여성거인설화의 자료 존재양상과 성격

Abstract

Due to the aspect of god of creation who forms topographical features, tales of female giants have been drawn attention in the academia. However, those of female giants have long period of transmission and contents at the complicated level, and have been distributed in the variety of regions. Also, since there are a lot of related tales existed and those of female giants are related to the concept of primitive goddess, the tales should be researched and be looked into from multiple angles. Although massive volumes of researches on tales of female giants have been conducted so far and reached at certain level, still there are several matters remained to be concerned. First, the concern we should look into is what kinds of regional distribution which female giants bring about. In terms of the distributional types of female giants, they could be divided into two groups, distribution at national level and regional level. Grandmother Mago is found nationwide except on Jeju Island. Speaking of regional distribution, Grandmother Seolmundae from Jeju Islands, Grandmother Gaeyang from the Western sea area,Grandmother Seogu from Samcheok in Gangwon province,Grandmother Angadak from the Eastern Gyeongsang province are being found at the regional level. Although there are differences existed with regard to what the tales are named, the features of having same kinds of behavior and characteristics are being found in the female giants in the tales. Accordingly, this phenomenon could be concluded that the same character is being modified regionally. Second, the matter of difference between female giants who are in control of sea and islands and female giants who are in control of land. In the case of female giants in control of land, the aspects of faith and myth are not that highlighted. As functioning the role of faith gets weaken, the role of myth which female giants could serve gets weaken as well. On the other hand, since female giants in control of sea and islands serves the role of patron saint for fishermen, functioning the role of faith served by female giants of sea and islands is being found. Third, the matter of what kinds of relationship female giants have with male giants is looked into. It is hard to find the sources containing the features of god of creation who forms topography in the beginning of the world in the tales of male giants unlike those of female giants have. Also, the role and function of god of creation are not that strong in the tales of male giants. In this regard, those of male giants appear to be seen that they have certain types of similarities with the sources having features of being caricatured and becoming folk-tales in the tales of female giants. In addition, as transmission of tales of female giants has been changed by the recognition of people in the contemporary times, it seems that similarities that female giants are being replaced to male giants. Fourth, the features of the way how the tales of female giants have been changed could be categorized into five types; first, from the god of creation to caricatured god, second, from the object to be worshiped to the object to be thrown away, third, from god of good who benefits people to god of evil, fourth, from female giants to male giants, fifth,from embodiment of unreality to embodiment of something near to reality.