Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea [Paperback]

The Samguk Yusa is written in the 13th century and is a collection of various Korean legends, myths and folktales. While the title may indicate otherwise, this collection does not limit itself to the Three Kingdoms period.

What makes this book so interesting is that it tells the stories as they were, without much editing, but with lots of useful annotations by the translators. As such, you really get a good sense of how people think or act during that period, which also helps to better understand modern Korean culture today.

I thought that Samguk Yusa is one of the few historical Korean works existing today, especially which are translated into a foreign language, which makes it mandatory reading for anyone interested in Korean history and culture.

This is a translation of an old history that is somewhat based in legend and somewhat based in fact. Since the original historical text was by Ilyon (1206-1289), a monk who was Buddhist, it can't be taken 100% as fact, especially since it often is writing at least 600 years after the events it talks about. This is one of the earliest sources for what is pretty much transcribed Korean tales as they were. There is no interpretation or trying to smooth them out for details by said monk, though some of them do have a Buddhist view, though unintentional, added to the stories.

Pros
- The maps and the back matter are very good and help to make the text understandable.

- The insertions into the text about the current locations and spellings of places is very good and useful as well.

- There was an aim by the translator to make it easier to read by not using excessive footnotes, I do think this was achieved.

- The tales themselves are interesting to read and it is well-structured by the original writer, Ilyon.

- There is an appendix with the dates of birth and death of the rulers and the succession line, plus a nice little note about how the Samguk Yusa was lost and transcribed for modern use.

Cons
- Largest con for me is no index. You need to read the entire thing to get the whole history of say, Shilla, which is a large problem for me. I'd have liked an index.

- The sacrifice made for readability of the text also is a large drawback of this translation. For the serious scholar there are very few footnotes on the translation of the older text and a lack of discussion on trying to make the translation beyond the historical notes. This means I don't have a clear view of how the original text might read, which kind of does disservice to it. (Perhaps another version could take a stab in this direction). Perhaps these kinds of discussions are taken for granted by the translator, since this text is well-discussed in Korea, but there is no such greater context in the the English-speaking world.

- This does not function on its own due to also the try for readability, so you do have to know a little about basic Korean history beforehand before trying to get this book. This is NOT like Grimm's fairytale version of Korean legends, or your Korean version of Arthur of Camelot. The stories are not rewritten for readability by either the monk, or the translators, rather it's a collection. If you want something like that Tales of a Korean Grandmother by Frances Carpenter will do better in this department.

What this is useful for is the person who wants to know more about Korea and has a basic understanding about Korea. This book stands on the threshold of myth, legend and fact. Ilyon, the monk, doesn't treat these legends less than that.

So for example, if you watch a whole lot of Korean historical dramas, this might be useful for finding out about Seondeuk in the original text, or the birth of Jumong, or for the scholar to find more about the belief of eggs as sacred in ancient Korea. This text does help illuminate Korea for the academic who is already invested in Korea. It is also useful for those who want to be a little more like the Grimm's Brothers and make a fantasy about, say The Peach Princess--so it is good as inspiration for those who do want to make them more accessible. It is also good for the scholars who wants to talk about the influence of Korean Buddhism on present-day Korea.

I think it is worth noting that perhaps a longer edition of the Samguk Yusa with more contextualizing and an academic bent towards understanding the history behind the text and trying to illuminate why things might have been written as either front or back matter with an index might be worth publishing and maybe also extra matter about the archaeological efforts that support the Samguk Yusa as true and which parts are found to be false from a modern point of view. (For example, Gaya is now seen as a confederation of probably 10-15 states now) Unfortunately, at this time, there seem to be no alternate versions. I hope there are versions in the future.

I also think that skipping both introductions will make reading this book a whole lot harder to understand, so yes, read the whole thing.

I love international folklore and legends. This book, however, was unable to hold my interest. Too many references to things I don't yet know about Korea and very poor "readability" made reading a chore. This is neither "legend" nor "history" -- if this was the only book I owned about Korea, I might think there IS no "culture" in Korea, and they have no "history." I purchased this book specifically because it looked like it MIGHT be closer to "source" material than the usual translations. The lack of organization, the poor English, and the lack of consistency within the book itself make this virtually useless for my needs.

I am not likely to purchase any further books written/translated by this author.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  3.0 out of 5 stars