No. 005
Bulgasari
不可殺伊불가사리 (bulgasari)
Monster
Draft, not yet reviewed
A monster that cannot be killed, growing without end by eating iron. Its name is read as 'cannot be killed' (不可殺). The tales are usually set in the turmoil at the end of Goryeo.
Names
- Korean
- 불가사리
- Hanja
- 不可殺伊
- Revised Romanization
- bulgasari
- English
- Bulgasari
Appearance
It differs from tale to tale: a pig, an ant, a rat, a horse or an insect.
Abilities
- Keeps growing as it eats iron.
- Arrows and blades do not harm it.
Weaknesses
- Some tales say fire, its opposite, destroys it; others say that when thrown into fire it became a fireball and burned the town down.
Other names
- 불가살이 - Written 不可殺伊 or 不可殺爾. (Source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture)
- 화가살이 - A name transmitted with the meaning 'can be killed by fire' (火可殺伊). (Source: Encyclopedia of Korean Folklore and Traditional Culture)
Variants
The handmade bulgasari
A hiding monk shapes a small beast from rice and feeds it needles; it grows into the iron-eating monster.
Attestations
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Encyclopedia of Korean Culture Encyclopedia
What it says: The bulgasari article: name and origin, its varied forms, how it grows by eating iron and is destroyed by fire, written records and modern adaptations.
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Encyclopedia of Korean Folklore and Traditional Culture Encyclopedia
What it says: The legend article: the record of the late-Goryeo monster in Songnam japji, the tale of a beast shaped from rice that grows by eating needles, and the two readings of the name.