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What is written on Ganondorf’s Swords?

August 26th, 2006 at 8:53 pm by Jack

(Just a note, this blog first appeared in blog form at TDC. But, due to its conjectural value, the topic demands a wider audience.)

During the current replay of The Wind Waker that I am engaging in, I got to the point where Link and Ganon meet for the first time. During the cutscene I noticed some Hylian script engraved on Ganon’s sword. Here’s a screenshot of the script:

Also, here’s a link to a negative of the image to see the script clearer.

I did some research on the internet, and the general consensus that I have encountered about the sword’s writing is that one blade says “Koume” and the other “Kotake”.

Far be it from me violate consensus, but I at a loss to explain the following: the characters seem to be the following:

The characters would translate to HO, N, MO, and NO. The word “honmono” means “real thing” or “genuine article.”

I’ll spare myself the embarassment of venturing a guess and being utterly wrong, and thus leave it up to ZB’s teeming millions to address. What’s “real thing” doing on Ganon’s sword… what’s the deal?

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61 Messages from the Gossip Stones about “What is written on Ganondorf’s Swords?”

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    i went online and it says koume and kotake are the twinrova sisters look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinrova. you can highlight it and paste it to look for those of u who dont know

    srry my last reply didnt take you where i was hoping but click on it and put in a seach at the site for the words im positive

    aaahhh its me again i tryed and it didnt work i did a yahoo search so mabe u can to but im positive its twinrova

    No, I know who Twinrova are. My question is, what does is the meaning of “real thing” on Ganondorf’s swords?

    well i doubt this but i did a search and it said 1 ment small baby and the other ment small bamboo but i dont think so
    • 6. TSA says:
      August 26th, 2006 at 10:23 pm [quote]

    The symbol 2nd from the left pretty clearly looks like the “ke” symbol in Hylian. Also, if you read it from left to right, the 3rd to left symbol is “flipped” wrong for it to be the “mo” symbol.

    The Hylian translation of Ganondorf’s blades came from Zethar sometime after The Wind Waker was released - he posted it on IGN’s boards. He had visual evidence - pretty nice high rez screens of the Hylian on both swords, and he posted the Hylian, and then showed they corresponded to the “KO” “TA” and “KE” and “KO” “U” and “ME” symbols.

    The image you have seems to be of the “right-handed” sword, which is on the Koume side (fire/red side of his robes - see middle of them), but it seems you may have a screen of the flip side.

    Regardless, because of how blurry this shot is, I can’t make it out. But that 2nd from left symbol has more to it, and really, really looks like the “ke” symbol.
    • 7. TSA says:
      August 26th, 2006 at 10:52 pm [quote]

    I just looked at it in-game. The four symbols do say HONMONO, but there is a fifth symbol to the fight of them.

    I’m going to the ending to see if there are markings on the sword. Hmm, seems Zethar wasn’t correct on this, or else he was speaking of the ending…we’ll see.

    Your explanation is really plausible TSA, but there appear to be four symbols on the sword, and Kotake and Koume are each three symbols. Do you have the high rez screens (or anybody for that matter)? I can’t seem to find them, and I’d like to put this matter to rest.

    Looking forward to what you find.
    • 9. TSA says:
      August 26th, 2006 at 11:04 pm [quote]

    I’ve checked the ending, the swords are identical. The phrase “HONMONO” appears on both sides of both blades.

    That “fifth” symbols is just some decorative mark - I never saw it clear enough to determine if it was Hylian, but it appears to be the same on both sides of both blades.

    Now…anyone have the JAPANESE version of this game on hand? We need to take a look there - Zethar’s screens were from the Japanese version…

    I think Hylian is really gibberish. And the fact that anything says anything is pure BS and coincidence. More of the first than the second. However if the blades are identical then thy can’t say Koume on one and Kotake on the other. “Real Thing” could mean that he’s the real Ganon who escaped the seal, not a fake. Or it could be a hint to Link being the Real Thing” decendant of The Hero of Time.
    • 11. TSA says:
      August 26th, 2006 at 11:23 pm [quote]

    The best way I can explain the use of the term Honmono is that I’ve most used/seen it to express “true love”. It also can be used in Japanese as an implied state, when translating into English, the diction can omit the term “true” or “real”. But since most of you get it, oh well. If you don’t get what it means, I think the best English term is “authentic” or “genuine”. Like if you ask if a diamond is authetnic/real or not.

    This is intriguing. So as it goes, the Phantom Ganon sword says the names of the Majora’s Mask smithies? They gave him the sword, perhaps? Then just maybe, the twin blades Ganondorf has are gifts from his surrogate mothers? Perhaps they are to symbolize Ganondorf is “genuine”, whereas Phantom Ganon and all his other incarnations are mere shadows? Eh, or it could just be another stupid Nintendo joke.

    Now that I know this, I would like to ask Mr. Aonuma or Mr. Miyamoto why the blades say what they do…

    I’m going out on a limb here for a theory. Maybe it’s a way to avoid the use of “Made in China.”

    Light Link 007: Hylian is not gibberish. Think of it as Wingdings in Japanese. Same letters, same words, different characters to represent them. Hylian, unsurprisingly, is Japanese.

    http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hylian2.htm

    Here’s a website that has the translations of Modern Hylian(WW Style). I know most of you probaly know about this, but for those who don’t it is a reference.
    • 15. Psy says:
      August 26th, 2006 at 11:49 pm [quote]

    Going out on a branch, I’m willing to bet that the swords are given to him by Koume and Kotake, and honmo basically means that they “loved him like true mothers”, or something to that effect.

    What I still find strange, though, is what reason Nintendo could possibly ever have to change something like that.

    I don’t think the Hylian texts were meant to be taken seriously. Who wants to eat a cake made of Deku Seeds anyway?

    http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/zelda_wind_waker_hylian_text.txt

    TSA, when you say other incarnations, do you mean that the form of Ganon in the other games really isn’t him?

    About Hylian being Japanese,,, I don’t think Nintendo would go through the trouble of creating a whole entire new language, that’s why it’s like that, but if we ever really heard it or saw the “true” Hylian writing, it would most likely be a lot different.

    As for the blades, well, I’d have to agree that they were gifts from Ganon’s surrogate mothers, and that word symbolizes that they loved him like they were his true mothers.
    • 18. TSA says:
      August 27th, 2006 at 2:19 am [quote]

    I meant Phantom Ganon and Puppet Ganon.

    Im more inclined to believe that the words on the swords say “Koume” and “Kotake” it just makes more sense then the other possibilities.

    Robert-UK said:

    Im more inclined to believe that the words on the swords say “Koume” and “Kotake” it just makes more sense then the other possibilities.

    Yeah but you can’t exaclty beat photographic evidence, even though it’s too fuzzy to be seen clearly. I guess no one got my joke from my last comment. Anyways, I still think that one symbol that looks kinda like a “4″ is that symbol, the letter “KE” (as stated on your website, Jack) but the current symbol does make more sense.

    There might still be continuation in it.
    It becomes another meaning if there is continuation.
    HOKEMO NO … -> … of HOKEMO
    -> HOKEMO’s …

    It is thought by others.
    Because it is columnar writing, it is thought not “NO” but “Vowel lengthener”.

    However, I do not understand the meaning of HOKEMO, HONMO, HOKEMO-, and HONMO-.

    Hyrulian Hero said:

    Anyways, I still think that one symbol that looks kinda like a “4″ is that symbol, the letter “KE” (as stated on your website, Jack) but the current symbol does make more sense.

    I thought so too originally, but if you look at the image, it’s clearly the N symbol (if you check the negative), because rather than a branch jutting off to the left like in KE, it looks far to circular and a little detached from the rest of the character.

    I wish I knew japanese, but I don’t. Either way, the writting is certianly mysterious.

    im with psy and master link it could be from the twinrova sisters

    I think Nintendo just put the symbols on there to look cool.

    The Ultimate said:

    I think Nintendo just put the symbols on there to look cool.

    Then it would be gibberish, but we have a message that was translated perfectly. I think there is a reason, but not a necessarily important one.

    considering twinrova brought ganon/dorf back to earth,it seems logical that thay gave him his weapons to fight with.the words probably pertain to them,or maybe ganons power.

    now…does anybody know if ganons swords say anything in OOT :P ?

    In Ocarina of Time, Hylian was just gibberish.

    There wasn’t a language in OoT, but there was in ALttP, but it’s a complete gibberish, it doesn’t have to manyh symbols for something so complex.

    I agree with the MADE IN CHINA suggestion :)
    I think its just a word that wasn’t meant to be translated. But until we get a better res pic we’ll never know. Also, is that all the symbols, Smash?

    If you look on the Tombstones in Kakariko Village in OoT, there is Hylian writing on them, but it’s gibberish.

    There was a character set for Oot, also…but it is nowhere nearly as developed as WW (i.e. it’s missing certain sounds). And it doesn’t look as cool either…
    It’s here:
    http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hylian.htm

    Although, it seems odd that there would be any difference from the japanese version. Hmmmm, I winder though, does the script differ between the quests(1st time through and second time through)? Like maybe Ganondorf’s swords say one thing in the original quest, but something different in the second quest. Just a thought…

    Is there a difference on Ganon’s sword between the American and Japanese versions? It would seem pretty odd if there was.

    The Emerald Wind said:

    There was a character set for Oot, also…but it is nowhere nearly as developed as WW (i.e. it’s missing certain sounds).

    Both character sets are missing sounds. The OoT version of Hylian is missing voiced sounds (Gv, Dv, etc.) and the WW version is missing the compound sounds (Kyv, Gyv, etc.), where v in any of the examples is a vowel. They are both missing small “tsu” as well. WW-Hylian has punctuation and a vowel lengthener; that’s the only advantage it has over OoT-Hylian.

    And I think OoT-Hylian looks plenty cooler than WW-Hylian. WW-Hylian resembles katakana too much. If you know katakana, you can “see” the characters after a while; it’s just a stylized font, is all. It’s very stylized, to be sure, but it’s still regular ol’ Japanese.

    This article is realy cool, and youre cool because you pay close attention to detail, but if you look closer, there seems to be another Hylian Symbol on Ganondorf’s Sword… It could be your answer…
    -nathan-

    Master Link said:

    If you look on the Tombstones in Kakariko Village in OoT, there is Hylian writing on them, but it’s gibberish.

    I guess you don’t visit TDC, but Jack covered that, too.

    The Emerald Wind said:

    There was a character set for Oot, also…but it is nowhere nearly as developed as WW (i.e. it’s missing certain sounds). And it doesn’t look as cool either…
    It’s here:
    http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hylian.htm

    Although, it seems odd that there would be any difference from the japanese version. Hmmmm, I winder though, does the script differ between the quests(1st time through and second time through)? Like maybe Ganondorf’s swords say one thing in the original quest, but something different in the second quest. Just a thought…

    I forgot that, it was mentioned at this site, here. I didn’t think this was credible.

    Forgive me for double posting, but I think I can help with solving this mission. Take more pictures during the final battle, especially when Ganondorf has his swords raised ready to attack, and also, darken the pics to get a better look at the shadow, then trace it so you can read it more clearly, if it’s possible.

    VenusQueenOfFaeries said:

    And I think OoT-Hylian looks plenty cooler than WW-Hylian. WW-Hylian resembles katakana too much. If you know katakana, you can “see” the characters after a while; it’s just a stylized font, is all. It’s very stylized, to be sure, but it’s still regular ol’ Japanese.

    I just meant Oot’s Hylian looked blocky, but I haven’t seen too much Japanese to relize WW’s Hylian was so similar. But I think Oot’s would have looked cooler if they would have fixed that up with a more stylized look. Also when I said cooler orignally, I meant it looked cooler because it resembled real written script, not neccessarily that it was better.

    VenusQueenOfFaeries said:
    They are both missing small “tsu” as well. WW-Hylian has punctuation and a vowel lengthener; that’s the only advantage it has over OoT-Hylian.

    WW Hylian has a small TSU and it’s used a few times in the game.

    Example: On this page scroll down to the YUUBIN KITTE image.

    Image1
    Image2

    I cannot read Old Hylian. (´･ω･`)

    much better pictures, dayer.

    Wow! I always wondered what the heck his sword said, but always forgot about it. Good work!

    Those are great pics, dayer!

    TSA said:

    That “fifth” symbols is just some decorative mark - I never saw it clear enough to determine if it was Hylian, but it appears to be the same on both sides of both blades.

    If you sharpen those new pics in a photo program, you can see that the decorative symbol is in fact the Gerudo crest (the new one).

    Together with the Hylian, it reads Gerudo-Kotake-Koume on both swords, so now the last mystery is if the script changes between Forsaken Fortress and Final Fight, or rather between the US and Japanese versions…
    • 44. TSA says:
      August 28th, 2006 at 5:28 pm [quote]

    Oh wow, thanks for the final battle pics. Very clear. What version are they from?

    dayer said:

    Image1
    Image2

    I cannot read Old Hylian. (´･ω･`)

    Sweet dayler, that’s 2 for 2 now. ;)

    dayer said:

    Image1
    Image2

    I cannot read Old Hylian. (´･ω･`)

    Awesome, Dayer! Now we can take a better look at those pics. Jack, give him a raise, he deserves it ^_^

    I wonder if the Japanese version is written using english words.

    They are from Japanese version.I took them by using a gold wings.

    What is “gold wings?” I wonder what “HOKEMONO” means in Japan, if it’s a word at all? Sounds like a Japanese version of a game from “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” in the parody of Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh! .

    The last symbol is, roughly, the Gerudo symbol. I don’t have a high-resolution television to be sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s the Gerudo symbol. If it is, then the swords are genuine Gerudo katanas.

    mabye… i lost it.. its hard to explain… i think… ummmm…

    image3
    This is gold wing.

    I have not listened to “HOKEMONO” up to now though I am Japanese.

    dayer said:

    image3
    This is gold wing.

    I have not listened to “HOKEMONO” up to now though I am Japanese.

    maybe its just me but I dont think your link works.

    http://dayer.up.seesaa.net/image/ganon3.jpg
    I apologize for making a mistake.
    • 55. Sage says:
      September 2nd, 2006 at 6:03 pm [quote]

    Those are called “golden feathers” >_>
    • 56. Sage says:
      September 2nd, 2006 at 6:13 pm [quote]

    I am truly sorry for the double post (it kills my brain cells too. >_

    The Hylian in OoT is not gibberish. I found a translation chart for Old Hylian somewhere on the Internet. I decided to get OoT out to try and translate some of the ingame Hylian. I was able to translate the lettering above Kakariko’s gate, (it says… surprise surprise. ‘Kakariko’ ) and the writing on the signs that Link can cut up (they pretty much have ‘Nintendo’ written all over them). As for what the writing on Ganondorf’s TWW swords mean, I can’t think of any possible explanation that hasn’t already been stated.

    no duh…twimrova,as the rest of hyrule has said…lolz

    Sage said:

    Those are called “golden feathers” >_>

    no.duh.when link does his little dance it says “golden feather”!!!

    hi i think thats very interesting i didnt know that thanks for the info

    but i heard that writen on thos sorwds where the words twilghit realm ;)

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