Hwanung married Ungnyeo, the bear who transformed into a woman after enduring the trial of darkness and sacred foods. Their son Dangun Wanggeom founded Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom, making all Koreans descendants of this divine-human union.
Hwanung set Horangi and the bear a trial of endurance — twenty-one days in a dark cave sustained only by garlic and mugwort — promising human form to whoever prevailed. Horangi fled, but the bear endured and became the woman Ungnyeo.
⚠ The Samguk Yusa specifies samchil-il (three sets of seven days, i.e., 21 days), though some later retellings extend the trial to 100 days.
After her transformation, Ungnyeo stood beneath the Sindansu on Mount Taebaek and prayed to be granted a child. Hwanung heard her prayer at the sacred tree and took her as his bride, conceiving Dangun — whose very name may echo the sandalwood altar where his parents first met.
Ungnyeo endured her cave trial of garlic and mugwort inside Taebaeksan, the sacred mountain where Hwanung had descended from heaven, and emerged from its darkness transformed from bear into woman.
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