The Lost Woods - A crossroads between dimensions?

  • Forests and Woods in literature almost always seem to be associated with mystery and the unknown. They spark curiosity and seem adventurous. In the Legend of Zelda series, in particular the games Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask, the Lost Woods depicts this feeling very well. It is a mystical place that defies the laws of physics, logic is irrelevant within it. Due to the Lost Woods' odd nature, I've recently begun to wonder if maybe it is a focal point in Hyrule—a crossroads between dimensions?

    Let's begin looking at the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time. There are only certain paths through it one can take to continue proceeding further, if you follow the right path you will enter the Forest Meadow. A special rule of the Lost Woods is if you get lost (stray from the right path) you end up back at the beginning of it. The path seems to only be known to the Kokiri, and the only Hylians who can find their way through (via listening to the music) are children. If adults wander into the woods they will likely become lost. If an adult becomes lost it is said they will become a stalfos, they will not simply return to the beginning of the woods like the Kokiri or Hylian children would.

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    Naturally this vast wood would be difficult to accurately navigate for someone who has never entered it, hence the name “Lost Woods”. It certainly has a magical enchantment. Though there is much more mystery to this wood. There are certain areas inside it which can get one to very far regions of the Hyrule instantaneously (A pool of water which if dived down can transport one near the entrance of Zora's Domain, and a doorway which has its other end in Goron City high atop Death Mountain). It's safe to assume this area is unlike any other in Hyrule, and after the part it played in Majora's Mask, I believe maybe it's a crossroads between dimensions.

    In Majora's Mask, Link, while in pursuit of Skull Kid, is lead to a sort of portal which takes him to a parallel world called Termina. Keep in mind that Link was very deep in the Lost Woods when this happened, which suggests that there are likely things about the woods that even the Kokiri are oblivious to. Due to the mystical nature of the wood, I believe that maybe the portal to Termina is just one of various portals possibly leading to other dimensions.

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    So how exactly can this be so? After some thought, it occured to me that the interdimensional portals in the Lost Woods might be the result of multiple “d-branes” resting closely together, and if an irregularity occurred, in this case presumably magic, causing them to touch, wormholes could conceivably open. This irregularity might explain the Lost Woods.


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    Maybe this is a far-fetched idea, but the idea exists in media, I'd reference Marvel Comics and the Crossroads of Infinity, a place which has endless portals to different dimensions. The Lost Woods, in my opinion, is probably the Hylian equivalent to such a place. The portal to Termina certainly works with this theory, and the mystical elements of the Lost Woods in particular would make it the perfect place to be such a focal point.

    In the end there are no other examples besides the portal to Termina to support this theory. It's possible that the maybe portal to Termina is the exception, there are no other portals like it. Maybe the Lost Woods is just a really odd enchanted forest that one can easily become lost in, can find paths to travel to far regions fast, and has one portal to a parallel world? Maybe it's a focal point for multiple portals to different dimensions? If there is one thing we know that is certain, it's that the Lost Woods is clearly out of the ordinary.

  • Spiritual Mask Salesman December 17, 2018 at 6:48 PM

    Changed the title of the thread from “The Lost Woods - A crossroads between dimensions.” to “The Lost Woods - A crossroads between dimensions?”.
  • I read this a while ago but had nothing to add, other than very interesting, good observations. Come to think of it now though, there is a Shinto element to this. Miyamoto has said Shinto had a profound impact on him and particularly Zelda, and there's a nice video which includes how it fits into OoT. It would support the idea that the Lost Woods is indeed unusual and inter-dimensional, but perhaps from more of a spiritual, divine slant than a science-fiction one. The idea of nature, and particularly forests, being gateways to the spiritual or divine realm. I can't help but think how in TP the Temple Of Time has somehow wound up in a forest - whether that's because the Temple itself moved or because a new forest grew around the temple.