The Hero of Time
In our modern culture of science and rationality, it can often seem that we don’t have a need or place for myths and legends, dismissing them as nonsense or primitive legends that only existed as explanations for why things happened before science unraveled many of the mysteries of our world. Joseph Campell warns, however, that without a modern myth we may be overdue for an ecological disaster. Not to argue with an esteemed anthropologist like Mr. Campell, but it seems to me that modern myths and legends are all around. The stories of fictional characters such as Harry Potter and Santa Claus have become integrated into our culture as myths, as have the lives of many historical figures such as George Washington and Marilyn Monroe. Unlike the myths of the past, however, our myths may be told through a variety of mediums that did not exist until the advent of electricity and modern machinery such as radio, film, and animation. One platform that myths may be displayed upon that is often over looked is that of video games. Since their invention, video games have developed story lines that are exponentially more complex than those of early video games such as Pac Man and the original Super Mario Brothers. A perfect example of such complexity can be found in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The story of Link’s quest to save his homeland, Hyrule, featured in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time follows Joseph Campell’s monomyth outline almost perfectly and is thus a shining example of a modern day myth.
The game starts out with a nightmare that features two characters that will become very important in the plot later on: Zelda, princess of Hyrule, and Ganondorf, king of the otherwise all female Gerudo tribe. In the dream, Zelda is riding away on a horse from Ganondorf. This is a scene that will be repeated later in the game and the clairvoyant nature of this dream is the introduction of the supernatural elements that will be found throughout the story. As Link wakes, the scene for the beginning of the legend is set: Link lives in the Kokiri forest, a forest inhabited by a tribe known as the Kokiri, who stop aging at a young age and thus remain children forever. Each Kokiri has a fairy that follows him or her around, offering advice and companionship. Until this particular day, Link was without a fairy but Link is awoken from his nightmare by the fairy, Navi, who will soon become his companion fairy. She tells Link that he must come with her to speak to the Great Deku Tree, guardian of the forest. Link follows and the Deku tree informs him that he is cursed and asks him to go inside him and break the curse. This serves as the first part of the monomyth, the call to action. Campell (2008) says that “typical of the circumstances of the call are the dark forest, the great tree, ... and the loathly, underestimated appearance of the carrier of the power of destiny” (p. 43). Link’s call contains all of these; a child living in the forest is called by a guardian tree to help save him and, as soon revealed, the world.
Because this is a video game and there needs to be something for the player to do, the second part of the monomyth, the refusal of the call to adventure, is not present in the story line. Instead, Link accepts the Deku Tree’s charge. After the curse is broken, the Deku Tree tells him that even though Link succeeded, the tree’s death was inevitable because he has been cursed by an evil man. The Deku Tree tells Link he must leave the forest and stop the man who did this to him before he causes further trouble. This leads into part three of the monomyth, supernatural assistance, which occurs in two parts. First, the dying Deku tree grants Link the Kokiri Emerald, spiritual stone of the forest, which will later help him in his quest, and tells him he must leave the forest and speak with the princess of Hyrule, Zelda. Next, as he is leaving the forest, Link’s good friend Saria is there waiting for him. She says that she knew he would leave the forest one day despite the Kokiri tribe being forbidden from leaving the forest. As a parting gift, she hands him an ocarina, a musical instrument that becomes a key element in the storyline. Campell (2008) states that the supernatural aid often comes from an old man or woman (p. 57). The Great Deku Tree definitely fits the old man part and while Saria may not be an old woman in the traditional sense, she is the oldest she will ever be so she could qualify as an old woman in a more abstract sense.
After parting with Saria, the story of Link continues in it’s procession with the fourth aspect of the monomyth, the crossing of the first threshold, as Link leaves the familiarity of the forest and enters into the kingdom of Hyrule for the first time ever. This is a simple but significant action that most players think nothing of. Growing up as a Kokiri, Link had always been told that if he left the forest, he would die. However, Link is very much so still alive and has entered into the unknown and mysterious adventure that lies ahead of him. As he’s leaving, a wise old owl tells him that he really isn’t a member of the Kokiri tribe and that he actually belongs to the race of the Hylians (which are the equivalent of “normal” people). Link journeys onward and eventually, he meets with the princess. Zelda tells him that Ganondorf has been searching for the three spiritual stones because if one possesses all three stones and plays a song on the sacred Ocarina of Time inside the temple of time, a gate to the Sacred Realm will open. Inside the Sacred Realm lies a treasure of ultimate power, the Triforce, which will grant the wishes of whoever possesses it. She and Link make a pact to stop Ganondorf; Zelda vows to protect the Ocarina of Time if Link will go collect the other two spiritual stones that he does not possess. This conversation with Zelda is Link’s entering into the belly of the whale, the fifth element of the hero myth. From here on out, there’s no turning back for Link. His promise to Zelda has permanently bound him to the quest for he now knows the seriousness of what he has been charged with.
On a more literal level, to acquire the third spiritual stone Link literally must enter the actual belly of a whale. However, aside from that similarity, the next phase of Link’s journey, the collection of the spiritual stones (and later, the collection of medallions from the sages), fits much better as the road of trials. Campell (2008) says that the road is a “dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where [the hero] must survive a succession of trials” (p. 81). Attaining each of the spiritual stones is definitely a series of trials because getting them is no easy task. In order for Link to get the second one, the Goron’s Ruby, he must climb a volcano, enter a cave with many puzzles and monsters and defeat a giant lizard-like creature. To get the third spiritual stone, the Zora’s Sapphire, he must enter a whale and defeat a giant octopus monster. Not only are these tasks difficult but they are situations that one would next expect to encounter in real life which satisfies the dream-like landscape of Campell’s specifications.
The meeting with the goddess is interspersed throughout Link’s adventure via a series of helpful fairies that grant him special powers and restore his health when he has been injured. Link’s first encounter is with the Great Fairy, queen of all the fairies, occurs while Link is on the mountain trying to get the Goron’s Ruby. The Great Fairy bestows upon Link a special ability that will help him on his quest as well as fills up his health meter. The bestowing of this gift is a sign of the fairy’s love for not only Link but for the entire planet which Link is responsible for saving. According to Campell, this love is a key feature of the monomyth. The love the Great Fairy has for Link, in the form of the aid she gives him, is a lot like that of a mother protecting her child. This maternal love is an essential feature to the hero cycle and often comes through via the goddess.
The eighth aspect of the monomyth is temptation of the woman. While Link is not tempted by any women in this adventure, while inside the whale’s belly trying to get the third spiritual stone, he is severely hindered in his efforts by a woman. Before the king of the Zoras, a water dwelling tribe found in Hyrule, will give him the Zora’s Sapphire, Link has to find the princess of the Zoras, Ruto, who has gone missing because she stole the sapphire. Link discovers that she has gone inside the belly of a whale that is sacred to the Zoras and follows her inside. He doesn’t need to journey far inside to find the princess but upon finding her, he is told that she lost the stone. She then makes him carry her around the inside of the whale until they find the stone. While women in hero myths generally tempt men by making them lustful and appealing to their animal desires, Ruto does the opposite here; her bratty behavior and demands no doubt tempt Link to give up on finding the last spiritual stone. However, he puts up with her and resists any temptation to quit and is rewarded with the final spiritual stone.
Upon getting the final spiritual stone, Link head back to Hyrule Castle to meet with Zelda. As he approaches the drawbridge, however, the sky grows dark and Zelda rushes by on a horse with her handmaid, throwing something into the moat as she passes. She is followed by none other than Ganondorf on a dark horse. As he passes Link, he looks at him and smiles a sinister smile. Link dives into the water and discovers that Zelda has entrusted him with the sacred Ocarina of Time. He takes the instrument and heads to the Temple of Time. After opening the door, Link heads in and finds a pedestal with a sword in it. He pulls out the sword and is transported to the Sacred Realm seven years in the future. Here, he meets with a sage name Rauru who serves as a sort of father figure in the next phase of the hero myth, the atonement with the father. Campell states that the father figure is someone with a lot of power and who must initiate the hero and Rauru does just that. As a sage, he has power, combined with the other six sages, to help the hero defeat Ganondorf who, Link is informed, has turned Hyrule into a land of darkness. He also initiates Link into the second part of his quest in which he must travel across Hyrule and awaken five other sages who are unaware they are a sage so they can help him defeat Ganondorf. Link submits to the will of Rauru, much like a hero submits to the will of any powerful father figure, and goes out to finish his quest. Another possibility for this step comes at the very end of the game when Link must fight Ganondorf’s ultra powerful alter ego, Ganon. Ganon is the ultimate representation of evil in the game and thus could be seen as a sort of devious father figure, especially if one looks at the initiation in this step as Link’s defeat of Ganon, thus initiating him as the Hero of Time.
For the rest of Link’s journey the other parts of Campell’s monomyth formula do not appear in the order he originally wrote them. However, they do all appear at some point minus one, the refusal of the return. For the same reason that he couldn’t refuse the call, Link can’t refuse the call to return to a normal life because it is a video game and if he did, there would be nothing for the player to do or they would be left hanging without a satisfying ending. One step that does occur, however, is Link’s mastery of two worlds, the Hyrule of his childhood and the Hyrule seven years in the future. By returning to the Temple of Time as an adult, Link is able to travel through time seven years to manipulate the past and do things that he may only be able to do as either a child or an adult. This freedom to travel between the two lands is unique to him and is an ability he acquired as a result of his heroic actions.
After meeting with Rauru, Link heads out to find the other sages who are waiting for him in various temples scattered across Hyrule. Along the way, he gets help from a mysterious character named Sheik who he seems to meet before entering each temple. Sheik directs him first to the forest of his childhood where he discovers the first sage is his childhood friend, Saria. After that he travels back the the volcano he was on before to find the second sage is a Goron who helped him last time he was there. He then awakens the final three sages who turn out to be Ruto, Princess Zelda’s handmaid, and a member of Ganondorf’s tribe. Link returns to the temple of time to meet the seventh and final sage. When he arrives, Sheik is waiting for who and he reveals that he is actually Princess Zelda in disguise. She gives Link some magic arrows that will help him defeat Ganondorf and tells him that the Triforce split into three when Ganondorf touched it and that she and Link possess two pieces of it with Ganondorf having the third. However, Ganondorf arrives and kidnaps Zelda and takes her to his castle.
Link follows Ganondorf to the castle but is unable to get inside due to a moat of lava surrounding it. The six sages come to the rescue, however, and build a bridge of light which allows Link to cross not only the moat but also the return threshold. Link is at the final part of his quest and soon, he will be able to return home. There is still one thing he must do first: defeat Ganondorf and save both Hyrule and Zelda. Thus comes the next part of his quest, the magic flight (or, more appropriately in this case, the magic fight). Rather than running away from danger, Link faces it head on. He uses all of his magic items he has obtained throughout his journey as well as the magic that has been bestowed upon him by the Great Fairy to defeat Ganondorf, which after a tough fight he appears to have succeeded in. However, Ganondorf uses his piece of the Triforce to transform himself into Ganon, a powerful boar-like creature. This transformation brings about another element of the monomyth, the rescue from without. Link is unable to defeat Ganon on his own and requires the assistance of the sages. Zelda, who was set free when Ganondorf was originally defeated, helps Link retrieve his sword which he dropped during Ganon’s transformation and uses her magic to paralyze Ganon while Link attacks him. While there is no doubt that Link would have put up a good fight, he would be unable to take out Ganon without Zelda’s help. Not even heroes can do everything alone and this is a theme reflected in the rescue from without across many myths and legends. Finally, Zelda and Link manage to defeat Ganon and return him to his human form of Ganondorf. The seven sages use their magic powers to seal Ganon in the Sacred Realm along with his piece of the Triforce, yet another example of Link needing assistance in his quest.
Having defeated Ganondorf and sealing him away to prevent him from causing further trouble (at least for the time being), Link has done one of the most critical steps of the hero myth, the collection of the ultimate boon or achievement of his quest. The defeat of Ganondorf means that Hyrule has been saved and Link has done what the Great Deku Tree sent him out to do; he stopped the evil man who cursed him. This may be the most important part of the monomyth because if the hero does not succeed, they more than likely will not be revered as a hero or have their story told for many generations to come. In the context of Ocarina of Time, Link gains the title of Hero of Time for his heroic efforts. Of course, Link and Zelda will be the only ones who end up remembering many of the heroic deeds that have been carried out by not only Link but Zelda and the other sages because of the final events of the game. Link is okay with this, however, because he has reached apotheosis, a state of mind in which the hero is filled with knowledge, love, and joy for the world. Link doesn’t care about glory or honor and is content in knowing that because of him Hyrule will not be subjected to the many horrors it could have faced because of Ganondorf. This love and compassion is something he undoubtedly will carry with him through the rest of his life.
After Ganon’s defeat, Zelda and Link have a chance to talk. Zelda thanks Link for all he has done and apologizes because she feels she dragged him into a messy situation. As a continuation of the assistance from without and the final piece of the monomyth, the freedom to live, Zelda takes the Ocarina of Time of time from Link and plays a song to take him back in time seven years to his own time period. This is Zelda’s gift to Link; she gives him the gift of a normal life and the gift of the seven years that he did not get to experience. He no longer has to worry about the fate of the world, something that was thrust upon him at all too young of an age. He instead can live a normal life with only himself and Zelda knowing of the events that took place. The game ends with a scene of Zelda and Link meeting again for the first time as children.
Ocarina of Time was released twelve years ago in 1998 and has hardly had enough to time to develop into a classic myth like those found in Greek literature and other cultures. However, for many gamers who have grown up playing Ocarina of Time and experienced the magic of acting out the role of Link, the Hero of Time, it is nothing short of a legendary experience which is why The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is such a fantastic example of a modern day myth that follows Joseph Campell’s monomyth formula. It has inspired so many people all over the world and its impacts may not be fully seen for a long while. Perhaps someday in the future college students learning about the mythology present during our lifetime will get to relive the trials and tribulations of Link as he lives up to his title, the Hero of Time.
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