Monthly Archives: April 2011

The final chapter of the epic myth A War Between Gods.

For the earlier chapters and more Vietnamese myths click here:  https://glitternight.com/vietnamese-myth-2/

Canto VII – For months the conflict lasted in this manner, until finally the period of the year when Thuy Tinh was in charge of shepherding the rain clouds came to an end and one of the sea god Long Vuong’s daughters or granddaughters (accounts vary) began shepherding her clouds in for her designated part of the year. She had no quarrel with Tan Vien or Mi Nuong and so the rains returned to a milder state, allowing the flood waters to subside. Interestingly, that is similar to Native American myths in which hard rains are called “male rains” and soft rains are called “female rains”.

The carnage was incredible, with the remains of buildings and the corpses of land and sea animals who had died in the fighting scattered plentifully about the landscape. In some versions this war between gods brought on the end of mythical creatures like the lans (a mythical tiger/giraffe/saola/ lizard  hybrid creature) ,the makaras and the tiger-headed elephants and sometimes others.

The  creatures and mythical relics lost in the war varies and is sometimes used as a virtual catch- all for explaining the disappearance of items and beasts. It reminds me of how The Churning of the Ocean in Hindu mythology was at first used simply to explain how the gods produced Soma for their own consumption but then gradually more and more items were added to the list of things spawned by that event including Airavata, the elephant the storm god Indra rides and the love and beauty goddess Lakshmi herself (shades of Aphrodite being born of the sea foam caused by the severed genitals of Chronos. And for my British readers wouldn’t ”The Severed Genitals” make a great name for a pub? Okay, forget it.)

Tan Vien and Chua Con ho helped Hung Vuong XVIII and his people recover from the flood and Tan Vien also taught them ways of trying to safeguard against future deluges. Inevitably, each year, the period when Thuy Tinh would shepherd in the rain clouds he was in charge of returned and his attempt to take Mi Nuong from Tan Vien Mountain by force resumed. Thuy Tinh became known as the god of the monsoon rains and was dreaded because of the  harm he might cause on each of his returns. All friendship between him and Tan Vien was forgotten and the two remain bitter enemies to this  day.             

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