The Sun and Moon

Otter-Transcribed and Edited


Once upon a time, there was a single mother who sold rice cakes to feed her two children. Every day she would climb three mountains and go into the marketplace where she would sell these rice cakes. And everyday she would come back climbing three mountains to bring her two children food. One day while going back home with a basket of leftover rice cakes upon her head, she meets a tiger. The tiger says to her: "if you give me one rice cake, I won't eat you". And so she says, "Please, these are for my kids. They have been starving all day". But the tiger proceeds, "if you give me one rice cake I won't eat you". And so the mother gives the tiger one rice cake. But the tiger goes on again, "if you give me another rice cake I won't eat you". trying to save some food for children, she refuses. However, the tiger is too threatening not to relent to. And repeating his words, the tiger eats up all of the mother's rice cakes. The tiger says again, "if you give me another rice cake I won't eat you". The mother says trembling. "I don't have any more rice cake". And so the tiger gobbles her up. But the tiger is still unsatisfied. He puts on the mother's clothes and walks to her house. Knocking on the door, he asks the children to open up. The son says to the daughter: "that doesn't sound like a mother". The two look underneath the door to check and see large paws with sharp claws. The son and the daughter run away through the backdoor as the tiger stands there, trying to convince them to open the door. The Tiger sees them leaving and chases after them. Running up to a cliff, the children are cornered. They pray to the sky saying: "sky please help us survive!" from the sky, two ropes fall. Relieved, the son and daughter grab onto the rope and are lifted up into a sky. When the tiger arrives to the cliff, he sees that the children are escaping by the grace of the sky. And so he praysas well: "sky please give me a rope and bless this good cat". The sky also sends the tiger rope. Excitedly, the tiger jumps onto the rope and is lifted up. But the rope given to the tiger was a rotten one! When the tiger was high up in the sky, the rope brakes, and the tiger falls to his doom. The two siblings who were lifted up into the sky become the sun and the moon. This is a folktale from Korea.

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