Did the Sages Play a Role in Creating the Master Sword?

The Master Sword is one of the most iconic items from the Zelda series. Also known as the Blade of Evil’s Bane, it has appeared in numerous games, and a few of these games have given backstories for the blade’s creation. Much like other things in the Zelda series, when these backstories are considered in the continuity of the series, they can be a bit conflicting. The most conflicting aspect is the role that the Seven Sages played in its creation. Some say that the Master Sword was created by the Sages themselves, and others show the creation of the Master Sword being a longer process that had nothing to do with them. So where is the truth among the myths and legends that surround the creation of the Blade of Evil’s Bane?

The Master Sword first appears in A Link to the Past. In the backstory for this game, we are told how the Master Sword is believed to have come into existence. It is said that after Ganon’s first sealing, the people, believing (correctly) that Ganon drew his power from the Triforce, created a sword that was resistant to magic and could repulse powers that were granted by the Triforce. This sword became known as the Master Sword, the Blade of Evil’s Bane.

When Ganon once again escaped the Sacred Realm, which had now become the Dark World, the Seven Wise Men searched for a hero to take up this blade against Ganon. However, no hero was found, resulting in Ganon’s second sealing within the Dark World. After this, the Master Sword, now having no purpose, was laid to rest deep within the Lost Woods, awaiting the day when the legendary Hero would draw it from its pedestal and wield it against an invading evil.

In a slight contradiction to this, the original Japanese text claims that the Master Sword was created long before Ganondorf even claimed the Triforce in the first place, and that the Wise Men were simply looking for a hero to wield this blade before they resorted to once again sealing Ganon within the Dark World. This suggests that the English version of the story is a mistranslation; and this follows through with the circumstances of the Master Sword’s next appearance in Ocarina of Time.

In Ocarina of Time, once Link opens the Door of Time and finds the Master Sword, Navi exclaims that you have found “the legendary blade”, indicating that even in Ocarina of Time, which is set hundreds of years before A Link to the Past, that the Master Sword was a mythical blade with unknown origins, therefore, it was created before Ganondorf first claimed the Triforce. To add further confusion to the origins of the Master Sword, the incarnation of Princess Zelda that appears in Twilight Princess claims that the Master Sword was “crafted by the wisdom of the ancient sages”.

Skyward Sword, being set before all other Zelda games, offers a great expansion on the creation of the Master Sword. At the start of the game, Link takes possession of the Goddess Sword, a sword wielded by the goddess Hylia in her battle against Demise. Over the course of the game, Link tempers the Goddess Sword in the Flames of the Goddesses, and after receiving the blessing of Zelda, the mortal incarnation of Hylia, it becomes the Master Sword. This brings some truth to both the English backstory for A Link to the Past, in that, it was people of the land that created the Master Sword itself, and to the Japanese backstory of A Link to the Past and Navi’s statement in Ocarina of Time, in that it was created long before the events of both games.

But what about Zelda’s statement in Twilight Princess that the Sages created the Master Sword? Where does that come in? Well, Skyward Sword also offers a solution to the problem created by that statement. In a vestibule between the Goddess Statue and the Sealed Temple, once the Goddess Statue has returned to the Surface, you can see a mural of the Triforce surrounded by the symbols of the six Sage Medallions from Ocarina of Time, as can be seen at the start of this editorial. This indicates that the Sages existed in Hylia’s time as a goddess, and puts forth the idea that the Sages created the Goddess Sword for Hylia, with the sword later becoming the Master Sword.

Another idea is that as time progressed, the legends were altered or forgotten, and other events, such as Rauru, the Sage of Light, building the Temple of Time around the Master Sword after the Sealed Temple wore away, blurred into the stories, until it was believed that the Sages created the Master Sword themselves. What do you believe? Do you believe that the Sages created the Goddess Sword for Hylia, or that they simply got blurred into the story over time? Do you have your own theory? Let me know in the comments.