JANUARY 30TH UPDATE OF MY VIETNAMESE MYTHOLOGY PAGE

I just updated the page with the final chapter of the saga of the god Thach Sanh and with two new entries – one on Song Truong, the god of the tides and one on Ba Set, the goddess of lightning.

IX. THACH SANH’S DESTINY – The soldiers returned with the trusting Thach Sanh and the stolen crown jewels. At the king’s command they stripped him of his axe, bow and arrow and lute and ignored his pleas of innocence. They had him thrown into a cell to await the king’s judgement.

The sinister Ly Thong was encouraging the king to have  Thach Sanh executed before his upcoming marriage to Princess Quynh Nga. The magic lute that Long Vuong had given to Thach Sanh began playing on its own and providing its own vocal accompaniment in a voice that was heard by everyone in the king’s palace.

The lute sang the true story of Thach Sanh and his evil foster brother. Since this was clearly a  sign from the gods nobody doubted that what they heard was the truth. By the time the song was over everyone in the palace knew of Thach Sanh’s divine heritage, his manipulation by Ly Thong and his equally evil mother, his slaying of the monstrous python and the giant eagle, and of how the vengeful spirits of those monsters had framed him for the theft of the crown jewels.

Overjoyed, Princess Quynh Nga regained her voice and told her father of her dreams about Thach Sanh and her desire to marry him and not Ly Thong.  The king ordered Thach Sanh freed and Ly Thong and his mother imprisoned. He granted Thach Sanh his daughter’s hand in marriage and gave him the right to decide on a punishment for his treacherous foster brother and his mother. Thach Sanh was merciful despite all he had suffered and spared Ly Thong and his mother’s lives and simply sent them into exile.

 Ngoc Hoang, however, was not as forgiving and ordered the thunder god Thien Loi to strike them both down with his lightning axes when they reached the outskirts of the kingdom. He also had Thien Loi obliterate the spirits of the slain python and eagle monsters who had sought revenge on Thach Sanh from the astral plane. The king abdicated in favor of Thach Sanh when he married Quynh Nga.

Her rejected suitors who were the aristocrats of the surrounding 17 kingdoms were outraged at the Princess’ marriage to a commoner and refused to believe the story of Thach Sanh’s divine heritage. They gathered their armies and attacked the kingdom. Thach Sanh led his father-in-law’s armies against them and defeated them all, convincing them of his godly status and incorporating them with his own kingdom into a realm of 18 cities, thus fulfilling the destiny decreed by his father Ngoc Hoang. 

SONG TRUONG – “Tide Prince” A son of the chief sea deity Long Vuong. Song Truong is in charge of the tides and is the deity Long Vuong would have part the waves of the sea when he wanted Song Truong to escort a guest to his undersea palace. This parting of the waves would allow the invitee to simply walk along with Song Truong to their destination. The most famous guest thus escorted was the master carpenter who oversaw the construction of Long Vuong’s palace.

BA SET – The goddess of lightning and the wife of the thunder god Thien Loi. She produces the lightning axes with which he strikes down blasphemers, criminals and the seriously immoral as well as everyone destined to be struck by lightning.

To read more about other Vietnamese deities and the full story of Thach Sanh click here: https://glitternight.com/vietnamese-myth/

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