Chang Il-Hung

The legend of Chang Il-Hung is a folktale of Huon Sa passed orally between generations. It concerns the pioneer for whom the legend is named.

The legend goes that, when King Beuk-Noy began to send out scouts to define the borders of his kingdom shortly after the end of the Great Gap, Chang Il-Hung was the leader of a dozen pioneers who volunteered to set up a colony at Ling Hill, one of the foothills of the Huon Range.

The pioneers set out with their families, in total around fifty people. Their destination was fifteen leagues south of their origin, the city of Huon Gug. They travelled at a pace of a league a day, and so were halfway to Ling Hill after a week of travel.

Their eighth campsite was near a small copse of trees. The women and children took their leave early in the night and the men continued to drink and talk well past midnight. When the fire finally died down and the men began to disperse, the story goes that Chang heard a sound that appeared to be coming from the copse of trees.

Having had enough drink to justify the danger, Chang sauntered over to the copse and, hiding behind one of the outer trees, watched and saw the women and children of the expedition in the copse. They were huddled around a central tree and chanting in muted voices. Chang saw that it was only the women and children, so stepped out from behind the tree and spoke, telling them to go to bed, that they had another league to walk in the morning.

The response of the women and children was to turn, as one, and run at him. Chang saw that something was wrong, and accounts from the north and south of Huon Sa differ as to whether their eyes were red or green.

Chang ran from the copse and called the men to arms. Seeing the danger and realising these were no longer the wives and children they knew, several of the men used violence to repel the possessed women and children. Two of the pioneers fell and were eaten alive by their children, leading Chang to come up with a plan.

Creeping away from the combat, Chang doused himself in water from a nearby stream, then grabbed a lit torch from the dying fire. Yelling and screaming as loud as he could, Chang ran through the combat and towards the copse, hurling the torch into the trees. As it caught fire and began to spread, Chang led the women and children around the outside of the copse, singeing his hair on the growing flames.

When he judged the fire to be almost at its hottest, Chang changed course and ran straight through the copse. The women and children followed and, while Chang made it straight through the copse, owing to his soaked clothes, while his pursuers found themselves trapped in the copse and burned to death.

Afterwards, Chang found that there were seven remaining pioneers, including himself. Resolving to carry out their mission, they continued walking, this time two leagues a day, and made it to Ling Hill with no further incidents. The settlement was built swiftly and to the specifications the king had laid out. Once it was complete, though, Chang's mission had been carried out to the best of their ability. Now he, and the other pioneers, could focus on what he had done to his wife and children. One by one they disappeared, walking into the mountains, overcome by grief and sorrow.

When only Chang and one other remained, Chang gave the other pioneer, Jong Kam-Pak, a directive. He told Jong to remain in the settlement to tell the settlers, when they arrived, what had happened on their journey and to apologise to the king for their failure to fully carry out the mission. Chang disappeared the next night and was never seen again.

Jong Kam-Pak stayed in the settlement, his hair growing grey and his beard long, for one hundred years. When the settlers finally arrived, he haltingly told their leader his story, then stood abruptly and shuffled into the mountains to join his comrades.

This Huon folktale has a number of implications for Huon society. The common moral is that the possession of their families was punishment for the pioneers drinking, but stories go much deeper, as stated below.

The fated copse of trees was never found - obviously, it had burned down - but a circle of stone inlaid into the ground was found near a stream, surrounded by the burned stumps of trees. This is agreed to be the site of the copse.

This is also the local origin story for the Mountainfolk who live in the mountains south of Huon Sa. Legends say that the pioneers, after walking into the mountains, were no longer in the 'land of their forefathers' and could not join their families in the afterlife; they say that the pioneers became immortal and their hearts turned to stone, soon spreading throughout the rest of their bodies and giving rise to the Mountainfolk.