Princess Zelda

Princess of Hyrule
Princess Zelda of Hyrule. She is one of, if not the most important character of the Legend of Zelda series, which is also why the series is named after her. She made her first appearance in the original The Legend of Zelda, and has appeared in as good as every entry to the series after that. She is also chosen by destiny to be the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, which is the main reason why she plays such an integral role in the legends of Hyrule.

[Throughout the history] of Hyrule, there have been several incarnations of the Princess. The "first" is generally considered to be the one who was seen in Ocarina of Time, where we got to see her both as a child and as a nearly grown up woman.

Ocarina of Time
 Zelda I 

Zelda is the daughter of the King of Hyrule, and eventually the Seventh Sage and the holder of the Triforce of Wisdom.The true heir to the royal family, she is of the Hylian race. She begins the game as a young girl blessed with prophetic abilities.In a dream of symbolic importance, she senses Ganondorf’s treachery and predicts Link’s arrival before either occurs.



When Link meets her for the first time in Hyrule Castle Courtyard, she sends him on a quest to collect the three Spiritual Stones and protect the Triforce from Ganondorf. When Ganondorf attacks Hyrule Castle, Zelda and her nurse maid Impa, a Sheikah, flee the castle on horseback. The princess throws the Ocarina of Time into the moat in front of the Hyrule Castle Town for Link to retrieve.  When Link returns seven years later, he encounters Zelda. She claims to be Sheik, survivor of the Sheikah tribe. It is Sheik who gives Link clues to the locations of the various temples and teaches him special songs enabling him to warp to them at will. After the final temple guardian is conquered, Zelda risks her life, revealing her identity and that she is the Seventh Sage. She informs Link that both she and he hold pieces of the Triforce and gives him the Light Arrows, but moments later is captured by Ganondorf and imprisoned in a pink crystal in his tower at the former site of Hyrule Castle. 

Following Ganondorf’s defeat, she is freed and assists Link in his escape from the collapsing fortress. She also helps Link defeat Ganon by holding him in place with her magic while Link delivers the final blow. After Hyrule is saved, Zelda uses the Ocarina of Time to send Link back to the past, allowing him (and Hyrule) to regain seven years lost to tragedy.

Majora’s Mask
Majora's Mask is one of few games to not feature Zelda prominently. She does appear breifly in a cutscene torwards the beggining of the game. In a flashback, the young Zelda from Ocarina of Time is seen talking to Link as the moon is descending toward Termina on the night of the Third Day. She gives him the Ocarina of Time and re-teaches him the Song of Time. She plays no other role in the game.

Twilight Princess
 Zelda II 

Zelda was the young ruler of Hyrule until its invasion by Zant, the Twilight King. Upon his invasion she surrendered to him to prevent the deaths of her people. Being noble and admitting defeat she is imprisoned inside a tower in Hyrule Castle. Although she does not become a spirit under the influence of the Twilight King's magic like her people because she has the power of the gods - in her case, the Triforce of Wisdom. It is here that she meets Link, transformed by the Twilight's power.

After Midna is nearly killed by the power of Light, Zelda transfers her Triforce to Midna in an attempt to help. Apparently loosing her physical form in the process. After this confusing cutscene the player does not meet up with Zelda II again until the very end. In Hyrule Castle, Zelda's lifeloss body is hung up from a statue of the Triforce. After a confrontation with Gaondorf, Midna tries to save Zelda as she was once saved, but it's too late. The great King of Evil takes over Zelda's body and a battle ensues between Link II and a posessed Zelda. After Ganondorf's influence is purged from Zelda's body, we learn that Zelda's heart had been within Midna since the transfer of the Triforce.

Ganondorf makes another attempt on Zelda's life soon after, but she is protected by the Light Spirits of Hyrule, who grant her the Light Arrows to assist Link in part of his final battle. The last time she is seen in the game is when she and Link say good-bye to Midna at the Mirror of Twilight. Midna comments on how selfless Princess Zelda is and that the people of Hyrule will be okay if they are half as just as she. After they say thier goodbyes, Midna shatters the Mirror of Twilight, seperating the two worlds from each once and for all.

The Legend of Zelda
Zelda is the princess of Hyrule and is kidnapped by Ganon in this game. She breaks the Triforce of Wisdom into eight pieces before being imprisoned, forcing Link to hunt down the pieces and reunite the Triforce of Wisdom before confronting Ganon and rescuing Zelda.

The Adventure of Link
In Adventure of Link, a more complicated origin of Zelda is revealed. The slain Ganon's minions are ravaging Hyrule and a mysterious tattoo has appeared on Link's hand. Impa, Zelda's handmaid, explains the true Legend of Zelda to Link. Well before the events of The Legend of Zelda game, Hyrule was a prosperous land ruled by a king who had two children, an unnamed Prince and Princess Zelda. However, a evil wizard came to the Prince and told him that the path to true power lay with the Triforce. The Prince gives into the wizard's whispers and seeks the Triforce. When the wizard tells the Prince that Zelda knows the location of the mystical object, the Prince demands that Zelda turn the information over to him. Zelda refuses and, in a rage, the wizard puts Zelda into a deep sleep, but dies from the magical backlash. Overcome with grief, the Prince seals his sleeping sister in the North Palace and orders that all female descendants of the Hylian monarchy are to be named Zelda. In the game itself, Link must recover seven crystals to open the gates of the North Palace. There Link fights Dark Link, recovering the Triforce of Courage, and awakening the sleeping Zelda. It is not clear whether or not any of the Zeldas in the games are the "true" Zelda or if they are simply the duplicates of the sleeping princess. Because it is not known when Zelda was put to sleep, the answer may never be known.

A Link to the Past
A direct descendant of Zelda I, she is but one of the seven maidens descended from the sages who sealed Ganon away during the Imprisoning War. At the beginning of the game, she is imprisoned in the dungeon of Hyrule Castle by Agahnim, who plans on sacrificing her along with the other six maidens in order to break the seal between the Light and Dark World. This would free Agahnim’s alter ego, Ganon, from the Dark World and allow him to wreak havoc on Hyrule. Zelda telepathically calls for help, contacting Link’s uncle and then Link himself. Link rescues Zelda and takes her into the Sanctuary, where she remains, safe, for part of the game. After Link retrieves the Master Sword from the Lost Woods, Zelda is kidnapped by Agahnim’s henchmen and sent to the dark world in his final ritual, breaking the seal. She is not seen again until she is rescued by Link from Turtle Rock (the seventh dungeon in the Dark World). Saving Zelda and the other six maidens opens the entrance to Ganon’s Tower, the final dungeon of the game.

The Minish Cap
Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that Princess Zelda was named after Zelda Fitzgerald, Scott Fitzgerald's wife (citation needed).

The Many Princesses Named Zelda
As mentioned above, there have been more than one Princess named Zelda throughout the history of Hyrule, and not even all of them have appeared in the games to this date. All of them generally have the same appearance of a beautiful young girl/woman with red or blond hair and blue eyes.

When Princess Zelda IV (at least to our best knowledge) was put in a deep coma by a wizard in the prologue for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, her brother the Prince of Hyrule, who was partly to blame for her comatose, decided that in honor of his sister every princess born in to the Royal Family of Hyrule should be named Zelda.

The different princesses who have appeared in the games are Princess Zelda who appeared in Ocarina of Time, generally considered the first, then later the Princess Zelda who appeared in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, most often considered the second, and then the third who appeared in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It is not definite, but the fourth Princess Zelda is generally considered the one awakened by Link in The Adventure of Link, and then the fifth is the one seen in the original The Legend of Zelda.

Zelda's Alter Egos
In Ocarina of Time Link met up with a mysterious member of the Sheikah Tribe, fittingly called Sheik. This person taught Link a multitude of different songs and gave him tips on how to proceed in his quest. At the end of the game, Sheik revealed himself to be none other than Princess Zelda in a disguise. During the seven years Link had been asleep while maturing to become ready to fight Ganondorf, Zelda had gone underground and taken the disguise as Sheik so that Ganondorf would not find her in his search for the two remaining pieces of the Triforce, one which was held by Princess Zelda herself.

Born in to a society of pirates on the Great Sea, with the realms of Hyrule flooded under endless amounts of water, Tetra, a captain of the Pirates was completely unaware of her being a part of the Royal Family of Hyrule's bloodline. When this was revealed to her by King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, she was just as surprised as Link to find out that she was indeed Princess Zelda of Hyrule, and also the one destined to be the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom.

While she was said to be the Twilight Princess in the game of the same name, she is not. That title goes to Midna, which you find out later in the game.

Starred In

 * The Legend of Zelda


 * Zelda II: The Adventure of Link


 * The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past


 * The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time


 * The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Only seen once in a flashback.


 * The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons - In the linked game.


 * The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords


 * The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker


 * The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures


 * The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap


 * The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Non-Zelda Games:


 * Super Smash Bros Melee