The story of Hoan Kiem lake is a legendary story, praising the victory of the Lam Son uprising.
During the time when the Chinese Ming army colonized the South (now Vietnam), they oppressively treated our people as trash and did many tyrannical things that made people angry. At that time in Lam Son land, the insurgents rebelled against them, but due to their weak power, many lost. Seeing this, Lord Long Quan decided to lend the rebel army a magic sword to kill the enemy.
At that time, in Thanh Hoa, there was a fisherman named Le Than. One night, when he dropped his net at a deserted wharf, when he pulled the net up, he felt it was very heavy, so he was secretly happy, thinking there must be a big fish. But when he reached in to catch fish, he only saw an iron rod, he threw it into the water, and then dropped the net in another place. The second time the kidney lifted the net, it felt heavy. Ren did not expect that the iron rod just now was in his net. Again he threw it into the river. The third time, I still saw the iron rod caught in the fish net. Surprised, the kidney returned the fire to see. Turns out it was a sword.
Later, Than joined the Lam Son uprising army. He was very enthusiastic and brave. One day, the prime minister, Le Loi, and his entourage went to Than’s house. In a dark hut, the iron rod that day suddenly glowed brightly. Surprised, Le Loi took it to see and saw that there were two words carved deep, “Thuan Thien” on the blade. But all still did not know it was a treasure.
One day, Le Loi and his generals were chased away by the enemy. While walking through the forest, Le Loi suddenly saw a strange light on the top of the banyan tree. Le Loi climbed up to find out that it was a sword hilt encrusted with jade. Remembering the sword in the Than family, Le Loi took the hilt and put it on his back. Three days later, Le Loi met Le Than again. Le Loi told everyone about seeing the hilt of the sword. When he brought the sword to the hilt, it fit perfectly.
Since then, the morale of the insurgents has been increasing day by day. In Le Loi’s hand, the magic sword fought throughout the battlefields, making the Minh army feel overwhelmed. The prestige of Le Loi’s insurgent army echoed everywhere. The divine sword paved the way for the insurgents to defeat an enemy in the country.
A year later, one day Le Loi (now king) rode a dragon boat around Ta Vong Lake (now Sword Lake) in front of the citadel. On that occasion, Long Quan sent a golden turtle to claim the sword. When the dragon boat reached the middle of the lake, a large turtle suddenly appeared on the water. Standing at the side of the boat, King Le Loi saw the magic sword he was wearing next to him naturally moving. The golden tortoise raised its head and headed towards the king’s boat. Turtle said, “Please return the sword to Long Quan.”
The king immediately drew his sword and threw it at the golden turtle. The turtle opened its mouth, grabbed the sword, and slowly dived into the water. Since then, Ta Vong lake has been called Sword Lake, also known as Hoan Kiem Lake.
The original Vietnamese story is first published on words.vn
Nguồn hình ảnh: Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Đã chỉnh sửa)
