In English, fairy tales often begin with the phrase “once upon a time.” In contrast, Korean folktales often begin with “In the old days, when tigers used to smoke,” or similar phrases, such as “In the old, old days when tigers smoked tobacco pipes” and “In the old days, when tigers smoked long pipes.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “When Tigers Smoked”
In English, when we start a story from long ago or a fairy tale, we start it with once upon a time, right?
Yeah.
I was surprised to learn that in Korean folk tales, a lot of times they would start out with something like, in the old, old days when tigers smoked tobacco pipes.
Or in the old days when tigers smoked long pipes.
Or in the old days when tigers used to smoke.
I love it.
Isn’t that wild?
This is very common.
Apparently so.
I think it’s probably less and less common.
But apparently this is a thing.
I was surprised when I saw one example of it and I went on the internet and found lots, lots more.
And do you know if there’s a folktale way back in history about a smoking tiger?
Well, that’s what I’m wondering.
Right.
If you know the Korean folktale or the reason behind starting out Korean folktales with a smoking tiger, tell us.
877-929-9673 or send those answers to words@waywordradio.org.
