Death Mountain

[Zora the Greek]

I think it's the same mountain every time, but since every game is a different legend being told by different people in different times of history, map layouts, shapes, and even distances get all screwed up with the word of mouth kind of storytelling.

I came to this thread to post exactly this. This is how I've always understood the LEGEND of Zelda series (hence the name.) Zelda 1, Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past - retellings of the same story passed down in a different way. Much like the stories of King Arthur or Robin Hood. Recognizable characters and settings, but repackaged by different storytellers over and over for a new storytelling purpose. Death Mountain is part of the trappings of the legend. Whether the mountain is north or south of Hyrule Castle would be irrelevant to an olde time oral storyteller of bygone days. I honestly think the Zelda creators take the same approach.

 

[ELDYLO]

I always thought that death mountain was a mountain range

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Volcanoes are made because of tectonic activity, this makes the whole Eldin region unpredictable. We could say maybe it is growing because new Volcanoes are forming. That would explain why Death Mountain in Twilight Princess appears to be a newer Volcano.

 

[Hyrulian Hero]

Let me just throw this out there to add to the confusion. Maybe we could look at the series as the Legend of Zelda instead of the Exact Contiguous First-Person Recounting of the Exact Events of the Story of Zelda. I love theorizing as much as the next person (see Where Clock Town Gets Its Water) but I kind of see this as falling into under the "Legend" category. It seems to me that maybe Death Mountain isn't the mountain that the Hylians point at and tell their children, "Link climbed that mountain and found the entrance six hundred and thirteen feet up on the SSW side between the two boulders. He delved inside, first going down a long hallway straight into a large cavern where..." "But dad, I thought he entered three hundred and sixty four feet up on the SW side below a fenceline where he ran up against a rock wall that he bombed...". I think it more likely that the Hylian's tell their children about how Link climbed "Death Mountain". Not a specific mountain to be surveyed and cartographed but a mythological place of danger and doom. Sisyphus didn't push the rock up that specific mountain, he pushed it up the mountain. Odysseus didn't face the cyclops in that specific cave, he faced him in the cave. But that's just my two cents, Death Mountain is the setting where Link helped ___ and defeated ___.

 

[hwrdjacob]

The Japanese versions actually can offer some insight; they explicitly state Death Mountain is more of a nickname, prior to LoZ, in ALttP, FSA, and TMC.

In ALttP and FSA, they say in the Japanese versions (and a reference to this even slips into English FSA) that the "official" name of "Death Mountain" is Hebra Mountain (hence, the Tower of Hera). Likewise, Mt. Crenal is referred to in one instance as "the Death Mountain" in Japanese TMC by a soldier. This can only mean one of two things; it's one mountain with at least 3 names, or Death Mountain is indeed a slang term that's thrown at several mountains. Either way, it is explicitly stated that Death Mountain isn't the "official" name of the mountain, at least prior to LoZ.

I'm personally inclined to think that the mountains inFSA, ALttP/ALBW, LoZ, and potentially SS and OoT are one mountain due to major landmarks connecting them, whereas the mountains in TMC and TP are another due to lack of said major landmarks, but that's only my current theory.

 

[hwrdjacob]

Let me just throw this out there to add to the confusion. Maybe we could look at the series as the Legend of Zelda instead of the Exact Contiguous First-Person Recounting of the Exact Events of the Story of Zelda. I love theorizing as much as the next person (see Where Clock Town Gets Its Water) but I kind of see this as falling into under the "Legend" category.

ALttP, ALBW, AoL, WW, and to a decidedly ironic extent SS disagree with you there. The thing is they set the "Legends" up as being historical written documents made by people who saw it firsthand, SS ironically giving the reason Hylians were so anal about writing things down and avoiding word of mouth. ALttP's manual and intro even imply "Legends" are just really old historical events, in the same way LotR does with "history became legend, legend became myth". It's setting it up AS a historical, first person recounting (potentially a written one if you want to presume that) of a "legendary" quest of the reincarnation of Hylia's Chosen Hero, in the same way say, Valley Forge was an event of "legendary" importance to America. Sure, the adult timeline shows history being distorted, but the fridge logic there- most of the documents were destroyed by the flood. Which furthermore would explain why Tetra has a few pieces of rough documentation, yet almost no one else in the great sea does (she's Zelda after all).

Let's not forget the second definition of Legendary in the dictionary is simply "remarkable enough to be famous" not "**** that's so distorted we need to take it with a grain of salt" Nor the fact the very first "Legend of Zelda", the tragedy of Zelda I, was handed to Link by Impa as a historical document written by a firsthand source, despite being called a "legend".

 

[Hyrulian Hero]

ALttP, ALBW, AoL, WW, and to a decidedly ironic extent SS disagree with you there.

Oh, not at all. In exactly the way that an event that happened yesterday is historical, yet nobody sees the event in the same way. The US won the war in Vietnam, the US lost the war in Vietnam, Malcom X is a terrorist, Malcom X is an activist, Link flew on a winged blue bear, Link rode in the pouch of a boxing kangaroo.

Like most other legends, the meaning and purpose of the main events are generally coherent whereas the specifics are often allegorical in nature. The point being that it doesn't matter which mountain it is, simply that it was Death Mountain. Did Link obtain the Fierce Deity Mask in MM? He did one time I played, he didn't another time I played. It seems to me that these legends only mean anything BECAUSE people interprate them differently. And in case you thinking that Death Mountain is a different case because it's mandatory, consider that nearly everything in BotW appears to be optional. Should it not be part of the legend?

I'm the same way that Link can't have succeeded, failed, AND died in OoT, Wolf Link can't really exist in the same place as Koroks (a la BotW) and the Ballad of the Wind Fish can't really show up in MM. We can explain it away all we want but the Legend of Zelda doesn't need to be manipulated to fit our expectations, it justifies itself as a legend.

That aside, the legend is open to interpretation so if Death Mountain is somewhere specific for you then it's true.

 

[Aidans]

The name "Death Mountain" has been thrown around since the original Legend of Zelda, and ever since it has appeared in eight games. However, the so-called "Death Mountains" are very different, so now I ask: are they all the same mountain?
Or is Death Mountain a traditional Hylian term for volcano?
Just a real short thing, wanna see what people think of it. Deku out

Who knows? Nintendo are'nt known for being geographically correct in zelda games.

 

[Aidans]

I'm not seeing it. Care to explain how they are the same map?

There was extreme volcanic activity pushing all of the locations around, or Nintendo have a large inconsistency in map design. something tells me it could be the later option.

 

[Tibari]

There are the Spectacle Rocks in Breath of the Wild:

So there is a link with the Death Moutain in this game

 

[Guest-2]

Sheesh I can't even get two replies.