VISIT JEJU

For a very long time, the world was utter darkness. In the midst of darkness and chaos, there appeared a sign of creation. The crest of the sky opened at the Hour of Gapja, Day of Gapja, Month of Gapja, and Year of Gapja and the mouth of the land opened at Hour of Eulchuk, Day of Eulchuk, Month of Eulchuk and Year of Eulchuk, creating faint cracks. The boundary between the sky and the land became clearer as the cracks began to widen, the ground began to rise and water began to flow. At this time, bluish dewdrops began to rain and black dewdrops from the ground began to rise, and when they both combined it resulted in all creation. The first things that appeared were the stars. On the east was the Altair, on the west was the Vega star, on the south was the Canopus and on the north was the Big Dipper, and in the center came about the Samtaeseong, bringing about numerous stars across the the air. Starlight was not enough to lighten up the entire atmosphere. It remained dark, the bluish clouds came and went from the East, the white clouds from the West, the ruby clouds from the South, and black clouds from the North, and yellow clouds from the center. In an instant, the Cheonhwang Chicken raised its neck, Jihwang Chicken flapped its wings, and the Inhwang Chicken crowed loudly and flapped its tail, and out came the dawn from the East. At this time, the Heavenly King released two suns and two stars, lighting up the entire world, widely opening up the earth and the sky, heaven and earth.

Long, long time ago, there was a very large Seolmundae Halmang. Seolmundae Halmang was also a very strong woman. One day, she began to carry soil with her skirts and poured them out in the middle of the wide, vast blue ocean. Diligent she was in her efforts, pretty soon, there began to appear shape of islands above the ocean. As though she was quite pleased with the naturally risen volcanic cones, she began to pick up some more dirt and made volcanic cones here and there around the island. On the parts that she thought had too much sand, she would hit the mountaintop to balance it out. This is how the volcanic cone with deeply sloped peaks came about. Finally, she made a high mountain right in the middle of the island, high enough to touch the Milky Way. So came about Hallasan Mountain. But she might have thought that the mountain was slightly too high. So she broke off the peak and threw it out into the ocean. The peak that flew into the southwest of the ocean came to be called Sanbangsan Maountain.
- ‘Halmang’ is known as a ‘goddess’ in Jeju myth. -

There was an unusual aura in the northern bank of Hallasan Mountain and one by one, three gods appeared from the ground consecutively. The three gods wore leather clothes, hunted in the wild fields, and ate meat. One day, they found a big box floating in the eastern sea and ran towards it. It was a wooden box sealed in magenta-colored earth. When they opened the box, there was a man wearing magenta-colored apparel with a red tie around his waist guarding an egg-shaped jade box. When the jade box was opened, there were seeds of five grains, three beautiful virgins, a colt, and a calf. The man that appeared from the box said that, “I am the emissary of the Byeokrangguk of eastern sea. Our King has three daughters and as the legendary three founders of Korea have risen to create a nation but stand without their mates, I have come to present the daughters to you. Cordially take the daughters to achieve the great work of founding the State.” With that said, he flew away on a cloud. The three gods and princess cleared both their minds and bodies, got married after deciding on who would marry whom. They moved to the area with land that was fertile with good water, shot an arrow one by one and decided upon the land of their residence. This was when they scattered the seeds of five grains and raised the cows and horses, which increased the numbers of their people and everything became more culturally abundant, leading to the establishment of Tamnaguk.