• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.41-94
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• 2016

A Korean fairy tale "The uproot of an archenemy in the underworld" is discussed and interpreted from the perspective of analytical psychology. The essence of the story is as follows; When the three princesses were kidnapped by an archenemy in the underworld, a warrior appeared to save the princesses. He went to the underworld and killed the archenemy with the princesses help. When they tried to come back to the castle, he had difficulties because king's soldiers betrayed him. But a old wise man and a flying horse helped him to come back to the castle. He killed the soldiers that betrayed him and married one of the princesses and got the wealth from the underworld. The kingdom could be prosperous and peace because of the marriage. The psychological meaning of the three princesses were taken by the archenemy is that the archetypal shadow appeared from the unconscious and grasped a part of consciousness and repressed it in unconsciousness. This status could be called the lost of soul. So the warrior ego went through an unconscious trip, saving his anima from the archetypal shadow, and taking her back to consciousness and renewing the collective consciousness. The ego's trip is the individuation process like Shaman in primitive society. This fairy tale has hero motif. It reveals the feature of archetypal shadow. It also shows us man can make conscious with cautious attitude in the individuation process.