The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon
호랑이와 곶감
A tiger listens as a mother tries to quiet her child and learns that a promised dried persimmon does what the tiger cannot.
Editorial prototype. This retelling is being checked against its cited version. Review the source and version note below; details may differ across tellings.
Story at a Glance
A hungry tiger comes down to a village at night. It hears a mother trying to soothe a crying child. Saying that a tiger is outside does not quiet the child; naming gotgam, a dried persimmon, does. The tiger decides that the strange thing must be more fearsome than itself.
The Folktale — Faithfully Retold
In a 2011 recording from Wau-ri village hall in Bongsan-myeon, Damyang, storyteller Kim Su-sun recalls a mother trying to soothe a crying child. The listeners supply the familiar threat: “the tiger is coming.” The child does not stop.
The mother promises a A gotgam is a dried persimmon. Here, the tiger only hears the word and imagines it must be more frightening than a tiger. Learn more about gotgam → instead. The child quiets at once. Hearing this from outside, the tiger thinks, “There is something more frightening than me,” and runs away. The recording ends with this punchline.
This recording has no thief, ox, or chase episode. Those belong to a different, longer tale sequence sometimes joined to the dried-persimmon episode in retellings. They are not added here.
Korean Context in This Story
Gotgam (곶감) is a dried persimmon. The story turns on a word heard but never seen. The Academy of Korean Studies classifies it among animal tales and records both the tiger’s fear and the thief’s mistaken ride; it also describes a longer continuation in some versions.
Versions and Sources
Selected recording: Korean Oral Literature Compendium, POKS.GUBI.GUBI.2_16339, recorded in Damyang on 20 January 2011 from Kim Su-sun. The transcript itself gives only the crying-child and persimmon punchline. The ox-thief ride appears in other versions and is intentionally excluded. This retelling follows one recorded performance, not a composite.
Related Beings and Stories
Explore the tiger in Korean folklore and the Korean Tiger Tales collection.
Retold in original English prose.
The final editorial review is still in progress.