Turtle, O Turtle
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
The six villages of Seonabeol (Seorabeol) in the land of Jinhan made Bak Hyeokgeose, who came from an egg at Najeong, their first king (57 BCE). Seok Talhae, who crossed the sea in a chest, became king of Silla in 57 CE, and Kim Al-ji came out of a golden chest in the forest. It was the beginning of Silla, led by kings of three clans: Bak, Seok and Kim.
Characters
She tells this story
the land when it had no king
from a golden egg in a golden box
and set his eyes on the throne
who came under red sails
Southwest of Silla, a land where a great river flows into the sea.
There was as yet no name for a kingdom there, not even words for ruler and subject.
Nine chiefs, the “Nine Gan (干),”
led the people.
SoraI’m Sora. I grew up in a seaside village, one of the nine, led by Elder Adogan.
Adogan, Yeodogan, Pidogan, Odogan, Yusugan, Yucheongan, Sincheongan, Ocheongan and Singwigan: these nine chiefs led 75,000 people.
Gyeyok Day, in the third month of 42 CE: the day for bathing at the water’s edge to wash away lingering bad luck.
The Golden Box of Gujibong
The story of Kim Suro, as told in the “Record of Garak” in the Samguk Yusa
From Guji (龜旨), the peak north of the village, came a strange sound, as if someone were calling.
The peak was called “Guji” because it looked like a turtle lying flat. The nine chiefs and two or three hundred people gathered there.
No one could be seen; there was only a human voice.
SoraI grabbed a handful of earth too and sang at the top of my lungs. I didn’t know what would happen, and my heart was pounding.
After a while, they looked up to see a purple cord hanging down from the sky until it touched the ground.
At the end of the cord hung a golden box wrapped in red cloth.
Amazed and overjoyed, the people bowed a hundred times.
SoraThe golden box was wrapped in its cloth again and laid with great care on the wooden platform in Elder Adogan’s house.
SoraEvery night I sneaked over and peeked through the crack in the door.
On the morning after twelve days had passed, the people gathered again and opened the golden box.
The boys grew bigger day by day.
After ten days or so, the boy who had hatched first
stood nine feet tall.
On the full-moon day of that month, that boy took the throne.
Because he was the first (首) to appear (露), he was named “Suro.” The kingdom was called Daegarak, or Gaya.
The other five boys each went home, it is said, and became the kings of five other Gaya.
Suro set up his capital at Sindappyeong, a newly cleared plain.
They built a wall 1,500 paces around, and the palace was finished in the second month of 44 CE.
Around that time, a stranger who had crossed the sea came to the palace. It was Talhae, said to have come from an egg laid by the queen of Wanha.
According to the “Record of Garak,” in the blink of an eye Talhae turned into a hawk, and the king into an eagle.
When Talhae changed again, into a sparrow, the king became a sparrowhawk.
In an instant, both returned to their own forms. Talhae knelt and said:
Talhae bowed and left. Fearing he might stay and plot a rebellion, the king hastily sent 500 ships after him.
When Talhae fled into the land of Gyerim, all the ships turned back.
Talhae later became the fourth king of Silla.
Six years had passed since we sang on Gujibong Peak.
In the seventh month of 48 CE,
I turned sixteen.
The nine chiefs were worried that, since coming down to them, the king had still not taken a wife.
The king gave Yucheongan a swift boat and a fine horse, and sent him to wait on the island of Mangsando.
From the southwest of the sea came a ship heading north, with red sails and red flags flying.
The Samguk Yusa tells it this way: when the princess first tried to cross the sea, the god of the waves grew angry, and her ship had to turn back.
Only when her father the king had this stone pagoda loaded onto the ship did she cross the sea safely.
The nine chiefs rowed out in fine boats to escort the princess to the palace.
The princess brought her ship in at the Byeolpo landing beyond the hills, then climbed a high hill and rested.
Then she took off the silk trousers she had worn and offered them as a gift to the mountain spirit of this land.
The king went out in person, pitched tents at the foot of a hill southwest of the palace, and waited there to receive the princess.
In the fifth month of that year, the king and queen of Ayuta had the same dream.
And so the two became husband and wife.
The king gave the fifteen boatmen plenty of rice and cloth and sent the ship back to the princess’s homeland.
SoraThat day I learned that the princess who had crossed the sea was sixteen, just like me.
On the first day of the eighth month, the king and queen rode back to the palace together in one carriage.
SoraFor a long time afterward, the children by the sea played and sang the song we had sung that spring day.
The Samguk Yusa says King Suro lived for 158 years.
Garak was ruled by ten kings, beginning with Suro, until it surrendered to Silla in 532.
The great-grandson of its last king, King Guhyeong,
was Kim Yu-sin, who later led the way in unifying the Three Kingdoms.
