Slow Night Ancient Tales

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you an old Korean folktale recorded in the Compendium of Korean Oral Literature — "The Short-Lived Boy Who Won the Three Ministers' Daughters." Told he is fated to die young, a boy sets out on a journey to escape his destiny, eventually forming a bond with three ministers' daughters at a mysterious pavilion surrounded by wate...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you Na Do-hyang's short story "Mulberry Leaves." Anhyeop-jip runs her household alone while her gambler husband is away, caught up in the quiet calculations of the villagers around her. An uproar over stolen mulberry leaves reveals the desires and survival instincts of everyone involved. This unflinching portrayal of human nature...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you a mysterious legend from Iryeon's Samguk Yusa. As King Bojang, the last ruler of Goguryeo, sought to elevate Daoism within his kingdom, a monk named Bodeok sensed the danger this posed to the nation's future. Ignored by the king, he is said to have lifted his own hermitage into the sky and carried it far to the south. Woven alongsi...

Hello, and welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight, we bring you the tenth episode of the classic novel "The Tale of Lee Dae-bong." The Grand Commander Ae-hwang sweeps fearlessly through the chaos of battle, her majestic presence unshaken, until at last she wins the enemy general's surrender. Just as even the fiercest storm eventually settles into stillness, may the tangled fee...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you Yi Hyo-seok's short story "The Curtain." Se-un, a man carrying the weight of a failed magazine venture, a declining body, and a restless heart, wanders the streets of the city, moving between two women as he slowly loses hold of himself — until he finally arrives at a dead end in his own life. This clear-eyed portrait of late...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you "General Im," from Kim Dong-in's Book of Historical Tales. Im Mun, a young scholar on his way to a civil service exam, is bitten by a venomous snake in the mountains of Deogyu and saved by a mysterious hermit. Years later, he rises to become a great general in Qing China — only to encounter that same benefactor again, in the...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you an old Korean folktale recorded in the Compendium of Korean Oral Literature — "The Thirty-Thousand-Nyang Fortune-Telling." A minister, faced with his late-born only son's foretold early death, sends someone all the way to Qing China and pays a small fortune to have his fate read. The cryptic answer he receives finally reveals...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you Na Do-hyang's short story "Diary Entries of a Streetcar Conductor." In 1920s Gyeongseong, a streetcar conductor working the same route day after day notices a woman — once too poor to afford her fare, now transformed almost beyond recognition a month later. Told through three brief diary entries, this story of fleeting encoun...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you two stories from Iryeon's Samguk Yusa. First, the tale of King Beopheung of Silla, who wished to establish Buddhism in his kingdom, and the young official Yeomchok, who gave his own life to make it possible. Then, the story of King Beop of Baekje, who forbade killing throughout his realm and built a temple in its honor. Quiet sacrifice...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you the sixth episode of Hyun Jin-geon's short story "The Fading Mist." An unexpected visitor, Hwa-ra, finds Chang-seop napping after a sleepless dawn, and later, he waits alone through the night once more at Namsan Park for Jeong-ae. A letter that finally arrives after two months reveals a truth no one expected. The delicate emo...

Hello, and welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight, we bring you the ninth episode of the classic novel "The Tale of Lee Dae-bong." The cold armor of the Grand Commander Ae-hwang moves toward the enemy lines, her meticulous strategy and unrelenting momentum filling the battlefield of the night. Let the footsteps of that great army reach you like a distant drumbeat, and let your own...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you Yi Hyo-seok's short story "Pastoral of the Street." Yeong-ok, who has come to Seoul chasing a dream of becoming a singer after an early marriage and brief widowhood, spends a single day with her vocal teacher, Myeong-ho — starting with a game of miniature golf, and leading to an unexpected gift and an invitation to perform on...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you "The Unpaid Tab," from Kim Dong-in's Book of Historical Tales. A virgin courtesan from Pyongyang named Dongjeongwol marries an unattractive, illiterate woodcutter and moves to the capital to open a tavern — quietly extending credit to disgruntled scholars pushed out of power. That connection would eventually lead to the depos...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you an old Korean folktale recorded in the Compendium of Korean Oral Literature — "The Murderous Classmate Yu Gong-yeop." A minister's daughter leaves a cryptic set of gestures for the students at a village school to decode. One student unravels its secret meaning; another overhears it and schemes to claim her first. After a trag...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you Na Do-hyang's short story "Before I Found Myself." Su-nim, a young mother earning her living at a rice mill, cares for her sick infant son, Mose, amid the judgment of the world and the weight of poverty. Faith and waiting are all she has left to hold onto. This early modern Korean short story, rich with delicate psychological...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you a story from the Samguk Yusa, the great chronicle of Korea's Three Kingdoms compiled by the monk Iryeon — the tale of how Buddhism first arrived in Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. A monk who crossed the northern border carrying statues and sacred texts no one could read. A princess healed by incense and quiet prayer. And a devoted monk wh...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you the fifth episode of Hyun Jin-geon's short story "The Fading Mist." Chang-seop has been waiting anxiously for a reply ever since sending a letter to Jeong-ae. Returning home from a night of drinking with friends, he finds an unexpected pink envelope waiting on his desk. Caught between excitement and drunkenness, he dashes thr...

Hello, and welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight, we continue with the eighth episode of the classic novel "The Tale of Lee Dae-bong." We find Ae-hwang, now risen to the rank of Grand Commander, commanding her troops with quiet authority — standing firm to uphold military discipline even in the face of an old, deep-seated grudge. Just as our heroine walks forward with unshaken re...

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we bring you Yi Hyo-seok's short story "A Rose Falls Ill." When their theater troupe suddenly collapses, actors Hyeon-bo and Nam-juk find themselves stranded with nowhere to go. A chance encounter with a street fight brings them back together after seven years apart, and they spend a brief, melancholy summer in each other's company. T...

Welcome to 'Slow Night, Ancient Tales'. Tonight, we bring you a captivating piece of classic Korean literature, "Won Du-pyo (The Man in the Sack)" by Kim Dong-in. Drift away to the Joseon Dynasty as we narrate the thrilling tale of Won Du-pyo, a hidden hero behind a historical rebellion, and his daring escape. Let the calm and soothing narration guide you into a deep, peaceful sl...

Welcome to Slow Night Sleep Stories. Tonight we bring you an old tale from a mountain valley in Gangwon Province, Korea — "Wild Ginseng and the Great Serpent." A poor ginseng hunter, after a hundred days of prayer to the mountain spirit, discovers a mysterious cave full of wild ginseng in a dream — but is betrayed by the two men who join him, and left trapped alone deep underground. Ther...

Slow Night, Ancient Tales The Servant's Son Author: Na Do-hyang

Hello, and welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight's story comes from the Samguk Yusa — the long history of the ancient kingdom of Garak, also known as Geumgwan Gaya. Founded by King Suro, this small kingdom was ruled by eight generations of kings across nearly five centuries. Tonight, let's trace the arc of its rise, and its eventual fall.

Welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight's story continues Hyun Jin-geon's "The Fading Mist" [Episode 4]. We follow Changseop's growing feelings for Jeong-ae, and the painful conflict he faces as an already-married man before finally deciding to confess. #sleepstory #koreanliterature #hyunjingeon #bedtimestory #sleepaudio #calmstorytelling #audiobook #classicliterature #...

Hello, and welcome to Slow Night, Ancient Tales. Tonight we continue the seventh chapter of the Korean classic novel, *The Tale of Yi Daebong* .Our hero Haewoon, now serving at court, is about to face the greatest challenge of the story yet — a war that will test everything she has learned. Settle in, and let's follow her into battle.