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Overview
A distressed traveler meets an ancient host in a hidden mountain realm. The host wears green and carries a nine-section jade staff; he offers his daughter in marriage, and her two brothers choose the wedding date. The family and its servants inhabit jeweled palaces and belong to the realm Gale translates as the abode of the genii or immortals.
The daughter bears the visitor two sons. When he returns to his mortal mother, she gives him seasonal clothes that never soil or wear out. Years later the immortal household sends the sons and a messenger to summon the family away before a predicted invasion destroys their village. The tale dates their departure to 1635 and associates the following disaster with the Manchu invasion.
The household is recorded together rather than splitting its unnamed relatives into separate creatures. The daughter’s comparison to a phoenix is praise of her beauty, not a bird transformation; the father’s comparison with turtles and cranes concerns age. The report remains a narrated otherworld encounter, not independently established history.
Origins & earliest records
Korea; tale-specific historical narrative
Records & interpretation
Complete story and attribution read in the 1913 English witness; no independent confirmation of supernatural events.
In the literature
“They were never washed, and yet never became soiled”
Tale24, The Home of the Fairies, printed p.123 (Gutenberg marker135) · James S. Gale
The returning husband’s seasonal garments are described as perpetually clean.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies
Tale 24, “The Home of the Fairies”, printed pp. 111–124 (Gutenberg page labels 123–136). English translation date, not the date of the narrated event.
- 02
Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies — The Home of the Fairies
London:J.M.Dent/NewYork:E.P.Dutton1913, actual title page. Gale preface distinguishes Im Bang old manuscript, thirteen Yi Ryuk stories from1911 reprint, and three anonymous selections. Complete selected chapter/signature read; no Korean manuscript collation. Printed pagination checked in retained1913 PDF OCR; Gutenberg body markers are printed+12, physical PDFpages printed+16. No new page-pixel claim. Gale death1937 confirmed by UniversityToronto archival finding aid.
Family, evolution & connections
Three generations in the Ka-pyong immortal household
Im Bang’s tale XXIV in Gale’s 1913 English translation.
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- Unnamed old master
- Two unnamed sons (bride’s brothers; group)
- Unnamed daughter (marries Ka-pyong visitor)
- Two sons by the Ka-pyong visitor (group)
Explicit master’s children and daughter’s later childbirth in the named tale. All individual names remain unspecified. The master’s two sons are not his daughter’s two sons. Her mother appears as the visitor’s mother-in-law, but motherhood of the two older boys is not independently stated. Age comparisons to animals do not imply transformations.
Old master’s unnamed daughter in The Home of the Fairies
The old master explicitly introduces his marriageable daughter and chooses the Ka-pyong visitor as her husband. This identifies a member of the collective household, not a genealogy of all immortals.
Old master’s two unnamed sons in The Home of the Fairies
The master calls two boys his sons and asks them to choose a wedding date. They are the bride’s brothers, distinct from her later two children.
Bride’s two sons by the Ka-pyong visitor
The master’s daughter bears the visitor two sons after two years. These children later accompany the household’s messenger; they must not be merged with their two maternal uncles.
Ka-pyong visitor married to the master’s daughter
The visitor marries the master’s daughter in the immortal household. His later, reluctant human marriage is a separate event; the first wife’s identity is not replaced by the second.
Primary records and illustrations
Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies
Im Bang; James S. Gale translation, London Dent/New York Dutton, 1913. Tale 24, “The Home of the Fairies”, pp. 123–136
Complete story and author signature read from cached Gutenberg51002 HTML. Translator’s bracketed introductions and author notes distinguished from narrative. No illustration claimed.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies
London:J.M.Dent/NewYork:E.P.Dutton1913, actual title page. Gale preface distinguishes Im Bang old manuscript, thirteen Yi Ryuk stories from1911 reprint, and three anonymous selections. Complete selected chapter/signature read; no Korean manuscript collation. Printed pagination checked in retained1913 PDF OCR; Gutenberg body markers are printed+12, physical PDFpages printed+16. No new page-pixel claim. Gale death1937 confirmed by UniversityToronto archival finding aid.
- A Ka-pyong student, grieving an apparently dead servant and horse, is directed by an old man to a secluded realm. Its master identifies it as the genii’s abode and offers his daughter in marriage. Two explicitly identified sons choose the wedding date; the daughter’s mother hosts a feast. The wife later shows other blessed inhabitants travelling in many ways, and after two years bears the visitor two sons.
Tale24, The Home of the Fairies, printed pp.111–119, arrival, marriage and household
- Missing his mother, the visitor receives permission to return with four seasonal suits. His former servant and horse reappear; the servant says someone had carried him away, so the narration does not independently explain resurrection. At home, his mother’s death-anniversary rite mistakes him for a ghost. He submits to a second marriage but remains unhappy; his old friend observes the unworn, unsoiled clothes. After about three years the immortal household sends his two sons and a warning summons. The family departs in the story’s1635, before a narrated invasion the following year.
Tale24, The Home of the Fairies, printed pp.120–124, mortal return and eventual summons
The daughter’s phoenix comparison and the father’s turtle/crane comparison do not establish transformations. Two old-man appearances are narrated but no separately named fairy species is invented. Dates and eventual village destruction are narrative chronology, not independently verified history. The servant’s list called seven earthly things contains only six enumerated items in this English passage; no silent supplementation. Rituals and songs not excerpted.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical primary narrative translationTale 24, “The Home of the Fairies”, printed pp. 111–124 (Gutenberg page labels 123–136) — Im Bang, Gale translationResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.