Legend · Korea, 1st century BCE
The Archer, the Egg, and the Bridge of Turtles
The real founding legend of Goguryeo — the story Eira sails into after Japan
Drift and Exile, Vanguard of Retribution and Birth of Goguryeo put a shipwrecked Norse shield-maiden next to Jumong, the archer-king of Korean legend. Eira is Maestro Blink's own invention. Almost everything around her isn't — the egg, the jealous princes, the river that rose to carry a fugitive, and the kingdom founded at the end are the oldest founding story on the Korean peninsula.
A son of the sun, born from an egg
In the old tellings, Yuhwa — daughter of Habaek, lord of the river — is seduced by Haemosu, a son of heaven, and cast out by her family. King Geumwa of Eastern Buyeo takes her in. A beam of sunlight follows her through the palace, and she lays an egg. The king has it thrown to the animals, then out into the road; the beasts shelter it instead and the birds keep it warm, and finally he gives it back to her. The boy who breaks out of the shell becomes such a good archer that his name, Jumong, is said to mean exactly that: a skilled bowman.
The princes who wanted him dead
Growing up in Geumwa's court as the outsider's son, Jumong is better than the king's own sons at everything they value. The eldest prince, Daeso, sees where that ends and moves to have him killed. Warned by his mother, Jumong flees south with a handful of companions — and the legend's most famous image follows. Trapped at a river with the pursuers behind him, he calls on his grandfather the river lord, and fish and turtles rise to form a bridge. They carry him across, then scatter before Daeso's men can follow.
Jolbon, Soseono, and a kingdom in 37 BCE
South of the river, at Jolbon, Jumong founds a new state. The traditional date is 37 BCE, and he reigns as King Dongmyeong — the 'Holy King of the East.' Later Korean sources give real weight to Soseono, a woman of Jolbon whose resources helped pay for the new kingdom, and they also record what happened when Jumong's first son arrived from Buyeo to claim his inheritance: Soseono went south with her own sons, and one of them, Onjo, is credited with founding Baekje. Goguryeo itself lasted about seven centuries and gave the peninsula one of its greatest kingdoms. The name Korea comes down from it by way of Goryeo.
The music it inspired
Birth of Goguryeo
The last winter march, the Han commandery, and a kingdom that finally gets a name. Jumong becomes King Dongmyeong, Soseono steps aside, and Eira does the one thing nobody asks of her — she goes back to the sea. Chapter three — the kingdom is founded, and the saga keeps sailing.
The Eira–Jumong Oath trilogy is built on this legend, name by name. Drift and Exile has “Haemosu's Blood,” “Flight from Buyeo,” “Yuhwa's Tears” and “River of Turtles”; Vanguard of Retribution has “Soseono's Coin” and “Daeso's Nightmare”; Birth of Goguryeo ends the war with “Daeso's Duel,” “King of Goguryeo” and “Soseono's Sorrow.” The trilogy comes after the Japan chapters — Eira's road runs from the Nilakantha shrine, east to Japan, and only then to Korea.