiny fraction of the innumerable stories that Koreans tell each other. They can call on such a vast store of folk tales because of the unique conditions of their cultural history. The Koreans have occupied their homeland for well over three thousand years and today can claim to have one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world. This remarkable cultural integrity gives the Korean people a profound respect for the power of tradition (as conveyed in folklore) and an awareness of the way the wisdom of their ancestors permeates their language, the rituals of life, and mundane everyday objects with symbolic value and meaning.

Of course, Korean culture has not existed in a vacuum, and its evolution has been marked by a process of syncretic integration with other cultural elements. During the centuries, the Koreans have been influenced from four sides: by the Chinese from the west; the Japanese from the east; the people of Manchuria and eastern Siberia from the north; and the Pacific peoples from the south, whom the fishermen and sailors met on their voyages past the numerous islands.