The Sun and Moon Siblings

Story at a Glance

A widowed mother brings red-bean porridge home to her daughter and son. A tiger takes the porridge and then her arms and legs. The children recognize the tiger at the door, escape up an old pine, and pray for a rope to heaven.

The Folktale — Faithfully Retold

In the 1981 Sangju recording, a widow whose husband has died raises a daughter and son. She goes to weave at a neighbor’s house. After finishing the work, she carries home a large container of red-bean porridge ⓘ for her children. A tiger stops her on the road and asks what she is carrying. Each time she gives it a bowl, it lets her pass. When the porridge is gone, the tiger demands first one arm and then the other, then both legs. It eats her and goes to the children’s home.

The tiger calls to the children as their mother. They notice the voice and rough hand are wrong, but eventually open the door. The brother says he needs to relieve himself and escapes with his sister. They climb an old pine. When the tiger asks how, the boy says they rubbed oil on the trunk. The tiger slips as it tries the same method, but keeps climbing until it reaches them.

The children pray for a new rope if heaven intends to save them, and an old rope if they are to die. A new rope descends; they climb to heaven. The tiger makes the same prayer, receives an old rope, falls, and dies. The girl becomes the Sun and the boy the Moon in this telling. There is no baby sibling, well, sorghum, or later exchange of their roles in this recording.

Korean Context in This Story

The Academy of Korean Studies records many versions of this origin tale, also known as Haenim-dalnim or “Why the sorghum stalks are red.” The number of children, the order of the tiger’s demands, the rescue rope, and which sibling becomes which heavenly body vary. This page follows the version in that encyclopedia entry rather than KBS World’s opposite sibling assignment.

Versions and Sources

Selected recording: Korean Oral Literature Compendium, POKS.GUBI.GUBI.1_21487, told by Lee Myeong-bun (71) in Byeongam-ri, Gonggeom-myeon, Sangju, on 1 August 1981. It has two children, porridge, an old pine, and the girl as Sun; it does not have the baby, sorghum, or role-switching found in other familiar retellings. The prose follows this recording.