Thánh Gióng - Vietnamese

In my little village, surrounded by green bamboo groves and endless rice paddies, I worried about my son. I am his mother, and for three long years, my sweet boy had not spoken a single word or taken a single step. He just lay quietly in his little bed while other children laughed and ran. Then, one day, frightening news arrived like a storm cloud: invaders were marching to our land! This is the story of how my silent child answered the call to save our home, the legend of Thánh Gióng.

When the king's messengers rode through the villages searching for a hero, a miracle happened. My son, who had been silent for so long, suddenly sat up and spoke his first words. He asked me to bring the messenger to him and declared, "Go back to the King and tell him to make me an iron horse, an iron suit of armor, and an iron staff. I will defeat these invaders!". From that moment on, Gióng began to eat. He ate seven baskets of rice in one sitting, and then more! The whole village brought him food because they saw a hero awakening. With every bite, he grew bigger and stronger until he was a giant, too tall for our little house. When the king's gifts arrived, Gióng put on the armor, leaped onto the mighty iron horse, and it roared to life, breathing fire from its nostrils. He raised his iron staff and galloped off to meet the enemy, a true hero ready to protect his people.

Thánh Gióng was unstoppable. He fought the invaders with incredible strength. When his iron staff broke in the middle of the battle, he didn't give up. He reached down and pulled up entire clumps of bamboo from the ground and used them as his weapon, sweeping the enemy away. After he had saved the kingdom, he didn't come back to our village. He rode his iron horse to the top of Sóc Sơn mountain, took off his armor, and together, he and his horse flew up, up, up into the sky to become an immortal guardian of Vietnam. People tell his story to remember that courage can be found in the most unexpected places and that even a quiet child can have the heart of a giant. Every year, people in Vietnam celebrate the Gióng Festival with parades and stories, so the legend of the boy who grew into a hero to save his country will never be forgotten.