Long, long ago — before there were any countries — a beautiful fairy lived in the mountains of the north. Her name was Âu Cơ, and she could turn into a bird and fly.
Far away, in the deep sea, there lived a powerful king. He could turn into a dragon. His name was Lạc Long Quân — "the Dragon Lord of Lạc". He had taught his people how to grow rice, how to weave cloth, and how to live without fear of monsters.
One day, Lạc Long Quân came up from the sea, and Âu Cơ came down from the mountain, and they met. They fell in love and married, and went to live on a green plain together.
And then — and this is where the story gets a little strange — Âu Cơ laid a pouch with one hundred eggs inside. The eggs hatched, all on the same day, and out came one hundred children: fifty boys and fifty girls. Strong, healthy, beautiful.
The children grew up fast. But the dragon king missed the sea, and the fairy missed the mountain, and they could not both live in one place forever.
So they decided: fifty children would go with their father to the sea, and fifty would stay with their mother in the mountains. They promised to always remember each other and help each other if either side was ever in trouble.
The fifty mountain children stayed and chose the eldest as their first king — they called him Hùng Vương. He was the very first king of a place called Văn Lang — what we now call Vietnam.
This story is why Vietnamese people sometimes call each other đồng bào — "from the same pouch". Even people who have never met are like brothers and sisters from the same hundred eggs. What a lovely way to think about your own country.
Every Vietnamese person is supposed to be a descendant of those hundred children — "the children of dragons and grandchildren of fairies". It's a story, not science. But it tells you something true about who Vietnamese people think they are: brave like a dragon, kind like a fairy.
So when you hear con Rồng cháu Tiên, you can think: that's me.