INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

Happy new year and welcome to Myth Monsters 2023 - although it’s pretty odd that we’re technically going to be celebrating our second anniversary this year, it feels like we’ve been going forever already! Thank you for sticking by and listening into the new year!

Also so sorry for the lateness of this episode, I caught COVID over the new year and was so unwell, and just didn’t have the mindset or energy to get this all done for you - but I’m back and running and you’re getting an extra episode to make up for this at the end of this week!

DESCRIPTION:

To start off this frosty new year, we’re heading over to a completely new mythology - which we’ve only not covered just due to me being unorganised to be completely honest. However, we’re here now and we’re covering the wonderful Inmyeonjo from Korean mythology this week.

The Inmyeonjo is a legendary hybrid monster from Korean mythology, usually described as a massive white bird with chicken-like features and an elongated neck with a human face, who has the ability to talk and communicate with people. They were said to be both male and female, but there were considerably more females of the species, and were significantly more common to find than the males. They are a symbol of longevity, as they lived for thousands of years, usually around sacred temples of the different kingdoms of ancient Korean society. They are also incredibly intelligent, and strive for peace between all beings on Earth, and will offer their guidance to peace for any pilgrim willing to visit them.

The faces of these birds were said to be amazingly beautiful, and they were often noted as especially ethereal and even mask-like. Although the more off putting thing about them was that this beautiful face was on the end of a long chicken like neck - which can certainly be considered a little bit strange and creepy. They were noted as being incredibly large, with a large wing span. Although there are no noted measurements, it’s believed that they were at least 7ft tall in length - and imagine a chicken that size. They also apparently loved wearing hats and feather crowns made from the plumage of different birds - which gave them the power to reincarnate to another form if required.

They were a sacred bird who were considered the link between the sky and the land, you can usually find them atop the highest mountains or guarding ancient tombs of sages and leaders who brought peace to the people, singing Buddhist verses. They were often depicted in ancient tombs in Korea and South East Asia as a legendary figure - and is where most Koreans know them from now. They are often depicted on murals within structures of bronze - highlighting their power and longevity. However, there are arguments that this may actually be the Kalavinka, a legendary Buddhist bird with a human face due to the wing shape - but we are still not sure. 

ORIGIN:

In terms of etymology, Inmyeonjo literally means human face bird in Korean - which I think is pretty funny. It’s a very literal translation, and I do really like it when they’re like that. I don’t really have a deep dive on this one I’m afraid, but you can live safe in the knowledge that it’s pretty basic this week.

For this bird’s history, we’re not entirely sure when this one was created, however, we do know that in the 5th century, the biggest discovery when it came to this monster was found in the murals in the lost tombs of Goguryeo, Silla and Baekje were found depicting these birds. I did briefly mention this, but these were important locations as these both belonged to three different kingdoms in ancient Korea. 

Goguryeo was the biggest kingdom, taking up most of what we now know as North Korea, but also a good chunk of the South too - and fun fact, that it is the root word which we get the English word Korea from! Then we have Baekje and Silla, which were on the southern coasts - these made up the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and were active up until the Three Kingdoms united in 998 AD and became the empire in the late 1800’s. Why is this important to the monster, well because in each of these kingdom provinces, they had tombs which all had the Inmyeonjo inside on murals - which is a pretty united thing to happen across technically, three different countries at the time. 

The tombs actually pop up all over South East Asia, with the biggest one actually being in China. They seem to capture life within the time of their creation, and have been studied by countless historians to figure out who and when they were carved. There are influences from across South East Asia throughout the mural - so we’re not 100% sure that the Inmyeonjo was even strictly Korean, it might have been a creation that popped up all over this region of the world! However, as I said, we didn’t discover these until the 5th century and now, these tombs are all World Heritage sites that you can visit, which is pretty cool. 

We talked about Kalavinka earlier, and this monster's influence on the Inmyeonjo, but how about influences outside of Asia? Well of course, we have to talk about Harpies and Sirens from Greek and Roman mythology in this case. Harpies were the half bird, half woman villains who swooped down and ate children, whilst Sirens were also often called half bird, half women, rather than our media-cultivated mermaid-like image of them. Inmyeonjo were considered peaceful and intelligent though, in comparison to the usually aggressive nature of these other two monsters, but if you do want to learn more about either Harpies or Sirens, I’ve covered them in the podcast in their own episodes!

Lastly, they made their world debut in 2018 and we got to see the Korean people present the Inmyeonjo to us at the Winter Olympics, as they used this monster as their mascot throughout the competition. They made a full sized puppet of it, and presented this within their opening ceremony, surrounded by the Four Symbols - which are the Chinese constellations, the blue dragon, white tiger, red phoenix and black tortoise. However, audiences went one of two ways when this was presented - some with absolute horror at the creepiness of this monster, and others awe at the respect the Korean people have for their ancient history and culture. You can make your own mind up when you Google this puppet, I personally definitely think it’s creepy, but the latter opinion is much more me. 

The South Korean government even changed their Twitter display picture to an Inmyeonjo whilst the Olympics were on

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, of course - there are not really any for this monster that I can find. Of course, being a Korean monster too - there’s a bit of difficulty getting some of their content due to the restriction from North Korea. However, I’ve popped some Harpy content beneath so you can find some content around hybrid bird lady monsters to satisfy the craving for the Inmyeonjo. Also check out the recording of the Winter Olympics ceremony if you fancy it - it’s a fantastic display and I’d love to know what you think about the puppet.

For art, there are loads of independent works for this one - and honestly, they’re amazing so highly recommend looking up these cool interpretations of this monster by regular people!

In movies, we have; Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Spirited Away, Hercules, The Last Unicorn and My Little Pony: The Movie.

For TV, we have; Yu-Gi-Oh!, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fairy Tail, One Piece, Monster Museum, The Adventures of Sinbad, Charmed, Hercules: The Animated Series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, Jason and the Argonauts, Aladdin: The Series, Ducktales, Hellboy, She-Ra: Princess of Power, Ultraman Dyna, Power Rangers Mystic Force and The Owl House.

In video games, we have ones such as; Dragons Dogma, Gothic, EverQuest, Hades, Breath of Fire 2, Dark Souls, Castlevania, Elder Scrolls, God of War, Golden Sun, Persona 4, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, SMITE, Pokemon, Pyre, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Warcraft, Miitopia, Guild Wars, Terraria, Total War, The Witcher 2 & 3 and Titan Quest.

My book recommendation this week is for Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts, Fairies by Elena N Grand for some fab Korean fairy tales if you’re interested in a much more forgotten region of Asia, in comparison to those big hitters in China, Japan and the Philippines.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? 1431

I’m going to say no for this one, and I think I said the same for the Harpies honestly - even though they’re one of my favourite monsters of all time. This is because when it comes to hybrid monsters, I do tend to think logically, if there was something like this around - do we not think it would have been picked up by now? These were big monsters, and considering we can differentiate between a donkey, horse and a zebra - I think we would be able to tell the difference here in a normal creature too. 

However, don’t get me wrong - I love the idea of this one, and following the Winter Olympics in 2018 and the presentation there, I’m so glad that the world was exposed to this great piece of Korean mythology, and that it was embraced all over the world, even though some thought it was a little creepy, whom I do also agree with. But puppets are spooky, I get it.

But what do you think? Did the Inmyeonjo roam the Earth? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

What a great one to open the new year to! Also you’ll know if you’ve been listening for a while that I love me a hybrid monster, and especially harpy-like ones, so this one was a win win for me - I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did! Honestly very nice to cover a new mythos region too, so look for more 

Next week, we’re doing something a little different and looking into a religious folklore figure, the Dybbuk who comes from the Jewish faith. Try and keep your soul attached to your body on Monday 16th for this undead monster! This is the extra episode I was talking about, there will be another episode on Thursday 19th too!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.