Characters

Link is the hero. He had been sailing the seas on a journey of training when a storm and a lightning strike wrecked his ship and left him unconscious on the beach. He wakes in Marin’s house in Mabe Village. To get home he must collect the eight Instruments of the Sirens from the dungeons and play them in front of the Wind Fish’s Egg. Along the way he learns that Koholint is a dream, and that waking the Wind Fish will make it fade.

Marin lives in Mabe Village with her father, Tarin. She finds Link on the shore of Toronbo Shores and nurses him back to health, and when he first wakes he mistakes her for Princess Zelda. She loves to sing, and her favorite is the Ballad of the Wind Fish, which she sings beside the weathercock in the village and teaches you once you own the Ocarina; if she has already moved on, she teaches it in Animal Village. She dreams of being a seagull so she could fly away and see the world beyond the sea. She helps you wake the sleeping Walrus by singing, then stays in Animal Village to sing for the animals.

The Wind Fish is a huge flying whale who sleeps inside a giant egg on top of Mt. Tamaranch, the highest mountain of the Tal Tal Mountain Range. Koholint is his dream, with its people, animals and monsters. Playing the eight Instruments of the Sirens in front of the egg wakes him, but when he wakes the island and everyone on it will vanish. The writing on the wall of the Southern Face Shrine hints at this, and the Owl says nobody can be sure whether it is true.

Tarin is Marin’s father, a cheerful and rather clumsy man who lives in Mabe Village and adores mushrooms. He gives Link back his Shield after the wreck and tells him that a sword has washed up on the beach. Later he goes into the Mysterious Forest to look for mushrooms and is turned into a raccoon, and you change him back by sprinkling Magic Powder on him. He turns up again beside a beehive in Ukuku Prairie, where you give him a Stick as part of the trading sequence.

Madam MeowMeow lives in Mabe Village and fusses over BowWow, her big pet Chain Chomp. She also keeps two smaller ones, ChowChow in the house and CiaoCiao in the doghouse beside it. When you come back from Tail Cave, Moblins kidnap BowWow, and you rescue him from the Moblin Cave. She asks you to take him for a walk, and he eats the Goponga Flowers that block the way into Bottle Grotto. Bring him home afterwards and she thanks you. In the trading sequence, CiaoCiao is the one who takes the Ribbon.

Grandpa Ulrira is a shy old man who lives in Mabe Village with his wife, Grandma Ulrira, and is said to know everything about the island. He will not say much in person; he tells you to phone him instead. Call him from any of the telephone booths scattered around Koholint and he gives hints about where to go next and how to solve what is blocking you. In Link’s Awakening DX you can also peek through the window of his house and the Photographer snaps him in action; see the photographs page.

The Owl first appears when you pick up your sword on Toronbo Shores, and then pops up repeatedly to tell you where to go. He is the one who sends you to the Mysterious Forest for the Tail Key, explains the Instruments of the Sirens and points you toward each new dungeon, including the Southern Face Shrine where the wall’s message about the dream waits. He turns out to be part of the Wind Fish’s own spirit, the guardian of his dream. After you defeat the last Nightmare he says goodbye on top of the Egg.

The Nightmares are monsters that invaded the Wind Fish’s dream and set out to keep him from ever waking. Eight of them hold the Instruments of the Sirens in the dungeons: Moldorm, Genie, Slime Eye, Angler Fish, Slime Eel, Facade, Evil Eagle and Hot Head. They created the monsters that roam the island, and several tell you the island is a dream when they fall. The last Nightmare is a shape-shifter that takes six forms in the Wind Fish’s Egg and ends as DethI. See the boss strategies and the enemies page for how to beat each one.