Thursday, June 14, 2007

Hylian, Hyrulean, Hylan, what is it?!

Over time, the history of Hyrule has grown much to a point where we can determine it's creation, culture, major events, and changes over time. We know much about the land of Hyrule, and it's many shapes, but I've always wondered: how do you refer to it's inhabitants and history, as a type? Is it Hylian lore, Hyrulean legends, or even Hylan history? Which word(s) are actually proper, and if more than one are, then when do we use them, and in reference to what?

To find the answer, I first went to the official Zelda website, Zelda Universe. While looking through the encyclopedia of Zelda terms, I found an interesting entry about 'Bad Bats.' This entry refers to "Hyrulean Keese," comparing them to the "Bad Bat."

So, we have "Hyrulean" used to refer to a creature. So "Hyrulean" is correct, but it only in specific instances?

In the 'Bomb Bag' entry, a reference is made to "Hyrulean explosives." Further references later on include "Hyrulean engineering," "Hyrulian children," Hyrulean language," "Hyrulean descendants," "Hyrulean magicians," and Thus we can infer that Hyrulean refers to aspects of Hyrule itself, including creatures, materials, objects, culture, etc.

It is known that the inhabitants of Hyrule are referred to as "Hylians," as demonstrated in the 'Bomb' entry of the encyclopedia, and various other sources. So thus we now have "Hyrulean" to refer to things about Hyrule and "Hylian" to refer to it's people. If you are describing something as from Hyrule, then you say it's Hyrulean (Hyrulean shield, Hyrulean magic, Hyrulean people, etc). If you are referring to the people of Hyrule, you can either call them 'the Hyrulean people or Hylians (Link is a Hylian, one of the Hyrulean people). According to the encyclopedia, "Hylian" refers to the actual race of people that Link belongs to, not all of the different species together. So you could say the inhabitants of Hyrule, or Hyrulean inhabitants, include Hylians, Zoras, Gorons, and Gerudo.

(Let it be known that though the Zelda Universe encyclopedia is apparently Nintendo made, there are some contradictions within it's information when it comes to names of creatures. For example, one entry had the word "Hyrulian," which seems to be simply a misspelling of "Hyrulean." Some of the information is altogether incorrect, as in the "Cojiro" entry.

Cojiro

A blue cucco which hatched from Link's Pocket Egg. Cojiro was known for having a particularly shrill cry.
Ocarina of Time



In fact, Cojiro himself didn't hatch from the Pocket Egg, but was given to Link in the middle of its life by th 'Cucco Girl' in Kakariko Village. How else would it have recognized its former keeper, the man in the Lost Woods?)

(Side note: In the case of Termina, the location of the events of Majora's Mask, I also found a reference to "Terminan History" in the encyclopedia, as well as referring to the people as "Terminans".)