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The tale of "Gươm" lake

That time Viet Nam was dominated. Their enemies treated them like trash. Mean time, in Lam Sơn, Thanh Hoa people had grouped to fight but they were too weak. Therefore, they had to separate every time whenever they attacked with their enemies. King of dragon, the master of seas, wanted to help them so he decided to let them borrow his sword.
Le Thuan who lived in Thanh Hoa that time worked as a fisher. A night when he went fishing as he had done every night he met a strange thing.
vietnamese fairy tales
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The first time when he dropped his fishing net down the water and pulled it up he was so happy because he felt it so heavy. He thought that he had caught a big fishes but when he had pulled up the fishing net he realized the thing in his fishing net was only an iron bar. Disappointed he threw the iron bar down the sea, went to other place and dropped his fishing net one more time. That time as the time before his fishing net was so heavy and when he had pulled up it he saw the iron bar another time was in his fishing net. He took it up and threw.
Go away to drop his fishing net, but as two time early the iron bar another time was in his fishing net. He felt so surprised and wanted to know what exactly what he had. Take his torch near the iron bar to see he realized the iron bar now was a sword without hilt. He screamed: “OMG, this is a sword.
vietnamese fairy tales
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Short time later, he stopped fishing to participate in army. He devoted by his best for his master who now was Le Loi that made his master was very pleased. One day, Le Loi and his fellows came to his house. In the dark which covered whole his house the iron bar suddenly glowed. Feel strange, Le Loi went toward the iron bar, grabbed it and he realized 2 words was notched on it “Thuận Thiên” (follow the God’s meaning) but nobody knew that was magical sword.
One day, Le Loi and his fellows were chased by enemies. They went to every direction. Le Loi went to a forest. While he was going and suddenly saw a light glowing on top of a tree. He climbed and realized the thing glowing was a hilt. At the moment he remembered the sword he had seen at Le Thuan’s house.
Three days later, Le Loi met his fellows and Le Thuan. He took the hilt out and front surprising of people the hilt and the sword were fit. Then he talked them about the random he had the hilt. All of people also thought that that sword was a gift the God gave them. Le Thuan heavied the sword over his head and said:
“Master, the God gave us the sword to fight against our enemies. We were pleased to give our lives to you, fought against enemies.”
From that time Le Loi had the sword their fighting spirits became stronger. Grab the magical sword in his hand, Le Loi got victories in battles. Their enemies were frightened. They didn’t need to hide in forest now they went to find enemies to attack them. Short time later, no enemies was alive in the country. Le Loi became king.
One year later, when Le Loi was sitting on a boat which went around a lake which was front of the castle the dragon king asked golden turtle swimming up to regain the magical sword.
vietnamese fairy tales
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When the boat was in middle of the lake a golden turtle suddenly went up from water. The king forced his soldiers to stop the boat. The sword which was hung on his belt shook up. The golden turtle went toward the boat and said:
“I come to regain the sword.”
After hearing the king understood immediately he took the sword and gave to the turtle. The turtle bit the sword and disappeared. The story was talked to everyone living in the country and the lake had named “Hồ Gươm” from that time to now
THE END
"Translated by 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

3. The Treasury of Fables

An enchanting collection of timeless fables, written in English and beautifully illustrated. Perfect for all ages, these stories offer valuable moral lessons. 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!

Thanh Giong

Once  upon a time, a woman was old but she had not given birth a child. One day, when she went to her field, she saw a stranger footsore on the ground. The big footsore made her surprise and said: “omg, this footsore is so big” the she put her foot into the footsore. More 9 months later, she gave birth to a little boy named Giong. The boy was extraordinary that he was over three years old but had not spoken. He only knew lying and smiling. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com That year, the enemies they were known An planed to attack the country of the boy. They were merciless. Wherever they had gone, houses were ruined, fields were fired, people were killed. The sight behind them is mess of corpse and blood and ashes.The King was worry he forced his servants to look for person who could fight against the enemies.  One day, a servent went to Giong’s village while the woman was holding the boy in her arms, she said sadly that: “Giong, I wonder that when you hav...

The tale of broom

Once  upon a time, a woman who worked as a chef in kitchen in the heaven was a great chef. She could made delicious cakes which made everyone who had tasted them would never forget their taste. The king of heaven let her manage the kitchen but she was greedy and often tasted dishes before the king though that was forbidden thing. She always tried to steal food in warehouse of heaven. http://vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com She fell in love with a herdsman in heaven. Herding in heaven was also miserable as in the ground so he very liked alcohol and delicious dishes after he fell in love with the woman. About the woman, she loved him more than every thing existing. Whenever the man wanted to eat she always had no demur to take a little from king’s dishes to give him. That thing had happened few times. Something, she also led him to go in wine vault and let him drank delightfully. But that thing had never been detected. http://vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com One...

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.

Tu Thuc and wonderland

A  boy, named Tu Thuc, lived in Tran dynasty. He was offspring of a mandarin and was taught carefully. When he was 20 years old, he got passed all contests the king organized. So, he was appointed to be district mandarin. Not like other mandarins he liked freedom, hated rules. He also didn’t like to swarm others. He liked to drink, do poetry and go sightseeing. A large temple stood in the area he managed. Peonies were grown in temple’s garden and they bloomed in every January that was also the time the temple had a Buddhist festival. Many people from anywhere gathered at there as the festival started. Tu Thuc had heard about the festival and wanted to go to there one time. He put on normal clothes that helped him not to be realized by others. He went alone to the temple. That time, Buddhism was national religion of the country so monks were people who had high positions. Monks set a rule that anyone who picked up flowers or broke boughs would be paid for that and if they ha...

My Chau and Trong Thuy

Once upon a time, there had a king, named An Duong Vuong. After many years fighting, he get a large area. The king planed to build a castle but whenever it had been built as tall as a men’s height then it was ruined. The king was unhappy. Therefore, the king had made an altar to pray God for few days until an early morning, a old man from seaside went to talk him God Turtle was going come to help him. The king was very happy and forced soldiers to wait on the seaside. The next day, in the water appeared a big gold turles toward seaside. The soldiers invited God Turtle to set sat on a big gold platter and brought to the king. The God Turtle told the king that the castle couldn’t have finished because of demons. God Turtle helped the king to kill the demons so all demons was killed. Besides, the God Turtle help the king design a castle look like a seashell with many gate levels. Half a month later, the castle had been finished. The king was very pleased but a little worry. He a...

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 ...

Rock dog and two men

There , in a small village, standing by forest, where had two brothers. They both had their own family. Though they had been born and grown up in the same family, they were different. While the elder was rich, the younger was poor and while the elder was scrimp, the younger was kind treating others very well. Time passed they had their own life and it seemed they had nothing to meet again till one day.  One day, a beggar no one knew where he was came to the village. He made his way to gate of the elder’s house. At the first time the elder and his wife saw the beggar who was in torn corny clothes and dirty, his hands, his feet, his head, of course whole his body and things on his body so dirty, the traveling louses could be seen by anyone so that they turned cold their hearts turned into stone. They didn’t do anything even throwing him some words they made their way back into their home and unchained their evil dogs. The beggar dragged each step along road he crossed the...

The tale of "Banh Chung" and "Banh Day"

Once  upon a time, that had a king who was so old so he wanted to abdicate. He had had few wives who had given bird twelve sons. All of his sons had grown up and also were great people. The King was confused about choosing. “All of them are talent people. It is so difficult that I can choose a person and nobody can be jealous” said the King. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com “My Lord the king, we can have a contest” said a servant. “Oh, it is a good idea but what is subject of the contest?” said the king  “Meaning dishes, which we can put on ancestral altar” said the servant. “Great, let’s doing” said the king. The king called his son to come on and said:  “My sons, I don’t have many time and I want one of you to become the king. Now, anybody who can find dishes which not only are delicious but still have great meaning to put on ancestral altar will become the king.”