Ed Ranks Mythological Korean Creatures

If that description is not enough to interest you, then why bother trying to write anything else here? These are 10 things that a Korean might find hidden under their house that would be freakier than that housekeeper's husband in Parasite. Oh, sorry. Was that a spoiler?

So hot!

10. Ungnyeo

• Western Equivalent: Reverse Callisto?
• Description: In Greek Myth, Callisto was a woman who turned into a bear. The Ungnyeo is a bear that turned into a woman.
• Powers/Activities: No real "powers" per-se, but a tiger and bear wanted to become humans and asked their god, Hwanung, to make it happen. So the god gave them garlic and mugwort and told them not to go into the sun for 100 days. The tiger said "fuck it" and gave up after 20 days. The bear succeeded, and got to be a pretty girl. Awww!
• Weirdest Fact: The ancient Korean word for "bear" also means "hole," and, indirectly "vulva." Even in English the "gnyeo" doesn't seem that unlike "gyno." So yeah, this whole myth comes from the strange fact that Koreans associates bears with vaginas.

9. Inmyeonjo

• Western Equivalent: Harpies
• Description:  A bird wit ha freaky human face, although unlike Greek harpies, Inmyeonjo can have either female or male faces (but are mostly still female).
• Powers/Activities: They are mainly associated with longevity, and are quite often depicted on ancient Korean tomb murals. Not surprisingly, this bird-person is also supposed to represent a connection between the sky (birds) and earth (people).
• Weirdest Fact: The weirdest fact about these creatures is probably recent, and related to all these Internet memes after the 2018 Winter Olympics.

This + Divine Power

8. Samjokgu

• Western Equivalent: The dog on the cover of the 1995 eponymous album "Alice in Chains"
• Description: A three-legged dog.
• Powers/Activities: The descriptions of the dog's powers are usually typically vague, such as "having divine powers to fight evil." In some myths, they have the power to detect other creatures disguised as humans (like Kumiho, see below), reveal them, and defeat them in battle with their crazy divine three-legged dog strength.
• Weirdest Fact: Everything about them that's weird is already described in the powers/activities section. Not too much more interesting factoids about these good doggos.  

Look at its cute little Dragon Ball.

7. Yong

• Western Equivalent: Dragons
• Description: These are pretty similar to the Chinese and Japanese dragons, but are Korean. Unlike western dragons, they're long and snake-like. They have beards too!
• Powers/Activities: Also unlike western dragons, Korean dragons are mostly benevolent beings associated with water, wilderness, and agriculture. So they're more like gods than creatures.
• Weirdest Fact: Sometimes they are depicted as carrying around powerful orbs. Or to be more exact with what you anime nerds want me to say: Dragon Balls. Yes, Yong are basically Shenron.

6. Bulgae

• Western Equivalent: Sköll (a wolf in Norse myth that chases the sun)
• Description: Bul-Gae literally means "fire dog." No, this is not a dog that works with firemen. It is not a Dalmation. These are dogs on fire. That's it. Hounds that are ablaze! Pretty nice, huh?
• Powers/Activities: These powerful fire doggos like to chase the sun and the moon (as does the aforementioned Norse Sköll). Usually the sun is too hot and the moon is too cold, so when the dogs catch them they have an "owie!" in their mouth and let go. But also sort of like Goldilocks, sometimes the sun or moon is just right and the doggo can hold onto it for a little bit. When this happens, a little bite gets taken out of the sun or moon. And that, my friends, is called an eclipse. 
• Weirdest Fact: Is the fact that a dog made out of fire biting the sun is how eclipses are caused not already weird enough for you? Enjoy that weird fact and ask no more! Now you're just being greedy.

OoOoOooOoooo!

5. Gwisin

• Western Equivalent: Ghosts
• Description: This one is a pretty close 1 to 1 for the ghosts you're familiar with. They are the spirits of dead people, remaining in this world. You know, semi-transparent and floating in the air. Korean Caspers.
• Powers/Activities: Again, this is pretty similar to what most people already think about ghosts. They only hang around in this world to complete some act that was unfulfilled in life, and once that is complete, they can go to rest. They can use their semi-invisibility in order to pull all sorts of pranks and stuff. Exactly the plot of Beetlejuice. 
• Weirdest Fact: Some of them don't want to fulfill whatever they didn't finish in life, and prefer to stick around haunting people. According to legend, these ghosts get stronger and stronger as they hang around haunting us. CREEPY!

4. Bulgasari

• Western Equivalent: Chimera, by means of Pinocchio.
• Description: A mix-and-match creature, made up of various other animals. Versions differ a little, but for the most part it has the body of a bear, the nose (trunk) of an elephant, eyes of a rhino, legs of a tiger, and tail of a cow. Freaky!
• Powers/Activities: Bulgasari was initially a small little thing, made by a man out of rice. But then a man (sometimes a monk) causes the creature to comes alive and it starts eating everything made out of iron. This creature loves it some iron, and keeps getting bigger and bigger by eating more tasty metal. All of Korea tries to kill it, but they really can't, because it's name roughly translates to something like "Impossible to Kill." Which is a good name!
• Weirdest Fact: There are different versions of how "Impossible to Kill" was eventually killed, but the best (and weirdest) is that a monk put an amulet on it, which made it puke out all the iron until it shrunk back into nothing.

Just a picture of the awesome hat!

3. Jeosung Saja

• Western Equivalent: The Grim Reaper
• Description: The name translates to "Afterlife Messenger," and this is the personification of death. But Jeosung Saja isn't a skeleton with a scythe. Instead, it wears all black clothes and, famously, a black hat called a "gat," which is sort of like a Korean version of a pilgrim hat, but to the extreme.
• Powers/Activities: Again - same-same, but different. It guides the recently departed down the road to the afterlife.
• Weirdest Fact: In the Myth of General Sinui, a general trying to cheat death planted a bunch of orange trees, because Jeosung Saja can't cross them. This basically means if you plant orange trees completely around yourself, YOU WILL NEVER DIE. Looks like Linus Pauling might have been secretly Korean.

Behold the menace of... roof tile!

2. Dokkaebi

• Western Equivalent: Goblins
• Description:  This one is surprisingly hard to say, with descriptions ranging from "fearsome" to "roof tiles." They can also take the form of other things, such as inanimate objects. So for all I know all those fans killing people in Korea are just Dokkaebi disguised as fans.
• Powers/Activities: They can possess inanimate objects, often act as simple pranksters/tricksters (but sometimes are seen as good creatures who punish people for acting bad, or bad creatures who cause fires and pestilence), and can wear magical hats that make them invisible. If you can already turn into any inanimate object you want, turning invisible seems superfluous. They also can bring people great fortune (like good harvests for farmers, or good catches for fishermen).
• Weirdest Fact: They like to randomly challenge passers-by to wrestling matches in order to allow them to pass. Which is like Galdalf saying "Thou Shall Not Pass!!!... Unless you beat me at Wrestlemania, Macho Man!)

Prepare to be SEDUCED!

1. Kumiho

• Western Equivalent: "Shapeshifters" is probably too general. Werewolves might be as close as we're going to get to something specific, but this is a bit different. See more below!
• Description: Kumiho are foxes with nine tails that can shapeshift into other things (usually beautiful women). So they're like foxes (instead of wolves) and are mostly foxes naturally that briefly turn into people (rather than people who briefly turn to wolves).
• Powers/Activities: Unlike other Korean mythological creatures which can be good, bad or neutral, Kumiho are almost universally depicted as evil Why do these foxes transform into beautiful women? To seduce men so that they can murder them and eat their hearts or livers! Hooray!
• Weirdest Fact: Kumiho can't fully transform into humans, and always have some hidden "foxy" thing left about them. So my dudes, if you're about to score with a really hot chick out of your league, you might want to check for a tail (or nine tails) when you check out that ass. Or avoid Furrie Conventions. Because that might not be a costume.