해가 배경설화의 기자의례적 성격

A Study of a Praying for a Baby Charateristic in the Background Narrative of Hae-ga

&nbsp;&nbsp;Many people communicate with the gods through shamanistic rites. A shaman sings a myth, and adherents believe that it really happened. However, the background story for a myth is only a theatrical space, not a reality. The shaman reconstructs the activities and conflicts of the gods on a real life stage as depicted in the myths. In other words, this rite conducted by a shaman induces people to believe in the myth.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;From this point of view, the background story of Hae-ga is tantamount to a description of a rite where many couples prayed for children. Sooro, the wife of Soonjung-gong, is abducted by a sea dragon in an internal story. She is saved by her husband Soonjung-gong who sings the Hae-ga in an external story. The two stories are a part of the process of a rite of praying for a baby which is facilitated by an elderly person.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;A couple plays the roles of Sooro and Soonjung-gong, the mythical characters, in a shamanistic rite with the help of a shaman who help carry out this rite of passage. The shaman has Sooro go out into the waters and her husband sings the Hae-ga. This is a reconstruction of an episode where the characters create in a timeless, immemorial setting, not in the performance place. The story in a setting of the myth is an internal one and the story in the performance place is an external one. Both stories stand for the cycle of life and death, a process in which an infertile woman becomes reproductive. Similar shamanistic rituals held in Jeju are the Younggamnori and Buldomaji rites.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Similarly, the Choi Chi-won story follows a similar pattern. In his birth story, a pig kidnaps his mother, and his father rescues her. Later she gives birth to him. The background stories of Hae-ga and Choi Chi-wons birthstory share the plot where a woman gets pregnant after she is rescued by her husband. Given the structure, it is foreseeable that Sooro will also have a baby in the future. However, the sought-after baby is a boy, not a girl. While the Hae-ga, influenced by the Goojiga, must have been sung for numerous couples who have aspired to have a boy, the myths of Jeju Island about the gods who governed childbearing do not refer to the gender of the baby.