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TLoZ Series Triforce of Wisdom Artwork

The Triforce of Wisdom resonating

The Triforce of Wisdom[1] is one of the three pieces of the Triforce. It embodies the essence of the Goddess of Wisdom, Nayru, the author of law.[2] It imparts divine wisdom upon its holder, and grants the holder untold mystical abilities, including the ability to heal others[3] and, presumably, the ability to communicate telepathically. The Triforce of Wisdom leads its holder to make the right decisions,[4] making them wiser than any mortal.[5] Princess Zelda is usually the Triforce of Wisdom's bearer. It represents the lower-left piece of the Triforce.

Location and uses[]

TLoZ Link Holding the Triforce of Wisdom Artwork

Link holding the restored Triforce of Wisdom, from The Legend of Zelda

The Triforce of Wisdom is one of the two Triforce pieces initially introduced in the original The Legend of Zelda alongside the Triforce of Power, where Zelda purposely shatters the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hides them throughout the land, fearing Ganon's rule after he steals its counterpart.[6] Link must fully reassemble the Triforce of Wisdom if he hopes to enter Death Mountain (Level-9), destroy Ganon once and for all, take the Triforce of Power for himself, and rescue the princess of Hyrule in order to save the land. During the final battle, Link uses the restored Triforce of Wisdom's light to expose Ganon from the pitch-black darkness before the fight.

In The Adventure of Link, after defeating his shadow self in the Great Palace and obtaining the Triforce of Courage, Link unites the previous two pieces with it to wake up Princess Zelda from her deep magical slumber. The young hero would also use the Triforce of Wisdom alongside the Power and Courage pieces to fully restore Hyrule back to its peaceful state after destroying Ganon in A Link to the Past.

Triforce of Wisdom in OoT

The Triforce of Wisdom glowing on Princess Zelda's hand, as seen in Ocarina of Time

When the Triforce was split into its three aspects in Ocarina of Time by Ganondorf claiming the Triforce in the Sacred Realm shortly after Link pulls the Master Sword from its pedestal in the Temple of Time, Princess Zelda was imparted with the Triforce of Wisdom, while Ganondorf and Link respectively obtain the Triforce of Power and Triforce of Courage.[7] This seemingly allowed her to disguise herself as a male Sheikah named Sheik, for 7 years, until the eventual return of the Hero of Time; The crest of the Triforce of Wisdom on the back of Sheik's hand shines before revealing his true identity to the young hero as Princess Zelda. Her possession of the Triforce of Wisdom also makes Zelda leader of the Six Sages, and she is also one, herself, as the seventh, indicating her importance of giving Link the Light Arrows and sealing Ganon away into the Evil Realm upon his brutal defeat by the hero. The Triforce's power also allows the princess to send the Hero of Time back to his original time at the end of the game, creating new history doing so.[8]

In The Wind Waker, before the events of the game, the Triforce of Wisdom was split in two. Zelda, in her disguise as the pirate Tetra, carries a large part of this piece of the Triforce in the form of a pendant that was given to her by her mother before she passed away. The remaining fragment is then given to her by the last King of Hyrule, thus revealing her true identity as the Princess of Hyrule.[9] It is explained by Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule that the Triforce of Wisdom was given to Tetra's ancestors with the task of protecting it from Ganondorf's grasp.[10] It was first seen when Link, the Hero of Winds, attempted to strike down Ganondorf with the powerless Master Sword and Tetra tried to save him from being killed by the evil warlock, which his Triforce of Power resonated upon seeing the "pendant". Despite possessing the Triforce of Wisdom, Zelda herself had virtually no use of it in this game, unlike Link and Ganondorf with their respective pieces, as well as some other titles of the series. In the finale, however, Ganondorf extracted all of the three sacred pieces to reform the complete Triforce in an attempt to make a wish, but was thwarted by King Daphnes.

In Twilight Princess, when Zant transformed the kingdom of Hyrule into a world covered by Twilight, the Triforce of Wisdom seemingly protects Princess Zelda from becoming a spirit in the world of Twilight, much like how Link, the Hero of Twilight, was protected by his Triforce of Courage.[11] Later on in the game, Princess Zelda transfers her powers to the dying Midna in order to save her, thus allowing the Twili imp to be able to withstand light.[3]

In A Link Between Worlds, during the finale, Princess Hilda steals the Triforce of Wisdom from Zelda and summons Yuga. When Yuga, after he fuses with Ganon betrays Hilda and absorbs her, he takes the Triforce of Wisdom for himself, combining it with the Triforce of Power after usurping Ganon's control, during the final battle.

In Echoes of Wisdom, Zelda, similar to in Ocarina of Time, ended up getting the Triforce of Wisdom after Null's attempt of using the Triforce (called Prime Energy in-game) to bring Hyrule into the void via an echo of Zelda failed. Although Null deduced Princess Zelda's holding of the Triforce of Wisdom, it ignored her for the time being due to intending to grab Link's Triforce of Courage first.

Trivia[]

  • The Triforce of Wisdom is the piece of the Triforce broken up into fragments the most times in the franchise, as seen in The Legend of Zelda and The Wind Waker. It is also the one stolen by antagonists the most as well.
  • Although the Triforce of Wisdom indeed grants divine wisdom due to the blessings of Nayru, the piece itself does not appear to affect one's own intelligence. In the case of Ocarina of Time, Princess Zelda, despite being its bearer and as a Sage, displays a character flaw multiple times throughout the game's story; Her desperate decision of protecting the Sacred Realm through Link failed during their childhood, she left herself completely exposed to Ganondorf upon shedding her Sheik disguise for the Hero when the princess knows she should be hiding, and, most notably, when Zelda sends the Hero of Time back to the past at the ending, she was not aware of the longtime negative effects for Link and Hyrule when the princess split the timeline, consequently making his legacy not being remembered in the Child Timeline, as well as leaving the Adult counterpart without a Hero when Ganon eventually returns by the events of The Wind Waker and the kingdom ultimately being flooded.
  • Link fully reassembling the Triforce of Wisdom in the original Legend of Zelda is the first instance in The Legend of Zelda series where the the three main characters obtain a part of the Triforce that normally belongs to another, although by the release of the NES game in 1986, the Triforce of Courage was not yet in existence until its sequel, The Adventure of Link in the following year, and was not the hero's standard piece until the N64's Ocarina of Time in 1998.
  • The number of fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom being split in The Legend of Zelda was reused for the Triforce of Courage's Shards in The Wind Waker - eight.
  • In The Legend of Zelda TV series, like its Power counterpart, the Triforce of Wisdom has the ability to speak, something which does not occur in the games.

Gallery[]

Referances[]

  1. The Crystal Trap, Simon & Schuster, pg. 2
  2. "Nayru, the goddess of wisdom... [...] Poured her wisdom onto the earth and gave the spirit of law to the world." — Great Deku Tree (Ocarina of Time)
  3. 3.0 3.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named heal
  4. "It is time for you to choose: surrender or die. Oh yes, a question for all the land and people of Hyrule... Life? Or death?!" — Zant (Twilight Princess)
  5. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named ALttP Manual 3
  6. "LONG AGO, GANON, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, STOLE THE TRIFORCE OF POWER. PRINCESS ZELDA OF HYRULE BROKE THE TRIFORCE OF WISDOM INTO EIGHT PIECES AND HID THEM FROM GANON BEFORE SHE WAS KIDNAPPED BY GANON'S MINIONS. LINK, YOU MUST FIND THE PIECES AND SAVE ZELDA." — N/A (The Legend of Zelda)
  7. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named wisdom
  8. "Link, give the Ocarina to me... As a Sage, I can return you to your original time with it." — Princess Zelda (Ocarina of Time)
  9. "This necklace you wear is part of a sacred treasure called the Triforce of Wisdom, which has been passed down for many ages within the royal family of Hyrule. Your mother passed this down to you and instructed you to treasure it...and to guard it with your life. Am I not correct?" — Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule (The Wind Waker)
  10. "The Triforce of Wisdom is none other than the sacred power of the gods that we have kept from Ganon's clutches for so many long years. The gods placed upon your ancestors the task of protecting it from evil's grasp." — Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule (The Wind Waker)
  11. "In the land covered in twilight, where people roam as spirits, you were transformed into a blue-eyed beast... That was a sign... It was a sign that the powers of the chosen one rest within you...and that they are awakening." — Faron (Twilight Princess)
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