No. 001
Dokkaebi
도깨비 (dokkaebi)
A two-sided being that appears in human or animal form, plays tricks and leads people astray, yet can also bring wealth and good catches. It is not the soul of a dead person; it is said to arise from worn-out household objects or from natural things.
Names
- Korean
- 도깨비
- Hanja
- No hanja attested in a source
- Revised Romanization
- dokkaebi
- McCune-Reischauer
- tokkaebi
- English
- Dokkaebi
Appearance
It has no fixed form. It may appear as a child, a giant, an old man, a bachelor or a beautiful woman; some tales give it loose hair, a single leg, or a height that reaches the clouds. Sometimes it shows itself only as a sound or a light.
Habitat
Dark, lonely places: fields, mountain paths, valleys, abandoned houses, the foot of old trees or great rocks. It is mostly met at night.
Abilities
- Does enormous work overnight, such as filling a pond or heaping stones into a hill.
- Brings wealth, luck and good catches to people.
- Bewitches people and challenges them to wrestle all night.
Weaknesses
- It is gullible and easily outwitted; a typical tale has it repaying the same loan again and again.
- One folktale says it is easily thrown in wrestling by hooking its single leg.
Other names
- 도채비 - Name used on Jeju and the southern islands. (Source: Encyclopedia of Korean Folklore and Traditional Culture)
- 도까비 - Name used in Gyeongsang Province. (Source: Encyclopedia of Korean Folklore and Traditional Culture)
- 독각귀 - One of the other names (獨脚鬼, the one-legged spirit). It is not a hanja spelling of dokkaebi, which is a native Korean word with no attested hanja. (Source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture)
- 허주 - Another name (虛主). (Source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture)
- 망량 - Another name (魍魎); in old texts it referred to water and mountain goblins. (Source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture)
- 영감 - Name used on Jeju, literally 'old sir'. (Source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture)
- Korean goblin - A common English gloss, not an exact equivalent.
Variants
Dokkaebi fire
A dokkaebi seen only as a drifting light. On the first full moon of the year, the direction it moved was read as an omen for the harvest.
Awning dokkaebi
A dokkaebi spread wide like an awning that drops over people's heads from above.
Related creatures
Attestations
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Encyclopedia of Korean Culture Encyclopedia
What it says: The whole article covers the dokkaebi: its names, forms, haunts, the belief that it arises from objects, and the one-legged tales.
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Encyclopedia of Korean Folklore and Traditional Culture Encyclopedia
What it says: Covers the dokkaebi as an object of belief: village god, bringer of disease, god of wealth and fishing, with regional names and the coastal dokkaebi rites.
Interpretation and notes
Dokkaebi is a native Korean word. 독각귀 (獨脚鬼) is recorded as one of its alternative names, not as a way of writing dokkaebi in hanja.
Fearsome faces on roof tiles are often read as dokkaebi, but that identification is an inference, not a recorded fact.