Magohalmi- Korean GiantGiant"Grandmother of Jeju"

The Grandmother Who Made the Land

Magohalmi, Grandmother Mago, is a primordial giantess who shaped the Korean peninsula through brute physical labor. So immense that Hallasan served as her pillow and the sea reached only to her knees, she carried earth in her skirts and in great baskets, piling it up to form mountains. Where she stepped, her massive footprints filled with water to become lakes and ponds. The dirt that fell from her shoes became hills.

She is not a fearsome figure. She is a halmi, a grandmother, and the land is something she prepared for those who would come to live on it. Mount Jiri, one of the peninsula's sacred mountains, is dirt shaken from her skirts. Unusual rock formations across the countryside are objects she dropped or places she sat.

Seolmundae Halmang

The fullest telling of Magohalmi belongs to Jeju Island, where the giantess is called Seolmundae Halmang, Grandmother Seolmundae. She created Hallasan, the volcanic mountain at Jeju's center, as well as the island's oreums and distinctive rock formations. She could step from mountain to mountain as a human steps from stone to stone.

She had many sons. One day she set about cooking an enormous cauldron of porridge to feed them, and while stirring, she fell into the boiling pot. Her sons ate the porridge unknowing. Only when they reached the bottom of the cauldron did they find her. Overcome with grief, they turned to stone, becoming the rock formations called Yeongsil that stand on Hallasan's slopes.