Legend of the Marble Mountains

That night the sea was wild. Wind howled across the water, and black waves reared up and crashed onto the empty sand. In a small hut by the shore, an old fisherman sat huddled, listening to the rain lash the leaf-thatched walls. All the while, he worried quietly about his net and his little boat.

Then, through the roar of the surf, he heard a strange sound, deeper and louder than any wave. He opened the door a crack and looked out. The old tale says that at that very moment, a great dragon slid up onto the sand from the dark sea. Its body was long and winding, and it left deep furrows in the wet sand. Then the dragon gently laid an egg beside his hut. The egg was strangely large, and it glowed in the darkness. When it was done, the dragon turned its head and sank silently back into the deep sea, as if it had never appeared.

The old man stood frozen. Toward dawn, the waves slowly calmed. He tiptoed outside and stared at the enormous egg lying on the sand, not knowing what to do.

Just then, a golden turtle crawled slowly up from the water's edge. With its feet it heaped sand over the egg to keep it warm. Then it raised its head and looked at the old man. In the legend of Non Nước, the turtle spoke like a person. "I am the spirit Kim Quy. This egg carries the blood of Long Quân, king of the sea. I ask you to guard it with all your heart, and let no one harm it." With that, the spirit gave him a small claw and told him to use it whenever danger came. Then the spirit, too, vanished beneath the water.

From then on, the poor old man had one more task each day. He rebuilt his hut right beside the spot where the egg lay buried. Morning and evening he watched over it, shielding it from sun and rain. He treated it as a treasure sent by heaven.

Strangely, the egg grew bigger every day. One day it was as big as a wide bamboo tray, the next as big as a whole room. Its shell shone in every color, green and red, purple and yellow, sparkling in the early sun. It grew so large that it lifted the old man's hut up high. Then it spread out in all directions, lighting up a whole stretch of the shore.

News of the wonder spread far. Some people were curious, and some were greedy, and they came meaning to smash the egg and see what was inside. Remembering the spirit's words, the old man quickly took out the claw. The story goes that the claw turned him into a great tiger. He gave a single roar on the sand, and the crowd fled in fright, never daring to come near again. Once they had been scared away, he became a gentle old man once more. He sat down quietly and went on guarding his egg.

The days went by. Then, one fine morning, the egg trembled, and a long crack opened across it. The old man stepped closer, his heart pounding. And out of the egg stepped a lovely little girl, with eyes as bright as stars and skin as smooth as jade. She was the daughter of Long Quân, the king of the sea.

Overjoyed, the old man took the little girl in his arms. He was poor and had little to give. But the legend says the birds and animals of the forest came to help him. Some brought sweet fruit, some brought milk, and some spun soft threads to weave her clothes. On a lonely stretch of coast, the old man and his adopted daughter lived together as warmly as a real father and child.

The girl grew up in no time. She was gentle and well behaved, clever with her hands and kind at heart. She gathered colorful pebbles around the house and sowed them in the ground. Up came clumps of unusual flowers with a soft scent, and they could heal the sick all around. Her good name traveled far. People told one another that on the beach at Non Nước lived a girl as kind as a fairy come down from heaven.

Then the news reached a prince. He traveled all the way there and met the girl. He came to care for her deeply and asked to marry her. On the wedding day, the whole coast seemed to light up. But that same day, Kim Quy rose again from the water. The spirit had come to take the old man back to Long Quân. His work of sheltering the sea king's child was complete. The old man said goodbye to his daughter. Then he followed the spirit toward the sea, as gently as the close of a lovely dream.

As for the giant egg, its story was not over. After the girl was born, the empty shell stayed on the shore. Then it broke into five pieces, and each piece became a towering mountain of stone. They rose straight up from the sand at the edge of the waves. The five mountains stood side by side, their feet in the sea wind and their heads raised to the blue sky.

Later generations looked at those five mountains and gave them a beautiful name, Ngũ Hành Sơn, the Marble Mountains near Da Nang. The name means the mountains of the five elements of heaven and earth. Kim is metal, and Mộc is wood. Thủy is water, and Hỏa is fire. And Thổ is earth. Five mountains, five names, standing together by the sea at Non Nước.

This is a story handed down from people long ago, a gentle legend passed from one generation to the next. It is not a real explanation of how the rock of the mountains came to be. Even so, the people of Non Nước still love this story and keep it in their hearts.

Today the five mountains are still there, standing quietly by the sea. Inside them are cool stone caves and old pagodas fragrant with incense, where bells ring out on the wind. People come to climb the stone steps one by one and stop at each pagoda. There they respectfully light a stick of incense. And standing at the foot of the mountains, looking up, some quietly remember the old fisherman of long ago. They remember the shimmering dragon egg, and the golden turtle who asked him to guard something precious on this shore.