The Mountain God and the Water God

In August, from the dike along the Red River, people in Hanoi see something they know well. The river rises, thick with mud and churning, carrying silt down from upstream. It spreads wide and swells, as if a giant force were pushing up from below. Thousands of years ago, Vietnamese forebears asked why it floods every year. Their answer was the story of Sơn Tinh and Thủy Tinh. It was written down in an old book, Lĩnh Nam chích quái, in the 13th to 14th centuries, under the Trần dynasty. This is a legend, not history. But it is a legend that Vietnamese people have kept telling for thousands of years.

In those days, the land was ruled by the eighteenth of the Hùng Kings, whom Vietnamese people honor as their ancestors. The king had a daughter named Mỵ Nương, as lovely as the full moon of the eighth month. When she came of age to marry, the king wanted to find her the worthiest man in all the land.

And the world sent him two such men, at the very same time.

The first was Sơn Tinh, the god of Tản Viên Mountain. Tản Viên is today's Mount Ba Vì. Its highest peak rises to 1,296 meters, towering to the west of Thăng Long, the city now called Hanoi. Sơn Tinh had magic power over earth, rock and mountains. With one wave of his hand, a mountain could grow taller. With a single look, earth and stone obeyed him, like officers taking orders from their general.

The second was Thủy Tinh, the god of the sea and its waves. His magic was the power of storms, of whirling winds, of rising waves. One breath from him, and dark clouds rolled in. One call from him, and rain poured down in sheets.

Both were extraordinarily gifted. Both were worthy to marry the king's daughter.

And that was exactly the problem.

The Hùng King did not know whom to choose. The two gods stood in the royal courtyard, each as majestic as the other, each more gifted than any man. The king thought for a long time. At last, he set a condition.

The wedding gifts had to be an elephant with nine tusks, a rooster with nine spurs and a horse with nine red manes. And the deciding rule was this. The first to bring all the gifts the next morning would marry Mỵ Nương.

That same night, both gods set out to find the gifts.

Sơn Tinh arrived first, just as the sky was turning light. The earth of the mountains obeyed the mountain god. In a single night, he had gathered the elephant with nine tusks, the rooster with nine spurs and the horse with nine red manes. He set them all before the palace. The king saw that every gift was there, and he nodded. The wedding took place that very morning. The mountain god carried Mỵ Nương home to Tản Viên before the sun was high.

Thủy Tinh came later, gifts in hand and his heart eager. But the palace was empty. Mỵ Nương was gone. The servants told him that Sơn Tinh had come early and taken the princess home to his mountain.

Thủy Tinh stood silent for a long while.

Then his fury burst out in full force.

The old books say Thủy Tinh summoned the rain and called up the wind. He gave one great shout, and the sky and the land shook. Rain fell like waterfalls. Waves rose far away and rolled in from the open sea. Water poured in from rivers, from streams, from everywhere, surging and slowly climbing toward Tản Viên Mountain. He meant to surround the mountain with water and force Sơn Tinh to give Mỵ Nương back.

From his mountain, Sơn Tinh looked down and saw water spilling in from every side. He did not panic, not for a moment.

However high the water rose, Sơn Tinh raised the earth and rock of the mountain just as high. One giant wave from the water god reached halfway up the slopes, high enough to drown a whole forest. Sơn Tinh lifted his hand. Earth and stone gushed from the heart of the mountain like springs, rolling up above the crest of the wave. Wherever the water climbed, the mountain stretched higher still. Thủy Tinh roared and called more waves in from the sea, waves as tall as city walls, and hurled them at the mountain. Sơn Tinh piled on more earth, and the mountain grew taller again. Dark clouds gathered, thunder rolled, lightning flashed, and the wind howled in fierce gusts. Two great powers of sky and earth met head on, and neither would give way. It was a furious battle that seemed to shake the whole world.

But Thủy Tinh could not win.

Mỵ Nương stood on the summit of Tản Viên, hearing the wind howl and the waves roar below. The water rose right up to the foot of the mountain, its foam as white as clouds. But the earth and rock of the mountain kept pouring out all around, and she knew the mountain god would not let the water in. Thủy Tinh fought on and on. The storms lasted for months. But in the end his fury faded, and the water had to fall back.

Thủy Tinh withdrew his forces. But not because his anger had cooled.

The old book Lĩnh Nam chích quái records that Thủy Tinh never let go of his regret. Each year, when summer comes, people see waves stirring on the Red River and the sky turning deep purple out toward the sea. Then they know the water god is thinking of Mỵ Nương, raising the water to fight Sơn Tinh once more.

That was how the people of old answered the question of why the Red River Delta floods every year.

In their telling, Thủy Tinh is still angry. Once a year, he still raises the water. And every year, Sơn Tinh builds the mountain up again and holds firm. In the dry season, the water draws back. The mountain stays standing, as proud as ever.

According to the Nhân Dân newspaper, Vietnamese people worship the mountain god as Tản Viên Sơn Thánh. He is one of the Four Immortals of folk belief, four undying saints honored through many generations. The Department of Cultural Heritage recognizes two temples as historical and cultural sites. One is Và Temple in Sơn Tây. The other is Thượng Temple on Mount Ba Vì. At both, the mountain god has been worshiped without a break from ancient times until today.

In August, when the muddy Red River rises, Mount Ba Vì stands to the west. It is the towering Tản Viên of the legend. In the old story, Thủy Tinh is still raising the water, as he has since the days of the Hùng Kings. And Sơn Tinh is still building up the mountain, as composed as in ages past. The flood season will pass, and the dry season will return. The earth of Tản Viên still stands there, steady and calm, as it has stood from the day the two gods first faced each other until now.