Zelda franchise strategy guide/Characters/Great Deku Tree

The Great Deku Tree is a large tree who appears in Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker.

The Great Deku Tree is not to be confused with the Deku Tree that appears in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. As that game is not even set in Hyrule, and trees are, well, rooted to the spot, he can't realistically be the same tree in both places.

The Great Deku Tree is the 'Father of the Forest' charged with watching over the Kokiri who live in Kokiri Forest and the Lost Woods. He is an exceptionally large tree with a human-like face located in a clearing in the southern area of Kokiri Forest. When the game begins, the Deku Tree is suffering from a curse cast upon him by Ganondorf in an effort to gain the Spiritual Stone of Forest which is in the Deku Tree's possession. Knowing Link's destiny, the Deku Tree sends Navi the fairy to retrieve the boy and asks him to destroy the curse spider within him. Though Link defeats Gohma, it is too late. Before he dies, the Deku Tree gives Link the Kokiri Emerald and tells him to seek out Princess Zelda at Hyrule Castle. After adult Link completes the Forest Temple, however, a new Deku Sprout appears. It is this sprout who tells Link the truth about his past. This is presumably the same tree Link comes across in The Wind Waker. A theory in the original Legend of Zelda is that the first dungeon, the Tree Dungeon, is a dead Deku Tree.