The Vietnamese like to think they are the children of a dragon and fairy, "con Rong chau Tien." A legend recounts the story but, as often happens in all cultures of the world, there exist several variants. It is possible to consider these stories as a participant in the creation of an origin myth, but the question then becomes delicate since many authors, and not the least of them, conceive of this legend as a romanticized and allegorical form of historical facts transmitted from generation to generation. In any case, it is a marvelous and fantastic story. While it is hardly the norm to precede the telling of a story with a summary, readers will at least get an idea of the minimal structure from which the various versions were formed.
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