If you would like more detailed info, check out the old
Hyrule Historia Info Post and the
Hyrule Historia Tag.
What is "Hyrule Historia?"
It's a book, officially released by Nintendo, that covers the whole Legend of Zelda series: from the original game up to Skyward Sword. Basically half of the book is timeline and story information, the other half is concept art from almost all these games. It also includes interviews and other information. The book's Editor is one of the series' main creators,
Eiji Aonuma. It also includes a 32 page comic, a "prequel to Skyward Sword" if you will, which was done by the current manga-ka's for the series:
Akira Himekawa.
Peek Inside the Japanese Version,
here's a released page in English, and
here's the Skyward Sword Prequel manga.
Basic Information on the History of the Book's Release:
There is a Japanese version of the book that came first. In December of 2011 it was available for pre-order (Japan only.) Many fans thought it would be a limited edition run for the 25th anniversary of Zelda. The pre-order sold out instantly. After a long wait, more copies were printed; it can no longer be considered a limited run. The book is still currently available in Japanese. (The end of the post has info on purchasing the Japanese version)
Eventually, Nintendo of America approached
Darkhorse (Comics/Publishing) and they agreed to bring it out in English.
You can pre-order the English version now. The release date is/
was January 29, 2013 for most shops.
A Note: It looks like the release date is being moved around a little bit by the publisher's shop. I
would not be worried about this at all: I'm just thinking that this
might mean newer orders might be shipped a little bit later due to demand.
I could also be wrong and/or they could just have the wrong info listed.
If you pre-ordered it from
TFAW, the publisher's store, a while back: you got a slightly earlier release date of January 16, 2013.
They now have a release date of February 12, 2013. So... I'm basically just saying I'm not sure how this affects orders or orders made on other shops.
Explanation of the Covers:
There are
3 4 covers that you might see. This is what they are so there's no confusion as to what is what:
Limited Edition's Cover:
Where to Buy the English Version:
(cost and release dates usually vary from shop to shop and country to country.)
Note: We do not currently know if it will be localized into languages other than English. But, the English version IS available in other countries.
The English version is the same version of the book no matter which country you buy it in. I will provide shopping links below. (If you know of good shops for other countries, please
email me the links (or leave them in the comments) so I can add them to this list.)
The base price/list price is $34.99 USD. (Many shops have a great discount price on the pre-orders.) The ISBN in every country is 978-1-61655-041-7. It's hardcover, 9x12 inches, full color, the cover is stamped foil, and it's a total of 276 pages.
The page count varies on different sites.* (this is old info; see the update just below this paragraph) Just know that
I've checked with the Editor of the book for the English version and that he's confirmed that it should have all the same stuff the Japanese version has. The Japanese version has 272 pages. So it will at least have 270 pages. If you see 280 pages listed for the English one: those may be filler pages or .. it may have slightly more content? I can't really speculate on that much. I don't know why some shops have 280 pages listed. If you see 248 pages, t
hat is an OLD number that they have forgotten to update on their shop: again, that is a confirmed fact from the book's Editor.
*Update: I was right ;)
Dark Horse Comics:
"The Editor assures us that both versions have 276 pages. When we first solicited the book to retailers and the book market we were given a less definitive answer on final page count and now we're trying to bring all retailers to the same page count."
Canada
The UK
Italy
Australia
-- ??? Until I know more, just do an ISBN search on AU bookstores.
Mexico
-- ??? Until I know more, just do an ISBN search on local bookstores.
Ordering "Offline" and Other Importing Methods:
You can also ALWAYS call a bookstore in your town and see if they can order it/import it for you. For example:
Kinokuniya is very reputable, I use them a lot, and they have many world-wide locations. I call them when I use them, but you can probably email them too.
Note:
Glitterberri, a fan-translator for the Legend of Zelda series, is helping with the localization. (So, yes, someone who is very familiar with the series will be working on the English version.)
Read it in Other Languages:
Since the English release is pending,
I will not be posting links to English fan-localization efforts on this page. Until there is release info for other languages,
I will provide links to fan translations for any other language. If you know of other sites with translations, please
email me the links (or leave them in the comments) so I can add them to this list.
German:
Spanish:
French:
Info for purchasing the original Japanese version:
This is the original version of the book that was released in Japan and is in Japanese. This is NOT the english version I've posted info for above.
Purchase:
Amazon.co.jp has (expensive) international shipping
Purchase:
Shogakukan, the book's publisher, only ships within Japan but,
if it's in stock at the publisher's shop, THEN many local bookstores, like Kinokuniya, can import it for you. The shipping should be much cheaper this way. Kinokuniya also, very often, has it in stock on their shelves in their actual stores. That means NO shipping fee.
Currently IN STOCK
Language: Japanese
Japanese Title: ハイラル・ヒストリア ゼルダの伝説 大全: 任天堂
Hardback: 272 pages
ISBN-10: 409227159X
ISBN-13: 978-4092271593
Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.2 x .7 inches
Price: 3,255 yen (roughly $40.00)
Note: The Japanese version is actually slightly smaller in size (dimensions) than the English one.This means that there's not much of a reason you would need to worry about buying the Japanese one unless you're just a collector. I do not know what the difference in print quality will be like yet though, I'm just hoping the English one will use even better paper-stock & printing.
United States: 
France: (
Spain (
Germany (
