Im - Old Woman Who Became a Goblin - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Talking about

last week, I ended with "Because so much of the book fits the spooky nature popular during the month of October, I'm considering spending more time this month with stories from Korean Folk Tales.  We'll see.  It's like my answering machine message says: You just never know what I might be up to!"

Oh why the heck not?!?

I love spooky stories and this book has a few unusual ones I'd like to share.

Today's brief story has a goblin or two and a warning about hiring household help.

Of course the scholar's wife eventually failed to treat the "old woman" well, but this was somebody whose references certainly needed checking.

Be careful who you invite into your house.  They may want to stay and you can't get them out!

It's an old rule of scary tales, if you invite the creature in, you've asked for whatever may happen.

May your happenings this spooky month of October be only ones you want to invite in and your stories ones you enjoy telling!

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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  


At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.    


There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I recommended it earlier and want to continue to do so.  Have fun discovering even more stories!