Saint Giong

During the Hung King period, there was an old woman who lived alone. One morning, she woke up to go visit her field and suddenly saw a footprint that had crushed several rows of eggplants.

She exclaimed in surprise: “Oh! Whose feet are so big?”. Curiously, she put her foot into the strange footprint to see how big it was. From then on, her body began to change. After three months, she realized she was pregnant. After a full term pregnancy, she gave birth to a chubby boy and named him Gióng. But when Gióng was three years old, he still lay on his back asking for food, couldn’t sit up, couldn’t roll over, couldn’t talk or laugh. The mother was extremely sad, but because she loved her son, she tried her best to take care of and raise him.

At that time, the Yin invaders invaded our country. The Yin invaders were very aggressive and cruel, led by a general named An Vuong, with a strange and fierce appearance. Wherever they went, they burned down houses, killed people and robbed property. Hung Vuong’s army went to battle many times, but could not defeat them.

King Hung was worried and quickly sent messengers to all over the country to find talented generals to help the king save the country. One day, the messenger went to the village of little Gióng. Hearing the loudspeaker announcing that the king was looking for talented people, Gióng’s mother, who was lulling her child to sleep, jokingly said to her son: “My child! My child is slow to walk and talk, when will he be able to go fight the enemy to help the king?”

Unexpectedly, Gióng looked at his mother and opened his mouth to speak out loud: “Mother, call the messenger here for me!” After saying that, he fell silent again. The mother was startled because her son, who had not spoken for so long, suddenly spoke clearly.

Seeing that his mother did not make any move, Giong urged his mother again, “Mom, go quickly.” The mother was both happy and scared, and quickly went to tell the story to the neighbors. Everyone came, thinking it was a strange thing. Finally, one person said, “Let’s go invite the messenger to see what he wants.”

When the king’s messenger entered the house and saw little Gióng, he asked: “Hey little boy, I’m looking for someone to fight the enemy. I don’t have time to play with you. What did you invite me for?”

Gióng replied very maturely: “I invited you here to discuss how to fight the enemy. You go back and tell the king to forge me an iron horse, an iron sword, an iron armor and an iron helmet, and I will drive away the evil enemy!”

Everyone standing listening was also surprised and surprised. Through the villagers’ story about this strange boy, along with the boy’s words as sharp as steel. The messenger had also been looking for a talented person for a long time but had not found one, the enemy was strong and urgent, he immediately rode his horse back to report to the king.

Hearing this, King Hung was overjoyed and immediately ordered the blacksmiths to gather all the iron to forge horses, swords, armor and helmets as the boy had requested. Everything was unimaginably heavy when forged. Dozens of people touched the sword but it did not budge. King Hung had to order thousands of soldiers to find every way to transport it to the boy Gióng.

Meanwhile, Gióng’s mother was afraid and said to her son: “My son! The king’s work is not a joke. The soldiers are coming in droves outside, what should we do?”
Hearing that, Gióng suddenly sat up and said: “Don’t worry about fighting the enemy, mother. But you have to feed me a lot!”
His mother quickly cooked rice for him to eat, but whatever pot was cooked, Gióng ate it all. Every time he ate a pot of rice, Gióng grew a little bigger and asked for more.

The more the mother fed her son, the more he grew, and suddenly he became a healthy young man. When the rice ran out, the mother went to call the villagers. Everyone eagerly brought rice, potatoes, buffalo, wine, fruits, and cakes to fill the yard. But no matter how much was brought, Gióng ate it all, and still kept asking for more. After that, Gióng said again: “Mother, find some fabric for me to wear.” People competed to bring silk to make clothes for Gióng to wear. But Gióng’s body grew strangely, and as soon as the clothes were made, they felt tight and short, so they had to bring more silk to patch them together. In no time, Gióng’s head touched the roof.

At this time, the soldiers had already carried the horse, sword, armor and helmet. Gióng stepped out of the house, stretched, and suddenly became very tall and imposing, with legs over a meter long. He shouted like thunder: “I am the general of Heaven!” Then Gióng put on his armor and helmet, and held his sword and danced around a few times. Then he said goodbye to his mother and the villagers and jumped on the horse’s back. The iron horse suddenly reared up, spewing a stream of red fire straight ahead. Gióng kicked his feet, and the horse galloped like the wind, taking steps dozens of poles long, shaking the heavens and earth. In the blink of an eye, the horse had charged into the enemy camp that was now scattered throughout several forests.

Gióng’s sword flashed like lightning. The enemy troops rushed out and died as they rushed out. The horses screamed and emitted fire, burning rows of camps and even several forests. Smoke and dust filled the air, screaming and crying. But the enemy general Ân Vương still tried to shout and call his troops to attack. Gióng fought harder and harder, and the enemy corpses were scattered all over the forest. Suddenly, his sword broke.

Not confused, Gióng pulled up bamboo bushes on both sides of the road and beat the enemy troops who were trying to stay behind according to the commander’s orders. In no time, the enemy troops had scattered everywhere, Ân Vương was beaten to death. The remaining enemy soldiers begged and surrendered. The Hùng Vương army as well as the villagers only had to rush out and tie them up. In less than a day, Gióng had eliminated the national disaster. At that time, Gióng’s horse had reached the foot of Sóc Sơn mountain. Upon reaching this point, Gióng took off his armor and helmet, then both he and his horse flew straight up into the sky.

After winning the battle, to remember the hero, King Hung ordered the construction of a temple to worship Giong in his hometown and conferred the title of Phu Dong Thien Vuong.

Today we can still see traces of rows of round ponds stretching from Kim Anh, Da Phuc to Soc Son, people say that they are the hoof prints of Saint Giong’s horse. The forest that was burned by the iron horse’s fire is now called Chay village. The bamboo trees that Giong uprooted and threw at the enemy were burned by the fire, their green turned yellow and had some burn marks, today that kind of bamboo still exists, people call it “nga bamboo” (or “nga bamboo”).