“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary” is a line that comes to mind when I think about the ghosts wandering Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time. Maybe it’s just because of their name, or perhaps it’s how the eerie atmosphere they bring is just like one of Edgar Allen Poe’s poems.
Whatever the reason, when it comes upon the midnight hour, clutch your loved ones, for the Poes wander restlessly and full of hate, and if you stumble in their path, they’ll take their hate out on you. After the devastation caused by Ganondorf’s hands, many souls are left to wander, haunted by their last moments alive. However, there is one soul upon Hyrule Castle that didn’t turn into a Poe — instead, he sought to collect them all.
Perched inside the long-abandoned Guard’s House in Hyrule, a single soul waits with only the dead for company. Considering the state of Hyrule after Link’s seven-year nap, the souls of the deceased aren’t the worst company to have around and make for a fitting setting for this NPC known as the Poe Collector. Only seen when Link is an adult, the Poe Collector is the only non-hostile NPC in Hyrule Castle Town. While his praise for Ganondorf’s rule would normally see him as a villain, his wish for devastation only comes from his desire to succeed as a business. Inside the Guard’s House beside the drawbridge, he sits on a white bed with a cage of Poes above him as he runs a ghost shop.
The Poe Collector doesn’t sell ghosts to Link, however. He gives a quest to Link instead, asking him to collect Big Poes, and in return, he will give Link something that will make him a happy man. With the promise of something good, anyone would immediately go hunt down the ten Big Poes, only to be disappointed to learn that the tenth Big Poe rewards Link with an Empty Bottle. On one hand, “happy” is not a word to describe how one feels after fighting and bottling up Poe spirits for fifteen minutes only to receive an Empty Bottle as a reward. On the other hand, it was a very Poe Collector move. With the constant laughter mixed within his text, a little bit of trickery and mischief comes as no surprise. In reality, the Poe Collector was tasking Link to do all the manual labor for him and stock up his store. The big question is, who does he sell the ghosts to?
There are many theories on the identity of The Poe Collector. From the guard with an obsession for ghosts to the Happy Mask Salesman who is nowhere to be seen, nothing has ever been confirmed, but his identity is a mystery that only makes the Poe Collector more intriguing. And when you collect the souls of the dead, a mysterious aesthetic sells well. While I’m not one to collect ten Big Poes in every playthrough, I stop by the old Guard’s House often to indulge in the eerie atmosphere and ponder, “Will we ever find out who dares to collect and cage the dead?” The answer: nevermore.
