Case file · Folklore / legend

Yeono-rang and Seo-nyeo: the sun goes dark

When a Silla fisherman and his wife were carried to Japan on a moving rock, the sun and moon lost their light, says the Samguk yusa, until a silk she wove was offered to heaven.

157 CE · 35.99, 129.44 · status: legend

The account

The tale is set on the Pohang coast in the reign of King Adalla. The silk was kept in a royal storehouse and the place of the rite was named Ilwolji, 'Sun-Moon Pond'.

The sceptical view

Read by some historians as a memory of migrants carrying a sun cult to Japan, and by others as an eclipse story.

Sources

  1. Korean Wikipedia: 연오랑 세오녀
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