The Representation and Role of Elderly Women in Oral Literature: Grandmothers as Symbols of the Everyday World in Patjuk Halmeum and Mago Halmi

This paper begins with the recognition that research on elderly women in oral literature is sparse, with many of the existing studies overly focused on the concept of the “great mother goddess”. In response, this study explores the world of “grandmothers” from an intrinsic perspective —focusing on the characters, the story creators, and participants—rather than from the logic of religion(or folklore). It addresses the following questions: “Where are grandmothers(Chapter 2)? What do they do(Chapter 3)? What are the effects of their actions(Chapters 4 and 5)?” This study selects two stories, Patjuk Halmeum and Mago Halmi, in which grandmothers appear as central figures in the narrative world. To compare the two narrative types, the study also references The Grandmother of Dajagu(Dajagu Halmeum). In these two stories, the elderly women exhibited relatively limited mobility. They have remain in the confines of their homes, villages, or fixed locations for extended periods. In these places, they engage in continuous, habitual activities, the processes and outcomes of which are embedded in the text. This phenomenon is referred to here as “thick sedimentation”. The thick sedimentation is not merely the passage of time, but involves forming relationships with objects and shaping the environment. For instance, the grandmother in Patjuk Halmeum mobilizes objects through her habitual act of making and sharing food, ultimately defeating the tiger. In Mago Halmi, while the character is recognized as a divine being —such as a giant goddess or creator deity—her creative acts are rooted in mundane, physical activities such as labor and excretion, rather than transcendent powers. Through habitual and repetitive bodily actions, these women interact with objects and materials, overcome crises and alter their natural world. In these two folktales in which elderly women are prominent, they act upon matter and nature through their prolonged connection to the places where they have lived. Grandmothers form long-term relationships with objects, transforming them, and transforming themselves. This dynamic challenges the dichotomy of passivity and activity, best described by the phrase “being that does without doing.” In these stories, the elderly women are symbols of everyday existence, transforming themselves and their surrounding realities through material interactions within the quotidian world.