The Goblin’s Magic Club

Story at a Glance

A woodcutter gathers four hazelnuts for his parents, younger brother, and himself. Dokkaebi flee when he cracks one in an empty house, leaving their goods behind. His younger brother copies the event in reverse order and is caught.

The Folktale — Faithfully Retold

The 1982 Yongin recording begins with a poor man who goes into the mountain to gather firewood. Hazelnuts fall as he scrapes the tree. He sets the first aside for his father, the second for his mother, the third for his younger brother, and the fourth for himself.

Because it grows late, he enters a small empty house on the mountainside and hides in a wall cupboard. At night dokkaebi arrive and call for silver, gold, money, and fruit, striking their clubs as each thing appears.

From the cupboard he bites a hazelnut. The crack sounds like a roof beam breaking. The dokkaebi panic, abandon their silver and gold clubs and other goods, and flee. The man gathers the abandoned things and returns home rich.

His younger brother asks how he became rich. The elder agrees to show him. The younger gathers nuts and gives the first to himself, then his brother, then his mother, and last his father—the reverse order. He hides in the same cupboard. When the dokkaebi arrive and call for treasure, he bites a nut, but they recognize the sound from the night before. They pull him down and stretch his arms and legs longer and longer. At dawn he limps home in pain and spends money seeking a cure. His elder brother eventually helps him, and the household manages to live together.

Korean Context in This Story

This is one form of the tale known by names including Dokkaebi-bangmangi and Dokkaebi-wa gaeam (“the dokkaebi and the hazelnut”). The Academy of Korean Studies cites Hanguk Gubimunhak Daegye among its recorded sources and notes a relationship to the older Bangi tale and to Heungbujeon. The wooden club is a treasure that answers a wish; dokkaebi is retained instead of flattening the being into a European goblin.

Versions and Sources

Selected recording: Korean Oral Literature Compendium, POKS.GUBI.GUBI.1_4467, told by Oh Su-yeong (68) in Idong-myeon, Yongin, on 23 January 1982. This recording has four hazelnuts and a younger brother, who copies the event in reverse order, is caught, and suffers stretched limbs; it does not use the generic neighbor-and-beating ending in many summaries. This retelling follows that performance.