[Author’s Note: This essay was included in the journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Vol 3 No 1, 2024). Footnotes numbers here differ from those of the original article.]
Tales from South Chungcheong Province, Daejeon Metropolitan City, Sejong Metropolitan City (H)
Of 3 tales, no tale mentions “Mago,” “Magu,” or “Magui.” Nogo Halmeoni is mentioned in one tale. Women are depicted as the cosmogonic agent in two tales. Silk skirt is mentioned in one tale. Toponyms concern mountain peaks, rocks, strongholds, and ponds. Such placenames Halmi-bong (Peak Halmi), Mt. Nogo (Ancient Great Mother), Mt. Nogo Stronghold, and Dragon Pond are the indication of these stories to be of Magoist Cetaceanism. Also ninety-nine peaks, a numeric code to the Magoist Cosmogony, are addressed in one tale.
| H S-83 | Daejeon, Ninety-nine peaks, Halmi-bong (Peak Halmi) | Woman General | Skirt |
| H S-84 | Daejeon, Mt. Nogo, Mt. Nogo Stronghold, Halmi Rock (Nogo Rock) | Nogo Halmeoni | Silk skirt |
| H S-85 | Hongseong, Mt. Stone Stronghold, Mt. Crane Stronghold, Dragon Pond | Nasojo (Little Ancestor of Silla), daughter and son | Choe Chiwon, skirt, red bean porridge, 3 burial cairns, sword rock |
Tale H S-83: Ninety-nine peaks built by a woman warrior
| H S-83 | Daejeon M.C. |
| Region/Origin | Daedeok |
| Toponym/Motif | Ninety-nine peaks, Halmi-bong (Peak Halmi) |
| Divine/Agent | Woman Warrior |
| Lore/Information | Legend has it that, a long time ago a woman warrior built ninety-nine peaks by carrying a peak in her skirt one by one. She began from the front of Banga Village and continued to build Peak Munpil and Peak Halmi in the back of Jinyang. |
| Related themes | Skirt |
| Notes |
Mago Halmi is replaced with the woman warrior. The phrase of ninety-nine peaks indicates the Cosmic Music, the sonically charged nine numbers. Storytellers perceive the surrounding mountains of their village as ninety-nine peaks, which were formed one by one by the Mago Halmi figure.
Tales from North Chungcheong Province (I)
Of 7 tales, “Mago” is mentioned twice, whereas “Magui” is mentioned only once. The strong brother and sister duo is mentioned in three tales. One tale mentions the strong sole-mother, her eight daughters and one son. I have translated hol-eomeoni (홀어머니) as a sole-mother rather than a widow. Kkokkki Halmae is a peculiar epithet.
| I S-86 | Jecheon, Standing Rock | Magui Halmeoni, two Mago Halmeonis | Apron, conception |
| I S-87 | Jecheon, Peak Egg | Mago Halmi | Skirt wrap, Soet Hill |
| I S-88 | Jincheon Gugok-ri Mt. Nine Village, Standing Rock | Strong brother and sister duo | Apron, son-daughter of General Im Yeon |
| I S-89 | Jincheon Gugok-ri Mt. Nine Village, Bridge Cairn | Strong brother and sister duo, mother | Apron, daughter’s wining, crying bridge |
| I S-90 | Cheongju Mt. Nine Women (Mt. Nine Women Stronghold) | Strong sole-mother, nine daughters, one son | Apron, red bean porridge, old monk, well |
| I S-91 | Cheongju Dragon-well Village, Standing Rock | Kkokkki Halmae | Skirt, Mt. Geumgang, Omok Bridge |
| I S-92 | Chungju, Mago Stronhold (Mt. Chungju Stronghold) | Mother, strong son and daughter duo | Skirt wrap, comb |
Tale I S-87: Cheongneodeol Cairn formed by Mago Halmi
| I S-87 | North Chungcheong |
| Region/Origin | Jecheon Jeokseong-myeon Sangcheon-ri/Seong-ri Albong |
| Toponym/Motif | Cheongneodeol Cairn |
| Divine/Agent | Mago Halmi |
| Lore/Information | Long ago, Mago Halmi packed her skirt wrap with stones and went up to Soetgogae (Iron Hill). Upon running into another errand on the way, she left the stones here. |
| Related themes | Skirt wrap |
| Notes |
Mago Halmi packed her skirt with stones and went up to Soetgogae (Iron Hill). Upon running into another errand on the way, she left the stones here.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
As an oral text, the skirt-motif Mago Halmi folktales unravel the Magoist Cosmogony, a written account on the matriversal origin of Mago, the Creatrix, recounted in the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City). In a rich and fluid folk language, they provide rich data on Magoist Thealogy, the Magoma Divine, Magoist Cetaceanism as well as the Magoist Cosmogony, all of which are interlinked to support Magoist Soteriology.
These stories tell that Mago Halmi, the Cosmogonist, uses her skirt in shaping the local topographies in the current place wherein storytellers reside. 93 stories that this essay examines vary in describing the details of the skirt creation story. On one level, the skirt motif is there to indicate Mago Halmi as the cosmic womb. There is a deeper dynamic that the skirt metaphor intimates, however. On another level, her skirt is a modal prop to illustrate what it means that Mago Halmi shapes local topographies by her skirt. The skirt an ingenious device that explain what the principle of causal becoming to people. Those stories are didactic as well as entertaining. Mago Halmi takes a series of action. She goes to a place where she gets the landmass to put it in her skirt and carries it to the place where she wants to build it. Usually, she is partaking the construction project. Thus, when she hears that the construction is completed, she leaves the landmass in the current place. While doing this, she runs into situations. Sometimes, she is too tired, too angry, too frustrated to complete her creation. Other times, lumps of soil, for example, leak from the holes of her skirt. Or, the skirt load is getting too heavy, so she drops it there. Or she runs into an errand and gets distracted. These scenarios indicate that her creation act is contingent upon the situation. She is open for unfolding possibilities. And she changes the course of her cosmogonic action. The skirt modality is useful in addressing the principle of causal becoming. Mago Halmi did not create topographies from nothing. Nothing can’t be the reality insofar as S/HE is. She cycles landmasses from one place to the other. And she did NOT complete her creation in the beginning. When All is interlinked with all else, there is no one beginning but there are ever-present beginnings. The beginning is happening HERE and NOW in ALL, Mago and HER progeny. ALL are in the process of becoming. Skirt-motif Mago Halmi stories awakens one to the matriversal reality of WE/HERE/NOW.
Appendixes I and II as well as References, see the original article in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Vol 3 No 1, 2024).
(End of the Essay).