Kumiho
| Korean spelling | |
|---|---|
| Korean alphabet : | 구미호 |
| Hanja : | 九尾狐 |
| Revised Romanization : | Gumiho |
| McCune-Reischauer : | Kumiho |
A Kumiho (literally: nine-tailed fox ) is a Korean legendary figure. It is a variant of the Chinese húli jīng (chin. 狐狸精 ) and the Japanese kitsune . Mostly she is feminine and malignant. While the other fox spirits sometimes have succubus-like features, the Kumiho is often an ogre, at the same time a seductress. According to popular belief, it takes a certain number of human hearts or livers to attain a human soul. However, this is not the original view, but through the Dâkinîs of India known in Hinduism and Buddhism . The original representation is almost identical to the Japanese kitsune.
A number of Kumiho stories can be found in 한국 구비 문학 대계 ( Compendium of Korean Oral Literature ). The fairy tale "The Fox Sister" is very famous.
literature
- Klaus Mailahn: The fox in belief and myth . Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9483-5 , pp. 213-215.
Web links
- Kumiho - The Korean Fox (English)
- Kumiho in the Encyclopedia Mythica (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heinz Insu Fenkl: A Fox Woman Tale of Korea ( Memento of the original dated November 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
