The tiger has always been important in Korean culture, wihich has viewed the animal as a king or deity. Detail from a larger work in the National Folklore Museum of Korea.

Certain animals are believed to have supernatural powers ranging from transmogrification to the ability to cause temporary illusions.  In Korea the fox used to be regarded as particularly magical, although most animals, including domestic ones, were believed to command some of these powers if they outlived their normal life span.  I wonder if the raccoon dog in Japan and the wolf in the West are not the fox’s counterparts.  One striking thing about these stories is that the animals almost invariably fail in their attempt to become human beings.  The story of Tangun is an exception.

The vixen who tried to become a woman

There once lived a vixen whose sole and ultimate wish was to be a human being.  The fox was unusually firm in its resolve.  For this purpose alone, it survived for one hundred years, the magic period required to command metamorphic power.  The day it became one hundred, it succeeded in turning into a human, at least as far as its external appearance was concerned.  Outwardly, it was a perfect human being, an attractive young girl.  But she (or rather it) realized to its chagrin that it was far from being fully human.  Becoming human in the mental and spiritual sense was immeasurably more difficult.  Inside, it was still a fox.

Determined, it did not give up its ambition.  The vixen prayed for one hundred days to the Lord Buddha to teach it how to be human being in mind as well.  On the hundredth day, the Buddha told it the secret of becoming fully human: First, the vixen required a genuine human affection, someone who would love and cherish it more than his own life; second, it must live in a community for three years successfully disguised as a human being.  If it failed in its endeavor, the fox would die instantly, without returning to its animal self.

Fortunately, it found a poor woodcutter who fell in love with it.  He took the vixen home and married it.  The second requirement proved more difficult.