Lêng

Lêng is the young, valiant hero of the Ot Ndrong and a brother of the chief Tiăng in the house of Rung. Where Tiăng embodies settled wealth and authority, Lêng carries the martial and adventurous energy of the cycle: he leads raids, fights rivals, and undertakes long quests for beautiful maidens, imagery the epic renders as the pursuit of the silver flower and the bronze flower. In one celebrated episode he provokes a sacred stone belonging to the yang, drawing the spirit-world directly into human affairs. He is remembered as a legendary ancestor-hero rather than a deity.

Parentage

• Rung

Domains

• heroism war
• courtship quest

Powers

• wages war and raids rivals
• courts and wins maidens

Epithets

• Lêng con Rung

Relations

• parent: Rung
• sibling: Tiăng
• sibling: Yơng
• lover: Bing

Sources

• Ngô Đức Thịnh (ed.), Sử thi Mnông (Ot Ndrong), NXB Khoa học Xã hội
• Đỗ Hồng Kỳ, Sử thi thần thoại Mnông (1996)