In ancient times, the state of Silla was ruled by a king named Henanwan. And he had two daughters. The eldest is unprepossessing, and one doesn’t want to look, but the youngest is a beauty, a sight for sore eyes for everyone.
One day the king called the eighteen-year-old Hwarang Eunnem to his place and said to him:
- I wish to make you my son-in-law. Choose any of your daughters as your wife.
Needless to say, the young man liked the beauty. But he didn’t tell the king this; he decided to consult the teacher.
And the teacher says to him:
“If you take your youngest daughter as your wife, the eldest will take her own life out of resentment.”
If you take the eldest wife, three good fortunes await you.
The teacher said so, but he himself thinks: “If the student is lucky, I will get something.”
Eunnem listened to the teacher and chose the eldest daughter.
The king and queen are happy. Not everyone will marry an ugly girl. And here is such luck!
Eunnem became the king's son-in-law, and then he sat on the throne when the king died. And he ruled under the name Kenmunwan.
He sat down, which means he took the throne and made the king’s youngest daughter his second wife.
So the teacher’s prediction came true, Eunnemu received three good fortunes: the first
- he became the royal son-in-law, the second one sat on the throne himself, and the third one took the youngest princess, his beloved, as his wife.
And suddenly - this must happen - the king’s ears began to grow. They grew and grew and became as big as horses.
The king was scared, no matter what medicine he took, it didn’t help. And he tries so hard to hide his ears, and hides them this way, he is ashamed from people, but his ears are long, very long, flapping, what can you do?
The king put his ears under the crown, did not take it off day or night, and did not order anyone to be allowed into the bedchamber. No one in the palace knew about the ears - neither wives, nor servants, nor court ladies. Only the barber. There is no way to hide your ears from him. The king settled the barber in a room next to the royal bedchamber and strictly ordered him not to show himself to anyone.
The barber is sitting in the room, all he has to do is do the king’s hair. How a hermit lives. He can’t look at the sun or meet his wife. Time goes by. The barber has grown old, his eyes can’t see, his hands don’t obey, he has no strength at all. It's like an old galosh.
The king called him to him and said:
“Just tell someone that I have horse ears, so they won’t blow your head off.”
The king thus threatened the barber and drove him out of sight.
The barber has fallen ill and feels that he will not live long in this world. And he doesn’t want anything before his death, just to tell everyone that the king has horse ears. “I’ll say it,” the barber thinks, “and I’ll immediately feel better, all the illness will come out of me.” He thought so, and death was already near. And I decided to fulfill this last wish. As soon as the barber reached the bamboo grove behind the Buddhist temple of Torimsa, not far from the capital, he untied his belt and shouted:
- Our king has horse ears, the king has horse ears!
He screamed and screamed, broke down and died.
But, strangely, from that time on, as soon as a breeze flies through the bamboo grove, a voice is heard there:
- Our king has horse ears! The king has horse ears!..
A weaker wind means a quieter voice, a stronger wind means a louder voice.
The king found out about this and ordered the grove to be cut down and the bamboo to be uprooted.
And in place of the bamboo, a dense bush grew. Bloomed. The breeze will blow and
heard in the bushes:
- Our king has horse ears! The king has horse ears!
The stronger the wind, the louder the voice. A weaker wind means a quieter voice. Yes, so thin, plaintive:
- Our king has horse ears!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru