Au Co and Lac Long Quan:
"Legend of the Origin of the Vietnamese People"

Linh Nam Chich Quai (Collection of Strange Stories from Linh Nam), edited in the 15th century contained the earliest record of the Vietnamese belief in their origin as co-equal and independent from China, its gigantic northern neighbor.

Lac Long Quan (Lac Lord of the Dragons) came from the sea to the Red river plain to help the people to subdue all demons, learn how to cultivate wet rice, and wear clothes. He then returned to the sea, telling the people to go to the water and call on him if they ever needed his assistance. Later a ruler from the north, De Lai, came and put the area under his dominance. The people came to call on Lac Long Quan for rescue. From the sea he returned. He kidnapped the usurper's wife, Au Co, and took her to the top of Tan Vien mountain, the tallest peak in the Red river delta. Unable to reclaim his wife, De Lai left. Au Co bore him 100 children from a sack of a hundred eggs - 50 sons and 50 daughters. Lac Long Quan one day told his wife: "I am a dragon, you are a fairy. We can't stay together." He took fifty sons to the plain while Au Co took fifty daughters to the mountain. One of Lac Long Quan's sons became founder of the Hung kings, the first Vietnamese dynasty that started in the dawn of ancient Vietnamese history, according to legend, over four thousand years ago. Today, at Vinh Phuc province, there is a national shrine where the tomb of one of the earlier Hung kings was located.

Lac Long Quan, the sea-faring Dragon prince and Au Co, the heaven-borne princess became the progenitors of the Vietnamese, "Con Rong Chau Tien" - "descendants of the Dragon and the Fairy."

The Legend of Son Tinh and Thuy Tinh:
The Agricultural Base of early Vietnamese History

The last king of the Hung dynasty had a beautiful daughter for whose hand two suitors came - the mountain deva and the water deva. The Hung king decreed that whoever arrived first with the specified wedding gifts would be the winner. Son Tinh, the mountain deva, came first with the gifts and therefore was married to the princess. He took her back to his abode in the mountain. The water deva Thuy Tinh arrived later. He became angry, caused the water to rise to put the mountain under. Son Tinh used his power to raise the height of the mountain, defeating Thuy Tinh.

From that time on, this titanic struggle between the two nature gods replays itself, replicating the people's struggle against the flood brought about by the summer monsoon.

???Attached: Foto of the Hung King National Shrine (Kevin's)???