These are the 13 nights of Halloween, during which I will spook you silly with awful anecdotes. Tonight’s terrible tale is “The Honest Witch,” a story about a real Korean courtier who, four hundred years ago, discovered that not all witches need to be burned.
This story was first recorded by Im Bang in the 17th century, and the event allegedly happened within the author’s own lifetime to a real government bureaucrat named Song Sang-in. It was first translated into English by James Gale and included in his book “Imps, Ghosts, and Fairies, Translated from the Korean of Im Bang and Yi Ryuk,” which was published in 1913.
A note on the spelling of “mutang” and the use of the word “witch” to translate it: These days it is more common to spell the word “mudang.” However, the original Korean word has a sound in the middle that is midway between the English letters d and t, so you’ll see both spellings in writings about these women. The word “witch” might feel perjorative, but remember that this was over a century ago, when Korean and Western cultures knew very little of each other and they were just beginning to share their stories.
Today “mudang” is more commonly translated as “shaman,” but there isn’t really a perfect word. Mudangs act as a conduit between the living and the dead, and at various times in Korean history they have been accepted or persecuted based on the politics and spirituality of the day. But within indigenous Korean religion, they were seen merely as guides and helpers. Though, no doubt, plenty of frauds took advantage of the beliefs of the people, hence Song Sang-in’s very negative opinion of them.
If you’d like the commentary free version of this episode, it’s at my storytelling channel: