In a time when only the stars existed, a time before the dawning of the Sun and the Moon, there was a poor peasant woman, who sold rice-cakes for a living.

The peasant woman had two children, a son and daughter.  Haesik, the elder of the two, was a wise and responsible son. While her daughter, Dalsun, had an innocent and trusting young heart.

The children lived in a valley far from the closest village and every day their mother would walk to the village to sell her delicious rice-cakes. One day, while returning home from the village, the mother encountered a tiger in her path on top of a hill. The tiger demanded a rice-cake and in exchange he would spare the woman’s life. She was frightened and gave him the best rice-cake from her basket, so the tiger left the woman to continue on her path. On the very next hill the tiger reappeared in front of the poor peasant woman and this time demanded two rice-cakes, as the first one had only whet his appetite and made him more hungry. She reluctantly surrendered her rice-cakes and in exchange the tiger let her keep her life and continue home to her children. However on the next hill the tiger came back and was more hungry than ever before, he kept reappearing and the woman kept feeding him all the rice-cakes she had made, until finally the food ran out, and her basket was empty.

The woman pleaded with the hungry tiger, and begged for him to spare her life for the sake of her two young children who were waiting for her at home. At the thought of having not only one but three people for dinner, the tiger devoured the poor mother and left no trace of her, other than her clothes, which he kept.

The hungry tiger knew that Haesik and Dalsun would be at home, waiting for the mothers return from the village, so he disguised himself is the woman’s clothes and set off for their house.  For a while the children thought that their mother might have stayed longer in the village, but it was getting dark and the children were afraid, so they locked the door.

A voice called out to them from the other side of the locked door. Little Dalsun was so relieved that she thought it was her mother right away, and ran to open the door, but Haesik stopped her just in time, he could recognize the difference in the tigers tone and refused to open the door for him.

This frustrated the tiger more, and his hunger grew in the pit of his belly. He covered his paws in the white powder from the rice-cakes and poked his fingers through the cracks in the door to trick the children into thinking he had smooth, white skin just like their mother. Eventually Haesik and Dulsan were convinced, the tiger deceived them and Dulsan skipped happily toward the door and opened it.

What a shock! The children screamed as the tiger chased them round and round the house, out the door and up a large tree. The tiger, being persistent, found an axe in the house and begun chopping the tree down to get to the siblings.

At that moment Dalsun prayed to the heavens, asking for a rope. She prayed that if her and her brother were pure of heart and meant to be saved, the rope would be strong enough to rescue them, but if they were not, then the rope would be old and rotten, and they would fall. A long, strong rope was sent down from above and the two children started climbing until they reach the heavens.

Curious about what he saw happening in the tree, the tiger also prayed, asking the heavens to send him a rope, so that he could follow the children and devour them. Moments later a thick, rotten rope was sent down from the sky and the tiger started climbing. A little way up to the heavens the rope broke and he plunged down from the sky into a millet field, spilling his blood and making the millet stalk red.

In heaven, Haesik became the sun (“Haennim”) and Dalsun became the moon (“Dallim”).

– Some versions of this tale go on to say that Dalsun, being so young, was afraid of the dark, so her older brother decided to swap places with her, allowing her to become the sun.

MORAL: 

When you want something badly enough you will be able to find a way to receive it, as long as your intentions are good, kind and pure.

Sources:

Sun and Moon. (n.d.). 1 Mar 2010 <http://ormagron.deviantart.com/art/Sun-and-Moon-131879609>