Vietnamese fairy tales

Famous Vietnamese fairy tales include The Hundred-knot Bamboo Tree and The Story of Tấm and Cám.^[1] Various tales have been translated into English,^[2][3] as well as folk tales containing some elements of fairy tales.^[4]

Well known tales

• "The Wishing Pearl" - a peasant befriends an animal and receives a magic gift
• "The Student and the Frog" - about a frog who becomes a beautiful woman
• Tấm Cám ("The Two Sisters") - a dark Cinderella story
• Từ Thức Gặp Tiên ("Từ Thức and the Goddess") - A mandarin meets a girl at a Buddhist temple who is really a goddess.
• "The Student and the Painting" - a girl in a painting^[5][6]
• Ba Giai and Tú Xuất are a comical duo in South folk tales
• Cây Tre Trăm Đốt ("The Hundred-Knot Bamboo Tree") - a laborer struggles to triumph above his exploitative employer
• Coconut Skull [vi]

References

1. Nicole Seitz A Hundred Years of Happiness: A Fable of Life After War - Page 64 2009 "My favorite Vietnamese fairy tale was the Cinderella-like story about Tam and Cam. As a child, I'd ask my mother to recite ... The stepmother wanted all of her husband's favor to go toward the new child, so she told him lies about Tam."
2. Lynette Dyer Vuong Brocaded Slipper: And Other Vietnamese Tales 1999 "A collection of five Vietnamese fairy tales, including "Little Finger of the Watermelon Patch" and "The Lampstand Princess."
3. Đình Thâm Nguyễn Studies on Vietnamese Language and Literature 1992 Page 163 "Wonder tales from the Far East. lll. by Hans Guggenheim. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday & Co., 1962. 219 pp. includes two Vietnamese fairy tales: "The magic Mango," pp. 166-75, and The ungrateful Tiger," pp. 1 51 -58."
4. Sherry Garland Children of the Dragon: Selected Tales from Vietnam 2001 An illustrated collection of Vietnamese folktales with explanatory notes following each story.
5. Luna monthly - Numéros 13 à 31 - Page 21 1970 "The themes of the tales are quite basic: the peasant befriending the animal and receiving a magic gift ("The Wishing Pearl"), the Princess falling in love with a commoner ("The Heart of Crystal"), the Princess who becomes a fish ("The Kingdom ...... the frog who becomes a beautiful woman ("The Student and the Frog"), the Cinderella story ("The Two Sisters"), a flower who is really a fairy queen ("Tu Thuc and the Fairy Queen"), and a girl in a painting ("The Student and the Painting")."
6. Kay Nielsen. The wishing pearl, and other tales of Vietnam 1969 "Five traditional Vietnamese fairy tales: The Wishing Pearl; The Heart of Crystal; The Student and the Frog; Tu Thuc and the Fairy Queen; and The Student and the Painting."

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