Ondal溫達

Ondal was a man of the time of King Pyeonggang of Goguryeo. His face was worn and shabby and made people laugh, but within, his heart was clear. His house was very poor, and he always begged for food to keep his mother, and he went to and fro in the marketplace in a torn jacket and broken shoes, and the people of the day pointed at him and called him Ondal the fool.

The little daughter of King Pyeonggang cried a great deal, and the king said in jest, "You are always crying and you din my ears. When you are grown you will surely not get to be the wife of a gentleman. I shall have to give you to Ondal the fool." The king said this again and again.

When the girl was sixteen he meant to marry her down to a man of the Go house of the Upper Bu, and the princess answered, "The great king always said that I must be Ondal's wife. Why do you now change what you said before? Even a common man does not wish to eat his own words. How much less the most honored of all? Therefore it is said, 'A king has no words in jest.' Now the great king's command is wrong, and I dare not receive it."

The king was angry and said, "If you will not follow my teaching, then indeed you cannot be my daughter. What use is it for us to live together? Go where you wish to go."

So the princess tied several tens of precious bracelets behind her elbow, went out of the palace, and walked away alone. On the road she met a man and asked where Ondal's house was, and so she went on and came to the house. She saw his old blind mother, went near and bowed, and asked where her son was.

The old mother answered, "My son is poor and shabby, and he is not one a noble person may come near. Now I smell your scent, and its fragrance is not of the common sort, and I take your hand, and it is soft and smooth as floss. You must be a noble person of the world.

By whose deceiving have you come as far as this? Only, my son could not bear his hunger and has gone to the mountain woods to get elm bark, and he has been long and is not yet back."

The princess went out and came to the foot of the mountain, and she saw Ondal coming with elm bark on his back. The princess told him what was in her heart, and Ondal flared up and said, "This is not a thing a young woman should do. You are surely not a person. You are a fox spirit. Do not press upon me." And he went on and did not look back.

The princess went back alone and slept under the brushwood gate, and the next morning she went in again and told the mother and the son everything. Ondal wavered and could not settle it, and his mother said, "My son is too shabby to be the match of a noble person, and our house is too poor to be a fit place for a noble person to live."

The princess answered, "The people of old said, 'A peck of grain can still be husked, a foot of cloth can still be sewn.' If our hearts are truly one, why must we be rich and honored before we can be together?"

So she sold the gold bracelets and bought fields and a house, servants, oxen and horses, and vessels, and all they needed was complete.

When they first bought a horse, the princess said to Ondal, "Take care not to buy a horse from the market people. You must choose one of the state's horses that is sick and thin and has been turned loose, and trade for it after that." Ondal did as she said. The princess raised and fed it with great care, and day by day the horse grew fat and strong.

In Goguryeo they always gathered on the third day of the third month of spring to hunt on the hill of Nangnang, and with the pigs and deer they took they made offering to Heaven and to the spirits of the mountains and rivers.

When the day came the king went out to hunt, and all his officers and the soldiers of the five bu followed. Then Ondal rode the horse he had raised and went along, and in the running he was always in front, and what he took was more than the rest, and there was no one like him. The king called him and asked his name, and he was startled and thought him remarkable.

At that time Emperor Wu of the Later Zhou sent out an army to strike Liaodong, and the king led his troops and met them in battle in the field of Isan. Ondal was in the van and fought hard and cut down several tens of heads, and the whole army rode the victory and struck with a will and won a great win. When they weighed the merits, there was no one who did not put Ondal first.

The king praised him and sighed and said, "This is my son in law." He received him with full ceremony and gave him the rank of daehyeong. From this his favor and honor grew richer still, and his standing and power grew greater day by day.

When King Yeongyang ascended the throne, Ondal said to him, "Silla alone has cut off our land north of the Han and made it into commanderies and counties, and the people ache and are bitter and have never forgotten the country of their fathers and mothers. I beg the great king not to hold me foolish and of no worth, but to give me soldiers. I will go once and I will surely take our land back."

The king gave him leave. As he set out he swore, "If the land west of Gyeripyeon and Jungnyeong does not come back to us, I will not come back."

So he went, and he fought the Silla army below Adanseong, and a stray arrow struck him, and he fell and died.

They meant to bury him, but the coffin would not move. The princess came and stroked the coffin and said, "Death and life are decided. Ah, let us go home." Then they lifted it and laid it in the ground. The great king heard of it and grieved and wailed.