The book is a Czech translation of more than ninety old Korean tales originally included in the Cheonggu yadam (Tales from the Green Hills), which is a collection of orally transmitted stories compiled and edited by anonymous writers in the 19th century Joseon kingdom (1392–1910). The stories are often strange and weird with a lot of supernatural phenomena, but main characters are usually real figures involved in historical events. Since the stories were most probably compiled by members of ruling class and appealed to noble audience, they reflected then predominant neo‑Confucian views on society and morality. However, unlike more official and “high” literature, the stories give more realistic description of various aspects of everyday life and deal with social problems of that time in an implicitly critical tone. Common topics are satisfaction of ordinary human desires such as accumulation of wealth, gaining social status, numerous offspring etc. The stories also depict decline of social and economic order and clashes between social classes, sometimes point out the erosion of traditional values in a witty and ironic tone. Even though these tales are not a historical source as such, through reading them the reader can get a glimpse of life patterns, feelings and thoughts of the people of old Korea.