An acclaimed author has seemingly included an accidental Easter Egg referencingThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildin his latest novel,A Traveller At The Gates of Wisdom.
In the novel, John Boyne – whose previous works includeThe Boy in the Striped Pyjamas– included a passage where one of his characters described the ingredients used to dye their clothes. However, for anyZeldafans reading the novel, it wouldn’t have taken long to spot a few parts that unmistakably connected the passage to thepopularZeldagame. Alongside ingredients such as nightshade and sapphire are moreZelda-centric elements, including Keese wing and an Octorok eyeball. Boyne even specified components needed to dye clothes red, which sees his character use “spicy pepper, the tail of the red lizalfos and four Hylian shrooms.”
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Originally posted on Reddit by u/NoNoNo_OhHoHo, Dana Schwartz simply couldn’t ignore theZeldareference, so the writer decided to explore how aBreath of the Wildnod ended up in a historical drama novel set within the real world. Speculating whether Boyne could be aLegend ofZeldafan, Schwartz wanted to know whether the writing could be an homage to the popular Nintendo Switch game. She stressed how the book is not a fantasy novel, and that she believed Boyne did a Google search for how to dye clothes red andfound theZeldaingredients, believing them to be an accurate dying process. Instead of finding an answer rooted in the real-world process of dying materials red, however, he was able to pull a site “listing monster parts,” which he accidentally published in his “Very Serious” book.
Although Schwartz acknowledged the embarrassment on Boyne’s behalf, she added how this situation is her personal nightmare but can’t discount how funny she found the entire situation. She warned how this should act as a lesson to all novelists doing research and that “if you do make mistakes, at least let them be hilarious.”
Amazingly, word of theZelda-related clothes dyingsnafu made its way back to Boyne, who responded to Schwartz’s lighthearted ribbing. He admitted the mistake was “kinda hilarious” and was “totally willing to own it.” Taking it all in good grace, Boyne noted how he would probably be telling this anecdote on stage for many years. After Shwartz implored him to not edit the video game reference out of future editions of the book, Boyne shared he intended to “leave it as it is.” He confessed he found the whole affair quite funny, admitting that, “sometimes you just gotta throw your hands up and say ‘yup! My Bad!'”
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis available now on Nintendo Switch.
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