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The way to become a fairy

A farm stood on highland area. Its owners were a wealthy couple who inherited big fortune from their family. The owners of the farm had happy life by their five-year-old son. Thought that only peace days passed over them, the master, his wife and their son but,  
One day, an old friend of the master made his way to their home. Two men no see for long time were happy.
“I had heard that you moved to here for long time but have no chance to meet you”, said the guest, gifting them two geese.
“It‘s very long time I don’t hear from you. What are you doing?” said the master.
“Nothing. I am practising to become a fairy”, said the guest, “Five year I have practised for in a private place and must set off, go to here to do something.”
vietnamese fairy tales
“Do what?” asked the master.
“Find precious tree,” said the guest, “when you fire wood taken from the tree, it will spread out scent and bring your wishes to the castle on sky that fairies can know and help you to get the wishes”.
“How can you find it?” doubted the master, “I mean there are millions of trees in forest”.
“It’s not too difficult. I have this”, said the guest, took out a wrap covering powder of something the master had never seen.
“What’s this?” asked the master.
“Ngai”, said the guest coldly, “if you put it in your mouth. Only a little you will not need to eat and drink for years, don’t need to scare any beats and so that you can go and go deeply in forest until you see the precious tree.”
The master seemed to be enchanted by the words he raised up and down the wrap again and again it’s about dozens of times.
“Gosh, only a little of this I can receive thing I want”, he thought.
Something made him happy and then, he told his friend, the guest, about his recent time while his wife was preparing great meal for them. The guest stayed in their house few days. He was person who liked to play chinese chess. Therefore, the master had chance to show off. He showed him his rare chess pieces almost were made of ivory then picked up a pawn gave his friend.
“This chess pieces have belonged to my family for long time, very valuable. Most of them are made of ivory but this pawn it’s made of gem. Best of best gem which always glitter though it’s put in dark”, said the master.
The guest took the pawn, considered it. That’s right the pawn was made of precious gem it’s very few people had chance to see it. He chucked. “Nothing better if I have one to gift king of fairy”, thought him.
Though they were playing chess but each of them was busy in thinking how to usurp things they wanted from the other. The master wanted the wrap and the guest wanted the pawn.
The date, the guest had to set off, came. While they were playing chess, the wife of the master called him in and later, dishes were brought out. The guest helped them picked up chess pieces and of course he didn’t waste the chance to steal the gem pawn. But, he also didn’t know that he also would be stolen. The guest fell down on table after he drank the first cup of wine his cup was poisoned, sleeping poison. The master fastly searched for the wrap in luggage of the guest and then he set off in hurry without saying goodbye his family.
The guest woke up after two days. Hurriedly he checked his luggage the gem pawn’s still there but his wrap had gone. He found his friend but he had vanished his wife also didn’t know where he went. Sadly, the guest set off, chased after his friend to get his wrap.
He went through mountain and mountain not resting but he didn’t catch any sign of his friend. One day, he made his way up the top of a high mountain but he slipped and rolled down. The gem pawn poured out from his luggage, landed on ground and transformed into a large rock. His body also downed on ground by the rock and transformed into a large tree which had roots wrapped around the rock as if it wanted to keep the rare thing away from thieves.
The master followed his friend words he put the powder in his mouth and went searching the precious tree. He had gone through hundreds of forests and mountains but he had not found the tree. He felt disappointed and wanted to go home but he forgot the way. Year and year, the powder left and now he only had very little of it. It seemed be a curse that lives of things and creatures relating to him would fade if he used more and more the powder. Now, his family, wife and son, animals he bred and things in his house had been turned to stone. He himself also changed he was changing into a tiger.
At last, he found the way back home. From the distance he could see his wife, son and besides, his pet, a dog. He hurriedly sprinted toward them, of course by four feet but, when they approached them what he saw were only stones which had shapes of them, people and things relating to him. He roared few terrible roars then left, vanished into forest. 
"Translator: Hung Nguyen"

Book Introductions

1. Complete Collection of Vietnamese Fairy Tales - A Treasury of Legends and Folklore

Discover over 240 enchanting Vietnamese fairy tales, translated into English and beautifully illustrated. This collection is a treasure trove of legends and folklore that reflect Vietnam's rich cultural heritage. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

2. Vietnamese Fairy Tales - Stories in English and Vietnamese

This bilingual collection features 162 Vietnamese fairy tales in both English and Vietnamese, with stunning illustrations. Ideal for language learners and cultural enthusiasts. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

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BÀI ĐĂNG ĐƯỢC XEM NHIỀU

List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese  fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has  its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!

Thuong Luong

Thuong Luong was common name of creatures which are in people’s imagines. They are distant relatives of dragons. While dragons are worshiped as gods, the gods ruled rivers and sea and the gods can make rains, Thuong Luong is not respected as dragons that the creatures are too amorous, combative, wild, and have bad behaviors. All most of them like to harm people.

Wishing pearl

De was a young boy. His parent was servants of a landlord. Every morning, De led landlord’s cattle to meadow and brought them back at nightfall. De used to be excited in playing with his fellows and when he was in his game he didn’t care anything. Many times the cattle he herded ate rice on field and the owners used to beat him pained but he still left cattle and joined in his fellows. One normal day, he and his fellows had a swimming competition. An award was given to the winner that he couldn’t refuse. Therefore, he participated in the competition and left his cattle on a wild hill. They swam and dived in water until noon and when they walked on ground, a cow had disappeared. The cow belonged to no one but his master. Children separated to find the cow but the cow seemed to vanish they couldn’t find it. Sun was going to down, children made their ways to home they left De staying at there. Day stayed at there alone crying. After that, he fell in sleep. Latter, he was woken up b...

The liar Cuội

A boy named Cuoi had lost his parent when he was child he lived with his uncle and aunt. He was co clever but used to lie and he always had his fun whenever people had been cheated. A landlord had heard about him but he didn’t think that he could lie him so he called him came and asked. “I hear you are very well in cheat. Now I sit at here, if you can make me go to the door I will give you this pocket of coins. People here will be witnesses for my words.”, said the landlord. Cuoi expressed as if he was feeling embarrassed. “You have prepared before you sit here so I can not make you go to the door. Now if you stand at the door I can make you come in.”, said Cuoi. The landlord thought what Cuoi had said was true so he stood up and sprinted to the door. But when he came to the door he saw Cuoi was laughing and clapping his hand. “I’ve cheated you.”, said Cuoi. The landlord lost for words and was forced to give him the pocket of coins. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.co...

Story 12: General Thuong Kiet Ly

His birth name is Tuan Ngo, an offspring of Quyen Ngo. He was borned in 1019 at Thai Hoa ward, Thang Long (now Hanoi). When he was child, he early showed brave and martial spirit what were inherited from his family who had been generals, dedicating to Ly dynasty. His father, An Ngu Ngo was also one of them he was a great general. When he was 13 years old, he lost his father and was taken care by his aunt and her husband. Tuan Ngo was taught by Cong An Ly, a royal great teacher at that time. His teacher complimented that he had talent but he headed to be a general instead of a mandarin. Therefore, he studied literature in daytime and research art of warfare in night time. When he was enough 18 years old, he opened a martial class. People coming and studying were crowded. The news came to the recent king who summoned him to castle and conferred him to be a low martial mandarin. Two years later, he became the king’s guard staying by the king entire day. That time, the king realize...

Yet Kieu

Once  upon a time, in Ha-bi village lived a man named Yet Kieu who worked as a fisher. One night, while he was strolling along the seaside he saw two large buffaloes fighting on the beach. He sprinted to poke them apart. Buffalos were beaten painful they ran toward to the sea then disappeared. “Those creatures aren’t normal”, he thought then he turned back where buffaloes had been fighting and picked up some fur they had left. He gazed them then suddenly swallowed them down. From that he had the strength that nobody could fight against. Especially, he could stay in the water longer than any people in the world. He spent six or seven days fishing whenever he dived in water. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com That moment, their enemies had an invasion. A hundred ships approached and covered seaside of Van  ninh. They caught all fishing boats and fired them. They robbed assets and took lives from people living around the beach. Warships following king of the countr...

Crow and Peacock

Once  upon a time, both Crow and Peacock were best friends and had same feather colors, gray. They knew themselves were ugly so they didn’t appear front of other birds. Peacock in Crow’s eyes was uglier than him because Peacock had a small head and a long neck that they didn’t connect to his body. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com One day, Crow talked Peacock: “A painter was painting nearly so we should come and steal some colors to paint on our feathers and make it beautiful” said Crow Peacock bowed his head. That day, the painter hadn’t finished his picture so he left his jar of colors on ground and took a nap. The first time, they stole a paintbrush and some jars then hid them on mound middle lake nearly. The second, they planned to go and steal again but the panter had woken up and came his home so they only took a jar of ink and a pocket of purl he had left. “Right, we start painting, yet” said Crow Crow made Peacock lie down and began painting. Crow painted v...

The Tale of the Hundred - knot Bamboo tree

Once upon a time, there had a boy who was poor, had no field. Therefore, he found the way to work for a landlord. He was healthy, worked hard and great in working so the landlord wanted him to work for him long time without any pay. One day, he called the boy to come. "You are honest and healthy. If you agree to work for me in three years without pay, I will let you marry with my only daughter after that." The boy agreed. He believed completely. He worked very hard, help the landlord turn richer that he could build more houses, buy more fields and cattles. Then, time passed. Three years nearly crossed, the boy always remembered his master's promise while his master, the landlord didn't want to do his promise. He in secret had found another boy for his daughter, a son of another landlord in that area. Therefore, what he need was a reason to refuse the boy. One day, he called the boy to come. "You have worked very hard for three years, waken early, slept late....

So dua - Coconut boy

Once upon a time, there in a village had a couple who worked as servants for a landlord. Although they were over fifty years old, they had ever not had a child. They were sad about that, but they had never given up to dream about a child. One day, it's a very hot day, when the wife was working in the field and felt very thirsty. She seeked for water, but she didn't see any but a little water in a skull which was in a hole beside an ancient tree. She had no choice but to drink it. Right the moment she drank, the feeling of cold water running from her throat to her stomach made her felt very comfortable. As a magic, she was pregnant after that short time. Then, the husband died before he got the happiness looking his child be born. After nine months and ten days, the wife gave birth a son but he didn't look like any child on the world. He had no feet, no leg, and even no body. He just had a head with full of eyes, nose, ear, hair and mouth on it. He didn't ugly but was ...