Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in the kingdom of heaven, there lived a bachelor named Hwanung, the son of the sky god.
Hwanung, the son of the sky god, always looked down at the earth and felt the urge to come down from the sky and rule the human world.
Then one day, Hanung finally made a big decision and said goodbye to his father and the kingdom of heaven, and brought the rain, wind and cloud gods down to Mount Taebaek.
One day, a bear and a tiger came to Han-woong, who was immersed in the beauty of Korea, which he could not see in the sky, and did not notice the passage of time.
“Han Woong. Hanung-nim is the son of the sky god, so doesn't he have extraordinary talent? We hate living as animals. We want to be human too. Please help me to be human. yes?"
While saying that, he cut his knees and sat down, bowing his head and earnestly begging.
Hanung, who was so proud of them and decided to help, asked the bear and the tiger.
"I'll help you if your wish is right, but can you do what I tell you to the end?"
Then the bear and the tiger pecked their heads again and answered.
"No matter. I'll do whatever you tell me to the end."
Then Hanung gave him the mugwort and garlic he was holding in his hand and said,
“You will not eat anything else for 100 days from now, only eat this and do not see sunlight.”
The bear and the tiger, who received mugwort and garlic from Hanung, went into the cave to avoid the sunlight and, as Hwanung said, did not eat the delicious food they ate before, only ate mugwort and garlic.
However, as the days passed, the tiger couldn't keep eating the tasteless mugwort and garlic because the delicious meat was growing in front of him.
He wanted to become a human, but the weak-willed tiger couldn't stand it and ran away from the cave. So the tiger did not become a man, but he lived as a tiger just like before.
On the other hand, the bear, who had a stronger will than the tiger, endured well until the end and became my woman. People said her bear became a human, so she called the woman Ungnyeo.
Falling in love with the woman's strength after overcoming her hardships and suffering and becoming a human, Hanung decided to marry her and proposed to her.
She is grateful to Hanung for helping her become a human being. She accepts his proposal, and Hanung and Ungnyeo get married.
Soon after, a wise and healthy son was born between them.
When this son grew up and became an adult, he established a country based on the Bronze Age culture and named the country ‘Gojoseon’.
And then he became the first Dangun Wanggeom.
The country called Gojoseon, created in this way, was ruled by Dangun Wanggeom for 1,500 years.
If so, did Dangun Wanggeom live and rule Gojoseon for 1500 years?
That's not it. Dangun refers to the priests who hold ancestral rites to heaven, and Wanggeom refers to the ruler who rules the country.
In other words, Dangun Wanggeom is the name given to all the rulers who ruled the country and held ancestral rites from generation to generation in Gojoseon.
So, for 1,500 years, not one, but 40 Dangun Wanggeom ruled Gojoseon.
Then, did the son of the heavenly god really come down to the world?
And did the bear really eat mugwort and garlic, become a human, and give birth to Dangun Wanggeom?
Actually, it's not. This is just a myth passed down from time immemorial.
Hwanung did not come down from heaven, but came from a region more developed than Gojoseon.
Woongnyeo is not a real bear, but people who have lived in the area worshiping bears for a long time.
And the tiger that couldn't stand it for 100 days and ran out of the cave refers to the tribe that worshiped the tiger as a god, and the fact that it couldn't become a human means that it lost the fight against the other tribes that came in.
In this way, mythology contains the image of the society in which people lived at the time. And in the background of these myths, the rulers portrayed themselves as special human beings chosen by the heavens, adding a sense of mystery to let them know that they were the ones who ruled the people well.
Although the myth of Dangun is not a historical fact, it is a story that gave people the strength to overcome a crisis whenever our nation fell into a crisis.
