Yuhwa- Korean GodDeity"Lady Yuhwa"

Daughter of the River God

Yuhwa lived in the underwater realm of her father Habaek, god of the great river. She and her sisters would surface to bathe in sacred pools, and it was at one of these pools that the sun god Haemosu, descending from heaven in a chariot drawn by five dragons, caught sight of her.

Haemosu pursued and seduced her. The union happened without Habaek's knowledge. When the river god discovered what his daughter had done, he confronted Haemosu in a contest of magical transformations. Habaek became a deer; Haemosu became a wolf. Habaek became a pheasant; Haemosu became a hawk. The sun god out-shifted everything the river god could counter, but winning the contest did not repair the breach. Haemosu departed for the heavens, leaving Yuhwa behind, and Habaek, furious at his daughter's shame, expelled her from his realm.

Exile and the Egg

Cast out of the underwater world, Yuhwa wandered alone until fishermen found her and brought her to King Geumwa of Dongbuyeo. The king recognized her supernatural nature and took her into his court, though she occupied an uncertain place: honored as a divine being, suspected as a woman claiming union with a god.

Her pregnancy produced not an infant but a large egg. King Geumwa, disturbed, tried to dispose of it. He threw it to animals. He abandoned it in the wilderness. Birds sheltered it with their wings. Beasts refused to harm it. The egg was returned to Yuhwa, and from it hatched Jumong.

Mother of the Founder

Yuhwa raised Jumong in the court of Dongbuyeo. He showed extraordinary ability from an early age, particularly in archery: his name means "skilled archer." But his gifts made him a target. The legitimate sons of King Geumwa saw the boy as a threat to their inheritance, and the plots against his life grew dangerous.

Yuhwa arranged his escape. She provided horses and supplies for his flight southward, to the land where he would found the kingdom of Goguryeo. The egg she had carried, the child she had raised, the escape she had planned: through all of it, the royal house of Goguryeo owed its existence to a woman her own father had thrown away.