A Purse Full of Tales: Folk Tales from Korea

This book collects folk tales from North and South Korea, featuring traditional Korean dragons, heavenly maidens, dokkaebis, bluebirds, and eccentric characters. Many tales incorporate Shamanistic, Buddhist, and Taoist cosmology, transporting readers to surrealistic fantasy worlds. Like other folk tales, protagonists face distressing situations and overcome them through humor, jest, and wit. This book offers readers a glimpse into the unique properties of Korean folk tales, as they haven’t been widely translated into English.