The Story of Hong Gildong

Fate and destiny play important roles in The Story of Hong Gildong, and they are also traditional elements of Korean folk tales. The destiny tale (unmyeongdam) is a genre of folk tales in which a person’s destiny plays out despite their attempts to avoid it, or when someone succeeds in actively avoiding their fate. These stories can have either happy or sad endings: If someone is destined to suffer misfortune (such as illness, poverty, or an early death), and their actions avert that outcome, the story has a happy ending. If someone has a positive fate (wealth, many children, or fame) and that fate comes true despite efforts to foil it, the story also has a happy ending. A sad ending can occur if someone fails to avert a negative fate or ruins their chances for a positive one.

These stories address the question of whether human action can change fate. Prophecy plays an important role in such stories. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes the interplay of prophecy and destiny in Korean folk tales: “[W]hile prophecy tales focus on whether the prophecies come true, destiny tales examine the human responses to the prophecies of destiny” (“Korean Folk Literature”).