Vietnamese mythology ( vi, Thần thoại Việt Nam 神話越南) comprises national myths, legends or fairy tales from the

Vietnamese people The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi). The native la ...

with aspects of folk

religion in Vietnam The majority of Vietnamese do not follow any organized religion, instead participating in one or more practices of folk religions, such as venerating ancestors, or praying to deities, especially during Tết and other festivals. Folk religi ...

. Vietnamese folklore and oral traditions may have also been influenced by historical contact with neighbouring Tai-speaking populations, other

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

-speaking peoples, as well as with people from the region now known as

Greater China Greater China is an informal geographical area that shares commercial and cultural ties with the Han Chinese people. The notion of "Greater China" refers to the area that usually encompasses Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan in East ...

Myth of national origin

The mythology of the ethnic

(the ''Việt'' 越) has been transferred through oral traditions and in writing. The story of

Lạc Long Quân Lạc Long Quân (Chữ Hán:貉龍君; "Dragon King of Lạc"; also called Sùng Lãm 崇纜) is a semi-mythical king of the Hồng Bàng dynasty of ancient Vietnam. Quân was the son of Kinh Dương Vương, the king of Xích Quỷ. He is the ...

(雒龍君) and

Âu Cơ Âu Cơ (Chữ Hán: ; ) was, according to the creation myth of the Vietnamese people, an immortal mountain snow fairy who married Lạc Long Quân (), and bore an egg sac that hatched a hundred children known collectively as Bách Việt, ancest ...

(嫗姬) has been cited as the common creation myth of the Vietnamese people. The story details how two progenitors, the man known as the "Dragon Lord of Lạc" and the woman known as the "Fairy Lady of Âu", gave birth to a "hundred eggs, fifty of which hatched, settled on land and eventually became the Vietnamese people". However, the story, dubbed ''Con rồng cháu tiên'' (昆蠬𡥙仙 "Descendants of the Dragon and the Fairy"), is labeled as a ''truyền thuyết'' ("legend" 傳說), a "type of folkloric tale about historical characters and events, usually embellished with fantastical elements," and is more akin to other fantastical legends, such as the story of Lê Lợi 黎利 discovering a mythical sword from a magical turtle. ''

Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư The ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'' ( vi-hantu, 大越史記全書; ; ''Complete Annals of Đại Việt'') is the official national chronicle of the Vietnamese state, that was originally compiled by the royal historian Ngô Sĩ Liên under ...

'' (大越史記全書, ''Complete Annals of Đại Việt'') proposed more details on the origins of the two progenitors, for example on how

was the son of Kinh Dương Vương (涇陽王), who was in turn descended from the Viêm Đế or

Yan Emperor The Yan Emperor () or the Flame Emperor was a legendary ancient Chinese ruler in pre-dynastic times. Modern scholarship has identified the Sheep's Head Mountains (''Yángtóu Shān'') just north of Baoji in Shaanxi Province as his homeland and ...

(炎帝)/ Thần Nông or

Shennong Shennong (), variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Husbandman", born Jiang Shinian (), was a mythological Chinese ruler known as the first Yan Emperor who has become a deity in Chinese and Vietnamese folk religion. He is vene ...

(神農). Additionally,

Ngô Sĩ Liên Ngô Sĩ Liên (吳士連) was a Vietnamese historian of the Lê dynasty. He was the principal compiler of the ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'', a comprehensive chronicle of the history of Vietnam and the oldest official historical record of ...

(吳士連), the author of the text, cited elements from

Lĩnh Nam chích quái ''Lĩnh Nam chích quái'' ( vi-hantu, 嶺南摭怪 lit. "Selection of Strange Tales in Lĩnh Nam") is a 14th-century Vietnamese semi-fictional work written in Han scripts by Trần Thế Pháp. The title indicates strange tales "plucked fro ...

. Thần Nông and their descendants leading to Kinh Dương Vương,

and

, and even commented on the potential familial bond between this couple (Lạc's father Kinh Dương Vương and Âu's grandfather Đế Nghi were brothers, both of Thần Nông descent).

Creation myths

The world was created by a primordial god called

Thần Trụ Trời Thần Trụ Trời (Chữ Nôm: 神柱𡗶) or Ông Trụ Trời (Chữ Nôm: 翁柱𡗶), some versions call him Khổng Lồ (孔路). He was the first god, was the one who created the world by separating sky and earth by building a pillar to su ...

(神柱𡗶 "heaven-pillar god"). This god, supposedly, built a stone pillar to separate heaven and earth from a chaotic mess where neither the world or humanity had existed, and once he was finished, he destroyed the pillar, which resulted in the creation of landforms such as mountains and islands. After the division of the Thần Trụ trời divided the world into Heaven and Earth, other gods appeared to follow in the work of building this world. There are many such gods, such as Thần Sao, Thần Sông, Thần Núi, Thần Biển... and other giant gods. Folks have credited these gods in the verse handed down from generation to generation: "Ông Đếm Cát Ông Tát Bể Ông Kể Sao Ông Đào Sông Ông Trồng Cây Ông Xây Rú Ông Trụ Trời..."

Popular heroes and gods

Figures in Vietnamese mythology include The Four Immortals: the giant boy Thánh Gióng, mountain god Tản Viên Sơn Thánh,

Chử Đồng Tử Chử Đồng Tử (Chữ Hán: 褚童子) is the name of a famous Vietnamese divine being, one of " The Four Immortals" "Tứ bất tử" in traditional Vietnamese mythology. In legend Chử Đồng Tử appeared on a yellow or golden dragon to Tr ...

marsh boy, princess

Liễu Hạnh Princess Liễu Hạnh ( vi, Liễu Hạnh Công chúa, chữ Hán: 柳杏公主) is one of The Four Immortals in Vietnamese folk religion, and also a leading figure in the mother goddess cult Đạo Mẫu, in which she governs the celestial rea ...

. One of the Four Immortals also reemerges in the fighting between Sơn Tinh and Thủy Tinh "the god of the mountain and the god of the Water." Historical legend occurs in the story of the Thuận Thiên "Heaven's Will" magical sword of Emperor Lê Lợi. Folk mythology includes figures such as the mười hai bà mụ "Twelve Midwives", twelve fairies who teach one-month-old babies skills such as sucking and smiling.

Popular myths, legends and stories

A list of some popular fairy tales or Vietnamese myths and legends includes but is not limited to: * Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ (The Vietnamese creation origin myth) * The legend of Son Tinh and Thuy Tinh (Mountain God and Water God) * The betrayal of

An Dương Vương An Dương Vương () was the king and the only ruler of the kingdom of Âu Lạc, a classical antiquity state centered in the Red River Delta. As the leader of the Âu Việt tribes, he defeated the last Hùng king of the state of Văn Lang an ...

* Hoan Kiem Lake – Le Loi and the Magical Sword *

Ông Táo Ông Táo (翁灶) also known as Táo Quân (灶君, Mandarin Táo), Táo Vương (灶王), Thần Bếp (神灶) or the Kitchen god is regarded in Vietnamese culture as the advocate of the Vietnamese family with the gods and the emissary between h ...

– the Kitchen Gods * The origins of ''

bánh chưng ''Bánh chưng'' is a traditional Vietnamese food which is made from glutinous rice, mung beans, pork and other ingredients. Its origin is told by the legend of Lang Liêu, a prince of the last king of the Sixth Hùng Dynasty, who became the ...

-'' the story of Lang Lieu * Four Elements – the Turtle, the Dragon, the Unicorn and the Phoenix

King of the gods

The king of the gods in Vietnamese mythology is Ông Trời (翁𡗶 "God of heaven"), then due to the influence of China, he was identified with

Jade Emperor The Jade Emperor or Yudi ( or , ') in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god ( '). In Daoist theology he is the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, who is one of the Three Pure Ones, the th ...

so he was also called ''Ngọc Hoàng Thượng Đế'' (玉皇上帝), commonly referred to as ''Ngọc Hoàng'' (玉皇).

Myth of national origin

Creation myths

Popular heroes and gods

Popular myths, legends and stories

King of the gods

See also

References

Further reading