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The Hyrilian Grammar is a code mentioned in The Shadow Prince.[1] It is first introduced after the King of Hyrule says he wishes to show the Triforce of Wisdom to Charles.[2] Outraged by the king's decision, Link turns to Impa, who tells him to not act rashly and to think this through.[3] To help him make the decision on what he should, Impa hands the young hero a piece of paper that contains a one-word message written in the ancient number-letter code.[4]

According to the book, the Hyrulian Grammar works as follows: each letter of the alphabet has a number that matches it. A=0, B=1, and so forth; however, in old Hyrule, the number system was in base 2, or binary. Thus, each of the numbers in the message are the base 2 numbers that match the Hyrulian alphabet:

Letter Base 10 Base 2
A 0 0
B 1 1
C 2 10
D 3 11
E 4 100
F 5 101
G 6 110
H 7 111
I 8 1000
J 9 1001
K 10 1010
L 11 1011
M 12 1100
N 13 1101
O 14 1110
P 15 1111
Q 16 10000
R 17 10001
S 18 10010
T 19 10011
U 20 10100
V 21 10101
W 22 10110
X 23 10111
Y 24 11000
Z 25 11001

The message that Link must decipher contains the following numbers:

10010, 10011, 0, 1011, 100, 101, 1110, 10001, 1011

When translated, it advises Link to "FORESTALL," meaning to wait. Whether Link decides to forestall or act forthwith does not greatly affect the outcome of the book.

See Also[]

Sign Language of the Hyrulian Royal Guard

References

  1. "HYRILIAN GRAMMAR" (The Shadow Prince, Simon & Schuster, pg. 25)
  2. "Sir Charles looks into Zelda's eyes, then bows to the king. 'I'm honored. I'd very much like to see your Triforce.'" (The Shadow Prince, Simon & Schuster, pg. 23)
  3. "Impa grabs his arm. 'If you act rashly, you might ruin your own case.'" (The Shadow Prince, Simon & Schuster, pg. 23)
  4. "She presses a crumpled piece of paper into his hand. 'Let this guide your actions.' Link stares at the one-word message on the paper. It's written in an ancient Hyrulian number-letter code." (The Shadow Prince, Simon & Schuster, pg. 23)
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