Lac Long Quan & Au Co

Thousands of years ago, before the land we now call Vietnam had a name — before its rivers were mapped, before its mountains were claimed — something rose from the depths of the southern sea. It was not human.

It was Lac Long Quan. The Dragon Lord of the Deep.

He was the son of two worlds. His father, Kinh Duong Vuong, was a king who ruled the land. His mother, Long Nu, was the daughter of the Dragon King who ruled beneath the waters of Dong Dinh Lake.

In his veins ran the blood of earth and ocean. Of throne and tide. And his power was absolute.

The coast was terrorized by Ngu Tinh — a colossal sea monster that dragged entire villages into the deep.

Lac Long Quan hunted it down. He drove his spear into its skull and sent it back to the darkness where it came from.

Deep in the caves of the highlands lurked Ho Tinh — a nine-tailed demon fox that had preyed on travelers for generations.

Lac Long Quan cornered it. He burned the cave. The demon dissolved into smoke and was never seen again.

And in the ancient jungle, Moc Tinh — a thousand-year-old tree spirit — twisted its branches like arms and strangled anyone who wandered too close.

Lac Long Quan took his blade to its heart. The forest fell silent.

One by one, the monsters fell.

The land was finally at peace.

But then — from the misty mountains of the north — she came. Her name was Au Co. Daughter of a powerful northern king. Descended from the immortals. She was radiant — otherworldly — like the first light of dawn breaking through mountain fog.

Lac Long Quan saw her. The Dragon met the Fairy. And they fell in love. They became one. Together, they walked the ancient land — the shores he had protected, the forests she had wandered. Two souls from two different worlds, moving as one.

And in a sacred ceremony beneath the oldest trees, beneath a sky that held both the sea and the mountains — they were wed.

A Dragon and a Fairy. Bound together.

Au Co carried their child. But not in any way the world had ever seen. She gave birth to a single sack — strange and luminous, unlike anything of this earth. And from that sack came one hundred eggs. And from those one hundred eggs — one hundred sons were born.

Strong. Perfect. Carrying within them the blood of both Dragon and Fairy. These were the first ancestors of the Vietnamese people.

But a Dragon and a Fairy cannot share the same world forever. Lac Long Quan belonged to the sea. Au Co belonged to the mountains. Two forces. Two destinies. Too different to remain as one. One day, he came to her and said:

I am of the Dragon kind; the ocean is my home. You are of the Fairy kind; the mountains are yours. Though our love runs deep, we cannot stay together.

And so they divided their sons. Fifty followed their father down to the sea. Fifty followed their mother up into the mountains. Before he left, Lac Long Quan made one promise:

No matter where we are, if one of us is in need, we will find each other. We will never abandon one another.

Au Co led her fifty sons to the land of Phong Chau — the region we know today as Phu Tho province. There, the eldest son was crowned king. He took the title: Hung Vuong. The Hung King. And the kingdom was born — Van Lang — the first Vietnamese kingdom. According to legend, it endured through 18 generations of Hung Kings.

From one impossible love. One hundred eggs. One act of separation that broke two worlds apart. A civilization began.

To this day, the Vietnamese people call themselves con Rong chau Tien. Children of the Dragon. Grandchildren of the Fairy.

It is not just a myth. It is an identity. Carried across a thousand years of history, of war, of survival — and still spoken with pride today.

And this story — is only the beginning.