A Frog Fable

I had to read a little story for Korean class today which I guess is a fable or fairy tale of sorts. It is one of those “origin of natural phenomena” stories with an added moral message urging filial piety. I had forgotten how much I love these kinds of stories and would love to write a few of my own some day. The story is called 청개구리 (靑개구리) or “The Tree Frog” and I have found a dozen or so variants online. Here is a rough summary of the version we were assigned for class:

The Tree Frog

Once upon a time there was a family of tree frogs who for a time lived happily enough. However, the son was a mischievous little frog and never did what his mother told him to do. One day, when the wind was blowing hard, she told him to play inside, but he disobeyed and played outside. When the rainy season came and the rain poured down, flooding everything, his mother again told him not to stray far from their home but again he disobeyed his mother because he thought that all the water would make it even more fun to explore.

In this way the misbehaving young tree frog brought no end of worry to his mother and she became gravely ill and deeply depressed. And yet still the son paid no attention to his mother’s commands and did as he pleased.

The mother frog’s condition continued to get worse and she asked her son to hear her last wishes. While her son had disobeyed her all his life, he was made to promise to obey her last request. Instead of burying her in a mound on the mountain, she wanted to be buried along the water’s edge. Upon uttering these last words, the mother frog passed away.

At that moment the son was overcome by grief and realized that his mother’s death was due to his own selfish behavior. All his life he had ignored his mother’s commands and this was why her sickness eventually consumed her. He resolved to be faithful to her wishes in this last command and buried her in a tomb by the water’s edge.

That is why, when the rain pours down, the tree frog will go to his mother’s tomb by the water’s edge and cry out in grief, “kaegol, kaegol” (개골개골)

You can find a Flash storybook version of this online in Korean here with sound! However, it has the slightly bizarre and anachronistic addition of a Christian cross on the mother’s burial mound and an angel’s halo above mother’s deceased image (but I guess understandable considering the huge and often evangelistic Christian population of Korea).

An English version of this story here ends the story slightly differently, with the mother’s tomb being swept away by the flooded waters. This not only adds more tragedy to the story but creates a stronger link between it and rainy weather.

When I read this story, I can’t help wondering where the dad is through all this (as in many stories like this). Zheesh, filial piety is all well and good but I think we need some more stories where the dad gets a little more involved in the whole child care thing.