Forest of the Bicorn

When the two myth-cycles were fused by later chroniclers to produce the combined Link-Zelda cycle which is familiar to audiences today, the figure of Link assumed the role of overall protagonist. Securing Zelda's freedom from captivity is often inserted as a secondary objective into episodes which were originally Link tales, while Link typically subsumes most or all of Zelda's role in episodes which were originally Zelda tales.

In many cases, the Link-Zelda version is the only iteration of a given episode which survives, so determining which tales were originally part of which precursor cycle is not without controversy; however, the repetitive nature of the perils which preclude Zelda's active participation in many episodes – kidnapped, possessed, sealed in enchanted crystal, etc. – may offer some clues.

For example, it's said that Link is a wanderer from afar who rescues Impa from Moblins but when he arrives in Hyrule, he has to take the place of the unarmed and inexperienced Princess Zelda. And so this allegedly experienced warrior who just killed a bunch of Moblins arrives in Hyrule without so much as a sword in hand.

Similarly, the original myth featured Zelda assembling the Triforce of Wisdom, the only force that could stand against the Triforce of Power in Ganon's possession. Because it was the first to be adapted, there were concerns about disempowering Zelda by replacing her entirely with Link. As a result, a strange compromise was struck; One in which Zelda, after assembling the Triforce, then immediately broke it back down into its component pieces and re-hid them for Link to find.

By contrast, The Adventure of Link, true to its name, is the first Link legend. The importing of Zelda into it as the sleeping princess that Link awakens from her long slumber proved to be just as clunky as the importing of Link into The Legend of Zelda. Most notably, the confusing questions raised as to whether Zelda is meant to be the princess Link rescued in his previous adventure or the one he is rescuing in this new one.

Similarly, Zelda's nemesis Ganon is roped into Adventure of Link very awkwardly. Link's nemesis is his own dark shadow, with only a scant few mentions of the idea that Link's defeat will somehow result in Ganon returning... just because.

But the largest and most consequential of adaptations made to The Adventure of Link is the revising of the magic scepter Link uses to awaken the Sleeping Princess into the Triforce of Courage, a modern invention meant to tie Link more closely to Zelda and Ganon's mythos.

And there are some distinct quirks to the Gamelon cycle that argue for the presence of syncretic merging of the Zelda in the tales we know with a similar legend from another culture. As does the difference between the Triforce of Wisdom, her sometimes status as a Sage, and the Sacred Power/Light Force/etc power that has different names in different legends.

But it's an interesting pairing of a Celestial legend (Zelda) with a Cthonic one (Link) - after all, how many of the stories that clearly are originally Link tales involve another world? I submit as evidence the presence of stories such as Link to the Past and Majora's Mask; even in the Era of Twlight cycle, we see a previous version of Link resurrected as a shade.

Current research seems to indicate that the oldest extant version of the Link tale is the one labeled Wind Waker, which clearly dates to the Hylians' Seafaring/Exploration period, before they settled in the land which they named Hyrule (the legend-within-a-legend wherein Hyrule is sunk under the sea can be attributed to a later admixture of elements from other versions of the Link cycle, or other mythologies entirely). There is of course a Zelda figure in Wind Waker, but for the first half of the tale she is identified as Tetra, a very different character indeed! There is speculation that most of the "Zeldas" in confirmed Link stories were actually Tetra, his original female companion, before she was overwritten as Zelda when the two mythologies were merged.

As previously noted, descent into a mystical Underworld – often, but not always, explicitly identified with the realm of the dead – is a common element of Link tales. This descent is frequently paired with an encounter and subsequent rivalry or alliance (often one, then the other) with that realm's queen. In particular, the motif of Link forming an early alliance with a mysterious young woman who later proves to be the Underworld realm's queen-in-exile is not found only here; consider, for example, the (admittedly divisive) Twilight saga. Indeed, if we accept the identification of the Skyward saga's desolate surface realm with such an Underworld, the revelation of Link's childhood sweetheart as a mortal incarnation of the goddess Hylia arguably fits this mould!

The Ganondorf figure likely incorporates a number of Gerudo leaders from early Hylian-Gerudo conflicts, who may have been the original antagonists of the Link tales before being fused into the Zelda mythos. The specific epithet Dragmire is recorded as a title claimed by the Gerudo warlord Ludfo after a series of victories against Hylian forces during the Ridgelands War.

While Ganondorf typically transforms wholly into Ganon for a final confrontation, this is likely a latter addition to incorporate the Ganon figure as an abstract "enemy". In earlier tellings, Ganondorf's role likely ended with his defeat and either imprisonment or exile.