Vietnamese Tales - The Woman Who Married A Dragon

[swanchika]

 This one literally reads like a Perrault tale with Asian dragons. Not that it's a bad thing, of course.

Once upon a time, there was a fair and just king reigning over a large kingdom. But he was often sad, because the queen was still childless. One night, as he was pacing around his palace's magnificent gardens and looking at the moon and stars, he heard rustle in a bush ; he shuddered and looked at the ground. There, he saw a green snake surrounded by many smaller snakes who were warming themselves by resting their heads on their mother's belly. The king watched them for a while and sighed : "Even snakes can have babies. Why did Heaven leave me without a child who would comfort me in my last days ?" Upon hearing this, one of the little snakes was moved. He slithered towards the king and put its head against his boots for a short while ; then, it hurried to the queen's chambers.

Some time after, the king's wish was granted : the queen was pregnant. But what she gave birth to was neither a prince, nor a princess ; it was a green snake, with eyes shining like jades. It grew rapidly, and after three days, it turned into a small dragon. The king and queen were so frightened that they left the royal apartments and hid in another wing of the palace. Seeing that everybody abandoned him, the little dragon roared violently, and all those who heard him trembled with fear. As for the king, he told himself that despite everything, this dragon was his son ; and every day, he went into the room where he was kept and looked at him without saying anything. When he saw his father, the dragon stayed quiet and lowered his head ; he only started to roar once the king left.

The unfortunate father asked his servants to bring the dragon all sorts of rare and precious foods ; but none of them seemed to please him, and his roars grew even fiercer. Fearing that he would die of hunger, the king asked the help of a respected lord of his court, who had a reputation for knowing everything. The lord told him that according to the books, dragons fed on the maidens' flesh. The king was too kind to accept such a cruel solution. But he pretended to accept : "I will follow your advice", he told the lord, "and for a start, I will give your daughter's flesh to the dragon." When he heard this, the lord paled and, bowing deeply in front of the king, answered : "Your humble servant is ready to sacrifice his daughter to feed the little dragon ; but this will not be enough, and when you ask for other maidens, I fear that the country would revolt against you. I suggest that you order your servants to kidnap young girls in the vassal countries surrounding your kingdom."

Torn between his good heart and his paternal feelings, the king felt that his dilemma was hopeless. As he was pondering, an old woman leaning on a bamboo cane appeared ; she walked towards the king and said : "I am a fairy, and I ask you to follow this courtier's advice. Have no fear ; many happy and unexpected developments will follow." With these words, she disappeared. Although he was not sure he understood what she meant, the king decided to follow the fairy's advice and ordered his servants to kidnap all the young maidens in his vassal countries.

At this time, in one of those countries, there was a rich man who owned many buffaloes and rice fields. This man had married two women ; the first one was pious, gentle and kind. After giving birth to a daughter, she had died of an illness. Bach-Nuong, her daughter, was stunningly beautiful ; her skin was white as lilies, and her eyes so black they charmed whoever saw them ; she was also just as kind and gentle as her mother. The second wife, on the contrary, was a mean, ugly and cruel woman ; she too had a daughter, My-Nuong, who was just as ugly and cruel as her mother. This step-mother hated Bach-Nuong, and tried to make her suffer in every way possible. The father loved his daughters equally, without realizing that one was beautiful and gentle and the other, ugly and cruel. But the step-mother was growing even crueller with time ; she made Bach-Nuong work as much as she could, and barely gave her enough to eat. Despite this mistreatment, Bach-Nuong had no hatred towards her step-mother. She was always happy, always worked without complaining, and her father had no idea of what she endured. On the morning, she went to guard the buffaloes and cut the grass ; on the evening, when she came home, she prepared the rice and sewed, always reprimanded harshly by her step-mother, her sister, and even by his father, who was listening to his evil wife's lies. She often gave alms to the poor and leftovers from her meals to stray animals. Because of that, even the animals loved her. When word spread that the king had the maidens kidnapped to feed his little dragon, the cruel step-mother saw a way to get rid of Bach-Nuong.

She called her one day and said, with an affable air : "Today, when you lead the buffaloes to the fields, take this distaff, and you will spin the wool so that I can make a nice dress for you. But don't come back before dusk ; I will put rice and soup on the side for you !" When she reached the field, Bach-Nuong sat in the shadow of a tree to spin the wool, while the buffaloes were grazing. As she was working, an old woman wearing a dress white like a cotton tree's seed came to her, leaning on a bamboo cane. Joining her hands to greet her, Bach-Nuong asked : "Where are you from, Madam ? You're not from my village.

– I am neither from your village, nor from any village in the world, the old woman answered. Heaven sent me to console you for all the pains you have endured, and to make you the happiest woman in the world." The fairy spun her bamboo cane, gently hitting Bach-Nuong's shoulder, and said, with her eyes turned towards the sky : "From now on, thousands of flowers will bloom under your feet ; your skin will smell so heavenly that not even the most poisonous snakes will dare touch you ; you will live in a golden house with jade balconies and many servants to tend to you. Take this magical dress ; if you wear it, you will escape from the gravest perils." * A cloud took the fairy back to heaven, and she left behind a stunned Bach-Nuong. At the same moment, a cloud of dust materialized in the distance ; it came from a group of cavaliers galloping as fast as a storm. Bach-Nuong could already see the glint of their swords, the cruel faces ; she had no way to flee... To make herself uglier, she took mud from the rice fields and spread it on her face. But a cavalier grabbed her nonetheless, took her on his horse, and she fainted...

When she woke up, she heard people crying. She looked around her and saw that she was in a dark dungeon, locked with other young girls. On the next morning, they were told that they would be offered as meals for a dragon, and they cried even more. Only Bach-Nuong remained serene, as she remembered the fairy's words. And looking at her life before the kidnapping, with the exhausting work and her step-mother's hatred, she did not care much about dying.

When soldiers came to take them, she asked to take a bath and change her clothes in order to be worthy of a king's son. She had this favour granted. When she stepped out again, wearing her magical dress, everyone was stunned by her beauty. The soldiers could barely recognize the buffalo herder they had kidnapped the day before, and bowed to her. Bach-Nuong told them to raise their heads, and walked with dignity to the dragon's chambers, while his roars were shaking the whole palace.

When he saw the young woman, he extended his claws with a menacing air and his growls became stronger. Trembling but determined, Bach-Nuong walked to him and said, bowing respectfully : "Greetings, my lord. The fairy has sent me to celebrate your coming in this world." With his teeth bared, his fiery eyes and his long horns pointing towards the sky, the little dragon was a terrifying sight to behold. But Bach-Nuong was still bowing in front of him. He seemed to soften a little, stopped roaring and looked at her.

Then, all of a sudden, he turned into a handsome young prince with fine features and a robust body, and walked forwards to take Bach-Nuong's hand. They were beautiful like the angels Kim-Dông and Ngoc-Nu. Seeing this miracle, the soldiers went to see the king and queen.

The overjoyed royal couple ordered for the two to be wed on this very day.

Once she became queen, Bach-Nuong, who was just as kind and pious as before, brought joy to her people. As for her cruel step-mother, who regretted her actions and feared Bach-Nuong's vengeance, she fled to the forest. She later became mad and was devoured by a gorilla. **

* Good thing it's not a fanfiction, otherwise Bach-Nuong would easily make it to the Top 5 of the worst Purity Sues ever. Well, along with Cendrillon and all the other unnamed "virtuous" heroines.

** Yes, that was in the original text (although someone must have messed up in the Vietnamese-to-French translation, since there are no gorillas in Asia... maybe the gorilla is supposed to be an orang-outang ?). If only every Perrault tale could have ended like that (well, there's no lack of bloody, gruesome and whatever in his tales, but this is just awesome).

Yes, I felt like making comments on that one. Sorry.