User:Auric/Story of Nol-boo
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The Story of Nol-boo[1] is a well known Korean novel written during the Yi Dynasty in Korea.
Story[edit]
The novel centers around a perverse man called Nol-boo. An organ filled with vice (simsulbo) protruded from under his left rib cage. He is the most greedy, perverse and heartless character in Korean literature.[1]
Among his listed favorite activities are:
- dancing at a funeral
- killing a dog during a birthing
- forcing excrement into the mouth of a crying baby
- fanning the flames of a burning house
- taking a debtors wife as payment
- grabbing the nape of an elderly man
- relieving himself in a well
- poking holes in rice paddies
- driving stakes through green pumpkins
- stomping on the back of a hunchback
- pushing down on a man squatting to relieve himself to cause him to sit in his own excrement
- kicking the chin of a disabled man
- wielding a stick at a dealer in pottery
- stealing bones from graves
- breaking an engagement by spreading malicious rumors
- scuttling a ship in high seas
- punching a boil on a man's face
- slapping the cheek of a man with a toothache, and
- opening the lid of a neighbors bean sauce jar in the rain.
He was rich, but miserly. Instead of making real offerings to his ancestors, he wrote words on pieces of paper.
He had a brother, named Hung-boo, who was his opposite, poor but good-natured. One day, Hung-boo found a swallow with a broken leg. He cared for the swallow and in the late summer the swallow flew south with its family. The next spring the swallow returned and dropped a gourd seed to him. He planted the seed in his thatch and it was soon groaning with the weight of the gourds. In the autumn, he and his wife used a saw to open the gourds, which were packed with jewelry and gold.
When Nol-boo heard about it, his simsulbo ("a bag of perverseness") began to ache. He caught a swallow, broke its leg and tied it with splints. The bird flew to the south and returned with a seed the next year. However, out of Nol-boo's gourds emerged monsters that kicked his buttocks, yanked his beard and sapped his wealth. One gourd spewed excrement on him when it was opened.
Versions[edit]
The tale has been retold in several mediums.
In modern versions, Hung-boo is given greater prominence, [2] and the simsulbo is not mentioned.
A Flash version was posted on Newgrounds.com in 2007.[3]
The online game MapleStory has quests related to the tale.[4]
A 1959 film named "Heungbuwa Nolbu" was made in South Korea.[5]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Choe, Sang-Hun; Christopher Torchia (2002). How Koreans Talk. Korea: UnhengNamu. pp. 272–273. ISBN 8987976955.
- ^ Roberson, Dongwol Kim; Jeong-Hee Suh (2009). Two Korean Brothers: Hungboo & Nolboo. GLPI. ISBN 8993074100.
- ^ Ezekiel Artbow (kyleartbow) (2007). "Hungboo and Nolboo" (swf). Newgrounds.com. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ "Opening Nolbu's Gourd". MapleWiki. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
- ^ "Heungbuwa Nolbu (1959)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
- ^ Yi, Ŭng-ho (1996). The story of Hungbu and Nolbu: a Korean folktale. Mondo. ISBN 9781572551398. Retrieved 1 September 2011.