Con Rồng, Cháu Tiên -When the world was new, the people lived in fear, for demons roamed the land. But so too did immortals and fairies, and even dragons.
Children of the Dragon, Grandchildren of the Faeries
One sunrise at Hồ Động Đình*, the water was unnaturally calm and as clear as glass. An immortal named Kinh Dương took a morning walk across the clear, flat lake. When he reached the lake's center, he looked down into the water, and saw a beautiful dragon that coiled and swirled in the depths. Her body was slender and long. Her eyes were full of intelligence and fire. When she laughed, it was the tinkle-ring of crystal bells. Her name was Long-nữ, and she was the daughter of Động Đình Quân, the dragon king.
Kinh Dương and Long-nữ married, and lived together in an underwater palace. She bore a handsome, strong son. His parents named him Sùng Lãm. He was a dragon, same as his mother. He could take human form, and had the strength of a hundred men. Sùng Lãm also had a noble heart--more than anything, he wanted peace in the troubled land. The demons that had long wrought destruction had caused the people great hunger and suffering. Their pain filled Sùng Lãm with rage. He set out into the world, to bring an end to the misery caused by the demons.
In the shape of a human, Sùng Lãm left his parents' underwater palace and emerged from the sea. As he stepped onto the shore, he saw a fishing village. But there were no fish to eat, and the villagers all were starving. There were no fish because many of the village fishermen had been killed. Those who were still alive were afraid to go into the water because of a monstrous fish named Ngư Tinh. Ngư Tinh was an ancient gargantuan beast that lived in a cave at the bottom of the sea. It had smashed the long boats to pieces and ate crews of fishermen in a single gulp. The tail of the fish was so enormous, that when it splashed, it sent walls of water that flooded the seaside villages and washed the people away.
Sùng Lãm built a titanic sea-vessel and sailed it out into the sea in the hunt for Ngư Tinh. On this ship, a stone hearth burned with a raging fire. Sùng Lãm melted iron in the fire, and molded the hot iron into the figure of a man. With the burning hot iron man by his side, Sùng Lãm stood at the front of the ship and searched far and long for the monstrous fish. He found Ngư Tinh by the massive fin coming out of the water like a tower. Sùng Lãm sailed toward the demon, and threw the man-shaped piece of burning hot iron into the water. The beast saw the man-like shape, and thought the iron was a human that he would eat. Ngư Tinh swallowed the iron lure, and the hot metal scalded the beast's throat. As Ngư Tinh thrashed and raged in pain, Sùng Lãm leapt from the boat, and with his sword, cut Ngư Tinh in three pieces. He threw the head onto the shore. It fell upon on a mountain, which was forever after known as Cẩu Đầu Sơn. The body of Ngư Tinh was carried by the tide, until it came to rest and became Mạn Cầu. Sùng Lãm skinned the tail, and it turned into the island known as Bạch Long Vĩ.
Sùng Lãm destroyed many demons. The people sang his praises and called him Lạc Long Quân, the Dragon Lord of Lac. With the demons vanquished, their existence faded into memory. Lạc Long Quân returned to his parents' kingdom under the sea. He had brought peace to the land.
The Faerie's Daughter
The details that start the next chapter in Lạc Long Quân's story are varied from source to source. It's the story of Lạc Long Quân's wife. Her name was Âu Cơ, and she was the daughter of a mountain fairie. In one story, Long Quân found her as she was being hunted by a hungry monster. Lạc Long Quân fought the monster and slew it. When Âu Cơ saw the beautiful dragon who had saved her from being torn to pieces by the monster, she fell in love with him and became his wife.
In other stories, Âu Cơ's father was a cruel emperor king named Đế Lai, from the northern lands. He invaded the verdant, productive southern lands and established a fortress there. Lạc Long Quân emerged from the sea again, and journeyed to the fortress to expel Đế Lai. But when Lạc Long Quân entered the gates, the emperor king was gone. Instead, Lạc Long Quân found Âu Cơ, the emperor's beautiful daughter. Smitten by the Dragon Lord's poise, she implored him to take her away. Lạc Long Quân returned to his palace in the mountains with Âu Cơ, and they were married.
Before long, the daughter of the faerie became pregnant with the dragon's children. When she gave birth, she delivered a sac filled with embryos. In a week, it hatched into a hundred eggs, and from each sprang forth a baby boy. Âu Cơ raised their hundred sons with tenderness, wisdom, and encouragement. The children grew up stronger and smarter than normal children their age, and brought immense joy to both their parents. Lạc Long Quân, Âu Cơ, and the hundred children lived in peace and harmony in the mountain palace.
But the heart of a sea dragon longs for the water. Over the years, whenever Lạc Long Quân walked through the palace, he would stop to gaze through the eastern windows, where the sea lay beyond the mountain. His ache to return to the sea grew to be unbearable. Âu Cơ saw her husband's sadness grow over time. But she was strong. She continued to promote harmony in their household, and bore his pain as well as her own.
One day, in the shape of a dragon, Lạc Long Quân rose into the air, flew out through the gates of the palace, and disappeared into the horizon. In her anguish, Âu Cơ ran to the window and cried out for him to return, to not abandon her and his hundred perfect sons, and the harmonious life they shared. His response came on the wind.
"I am descended from the dragons of the sea. You are of the faeries from the mountains. As fire is with water, so too are you and I.
Our children are Con Rồng, Cháu Tiên; they will become the kings of these lands. I will take fifty of our sons to live with me by the sea. You will take the remaining fifty with you to the forest mountains."
The fifty sons who went with Âu Cơ settled in the mountains, married the women of those lands, and became known as the Âu Việt. Those who went to the coast with Lạc Long Quân became known as Lạc Việt. They established the state of Văn Lang, the earliest Vietnamese civilization. When the eldest of these sons came of age, he became the ruler of Văn Lang--the first emperor of the Hồng Bàng dynasty.
Thus, the veil of mythology fell away and revealed the beginning of Vietnamese history.
*This Vietnamese legend begins in China, in what is now known as Hunan Province. In China, Hồ Động Đình is named 洞庭湖, or Dòngtíng Hú.
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