A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

At a Seoul household’s feast, an unfamiliar unkempt boy of about fifteen stands silently in the women’s quarters. Repeated questions bring no answer. Servants try to remove him, stronger men pull at him, ropes fail to move him and blows from clubs leave him unchanged. The guests eventually decide they face a divine being and bow in supplication.

The boy smiles, walks away and disappears. The story then links the deaths of those who abused him, and sickness among other guests, to the encounter. Its closing sentence says people commonly called him the Too-uk Spirit but explicitly declines certainty. That qualified identification is preserved rather than turned into a definitive species name or a universal explanation of epidemic illness.

Disease-associated unyielding visitorTale-specific identity
01

Origins & earliest records

Korea; tale-specific historical narrative

02

Records & interpretation

Complete story and attribution read in the 1913 English witness; no independent confirmation of supernatural events.

In the literature

“but we cannot definitely say.”
Im Bang · Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies
Tale39, The Awful Little Goblin, printed p.193 (Gutenberg markers 205) · James S. Gale

Im Bang expressly qualifies the popular Too-uk identification.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies

    Im Bang; translated by James S. Gale · 1913

    Tale 39, “The Awful Little Goblin”, printed pp. 191–193 (Gutenberg page labels 203–205). English translation date, not the date of the narrated event.

  2. 02

    Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies — The Awful Little Goblin

    Im Bang · 1913

    London:J.M.Dent/NewYork:E.P.Dutton1913, title page explicitly dated. Gale preface says Im Bang material came from an old manuscript obtained a year earlier; other Yi Ryuk/anonymous material is separate. Every selected chapter closes Im Bang. English text, preface and selected writer notes read, no independent Korean manuscript collation. University of Toronto Gale archival finding aid confirms1913 publication/death1937: https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/downloads/james-scarth-gale-papers.pdf . Pagination corrected2026-10-05: PG51002 body markers exceed printed1913 pages by12; physical pages in retained Korea176 PDF equal printed+16. Exact quotation page independently checked in retained scan OCR; page pixels not newly reviewed here.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies

Im Bang; James S. Gale translation, London Dent/New York Dutton, 1913. Tale 39, “The Awful Little Goblin”, pp. 203–205

Complete story and author signature read from cached Gutenberg51002 HTML. Translator’s bracketed introductions and author notes distinguished from narrative. No illustration claimed.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

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, title page explicitly dated. Gale preface says Im Bang material came from an old manuscript obtained a year earlier; other Yi Ryuk/anonymous material is separate. Every selected chapter closes Im Bang. English text, preface and selected writer notes read, no independent Korean manuscript collation. University of Toronto Gale archival finding aid confirms1913 publication/death1937: https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/downloads/james-scarth-gale-papers.pdf . Pagination corrected2026-10-05: PG51002 body markers exceed printed1913 pages by12; physical pages in retained Korea176 PDF equal printed+16. Exact quotation page independently checked in retained scan OCR; page pixels not newly reviewed here.

  1. An unfamiliar boy about fifteen appears in a Seoul feast’s women’s quarters, refusing questions. Servants, stronger men, ropes and club blows cannot move or alter him. The guests recognise a divine being and bow; he smiles, departs and disappears. Subsequent illness and deaths are linked to those who abused him. The narrator says he was commonly called Too-uk but declines certainty; the note advocates respectful distance.

    Tale39, The Awful Little Goblin, printed pp.191–193 (Gutenberg markers 203–205), full story and appended interpretation

Qualified identification remains qualified. The feast’s reported illnesses are not verified epidemiology, and the narrator’s moral prescription is not presented as an independently established cause of disease.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical primary narrative translationTale 39, “The Awful Little Goblin”, printed pp. 191–193 (Gutenberg page labels 203–205) — 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.

FT·1357 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑