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The Legend of the Watermelon
Exiled to a deserted island with nothing but his own resourcefulness, a young prince discovers a strange seed that changes everything: the beloved Vietnamese legend of An Tiem and the first watermelon.
Long ago, during the age of the ancient Hung Kings, there lived a young man named An Tiem who had been welcomed into the royal family and given a comfortable life at court. He worked hard, lived simply, and was well loved, but one day, speaking without thinking, he remarked that everything good in his life came from his own two hands, not as a gift from anyone else, not even the king.
The king, hearing this, took the words as an insult, forgetting all the years of loyal work An Tiem had given. In his anger, he ordered that An Tiem, along with his wife and children, be taken far from the mainland and left on a small, deserted island, with only a little rice, a knife, and a few basic tools to survive on.
Alone on a Deserted Island
Many families might have given up, but An Tiem and his wife refused to despair. Together they built a simple hut from branches and leaves, dug for fresh water, and gathered whatever fruits and roots the island offered, determined to make the best of the life they had been given.
Seeds Carried by the Wind
One morning, a flock of wild birds flew low over the island and dropped a handful of strange black seeds onto the sand near their hut. Curious, An Tiem’s wife gathered a few and planted them, watering them carefully each day, unsure of what, if anything, would grow.
Weeks later, thick green vines had spread across the sand, and hanging among the leaves were large, round fruits with dark green, striped skin. When the family finally cut one open, they found bright red flesh inside, sweet, cool, and full of small black seeds, unlike anything they had ever tasted.
A Message Sent Across the Water
The vines grew so quickly that soon the family had far more fruit than they could ever eat. An Tiem had an idea: he carved his name into the rind of several fruits and set them adrift on the sea currents, hoping that somewhere, someone on the mainland might find them and learn that his family was still alive.
Fishermen soon began pulling the strange striped fruits from their nets, marveling at the sweet red flesh inside. Word spread quickly along the coast of a family, exiled and left with nothing, who had built a new kind of life through nothing but patience and hard work.
A King’s Change of Heart
When the story finally reached the king, he was moved. The very quality he had once punished, An Tiem’s quiet confidence in his own two hands, was exactly what had allowed his family not only to survive on the island, but to flourish there. Filled with regret, the king sent for An Tiem and welcomed his whole family home with honor.
From that day on, the sweet fruit the family had discovered became known across the land as dua hau, the watermelon, and it is still grown and loved across Vietnam today, a lasting reminder that hard work, patience, and hope can turn even exile into abundance.
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Au O
Play this softly while you read: a traditional Vietnamese lullaby, from the same country this legend calls home.
More stories, more lullabies
This is one tale in a growing collection of traditional stories from around the world, each one paired, where we can, with a real lullaby from the same culture.