virtual-winter

[virtual-winter]

I guess the only remotely "official" version we got of the throne was the ice chairs in the Iceland foods commercial?

Elsa's Ice Throne! ❄️👑

Elsa was supposed to have her own icy throne in her ice palace. As the song goes~ A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the queen. It makes sense, no? An ice castle should have an ice throne, duh!

We see her create it right before Anna's eyes in the storyboard for the deleted scene/song, Life's Too Short.

They even had a 3D model of it! (Thank you, @snoweowl, for sharing this to us on Discord!)

(Artist: Kevin Hudson)

Moreover, there's a coloring book page of her sitting on it, released before the movie came out, serving as one of the film's many promotional materials.

(Journey to the Ice Palace - Jumbo Coloring Book (2013). Illustrated by Disney Storybook Artists)

Here it is again in a storybook also released before the film!

(Elsa's Icy Magic (2013). Illustrated by Joey Chou.)

And again, in these toy sets.

(Disney Lego Frozen & "Frozen-themed Mini Ice Castle Play Set")

Not to mention, it's also featured as a piece of furniture in the game Disney Dreamlight Valley.

(Screenshot from the Dreamlight Valley Wiki)

And, of course, let's not forget all its beautiful concept art!

(Artist: Mac George)

(Artist: Lisa Keene)

(Artist: Julia Kalantarova)

(Artist: Victoria Ying)

(Artist: Kevin Nelson)

(Artist: Lisa Keene)

...and probably more!

Sooo many versions of it, and they're all stunning. I can't even pick a favorite! But for whatever reason, they removed her throne. Sure, it wouldn't have had a significant impact on the plot, but it would've made for an interesting aesthetic! I mean, the Snow Queen would still need to sit somewhere, wouldn't she? 😅

I tried looking for an explanation on the removal, but nothing came up. Maybe I'm just a lousy researcher. Haha. Does anyone have any idea? Have you also seen Elsa's forgotten throne pop up anywhere else? 🤔

[virtual-winter]

Elsa's Ice Throne! ❄️👑

Elsa was supposed to have her own icy throne in her ice palace. As the song goes~ A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the queen. It makes sense, no? An ice castle should have an ice throne, duh!

We see her create it right before Anna's eyes in the storyboard for the deleted scene/song, Life's Too Short.

They even had a 3D model of it! (Thank you, @snoweowl, for sharing this to us on Discord!)

(Artist: Kevin Hudson)

Moreover, there's a coloring book page of her sitting on it, released before the movie came out, serving as one of the film's many promotional materials.

(Journey to the Ice Palace - Jumbo Coloring Book (2013). Illustrated by Disney Storybook Artists)

Here it is again in a storybook also released before the film!

(Elsa's Icy Magic (2013). Illustrated by Joey Chou.)

And again, in these toy sets.

(Disney Lego Frozen & "Frozen-themed Mini Ice Castle Play Set")

Not to mention, it's also featured as a piece of furniture in the game Disney Dreamlight Valley.

(Screenshot from the Dreamlight Valley Wiki)

And, of course, let's not forget all its beautiful concept art!

(Artist: Mac George)

(Artist: Lisa Keene)

(Artist: Julia Kalantarova)

(Artist: Victoria Ying)

(Artist: Kevin Nelson)

(Artist: Lisa Keene)

...and probably more!

Sooo many versions of it, and they're all stunning. I can't even pick a favorite! But for whatever reason, they removed her throne. Sure, it wouldn't have had a significant impact on the plot, but it would've made for an interesting aesthetic! I mean, the Snow Queen would still need to sit somewhere, wouldn't she? 😅

I tried looking for an explanation on the removal, but nothing came up. Maybe I'm just a lousy researcher. Haha. Does anyone have any idea? Have you also seen Elsa's forgotten throne pop up anywhere else? 🤔

[virtual-winter]

@queenritaofarendelle

There are two types of writers:

1. 'It's fiction, it doesn't need to make sense!'

2. 'I didn't account for the rotation of the planet and how that affects the constalations while my characters stargazed at different times of year, I have failed as a writer, and this entire thing is trash'

[virtual-winter]

The development of their relationship ❄

[virtual-winter]

Awesome creations as always my friend. Reminds me I need to create a project template for Arendelle Archives!

My fan project book series - AOBS-001 How to repair your sleigh

At first, I thought I would make a few edits based on the design of the preliminary advertisement for the Arendelle cookbook and create these covers just for fun to share on Discord.

Then I realised that there could be much more behind some of these book covers. This eventually turned into a whole project. The book cover you can see under the title above was the first one of meanwhile eight projects, many of them became the header of my bigger fan projects for Arendelle Archives: LINK

Read on in my pdf: LINK

After publishing a few of them over the last few days, I have decided that all my future projects will be based on this design to make them distinctive and unique.

A few words about the realisation: recreating this promotional cover from Disney's cookbook was not that easy to achieve and I worked on it for several weeks! It's not just the design itself, but above all the typeface, which only exists as a font at Disney. It is very elaborately designed and therefore only suitable for headlines. Later, in the final version of the book, Disney unfortunately simplified everything greatly and the special feature was lost (see the following comparison).

For my book project, I had to design all the missing letters myself, based on the ten letters used in Disney's headline. It wasn't easy, and I have to admit that some of them look pretty wild.

I also had to think about how to design the inside pages and tried a few things out. The first draft included the Disney Frozen title, a blue frame that can be seen on the cover, and the crocus symbol for the four corners of the page. The page design for “Citizens of Arendelle”, on the other hand, was much more elaborate and included various symbols as watermarks, framed with a pattern of wheat ears that we know from Frozen 2 and which was also used as a frame for Disney's final cookbook. In the end, I used both Disney books as templates to create my own book templates.

Incidentally, the following cover was the very first attempt for “Citizens of Arendelle”, but I ultimately found Oaken to be “too boring” and “inappropriate” for the topic, which should rather “feature” Anna and Elsa, which is why I combined two images of the two into one.

And here's Disney's own promo poster for Kristoff's new sled in Frozen:

[virtual-winter]

[virtual-winter]

Arendelle Archives project-list July 2025

Greetings folks!

We've been digging through the archive cabinets from the past four years and here's what we've uncovered so far:

8 full-fledged analysis works in report-form

33 findings, theories and guides

1 YouTube-video

7 answers to anon-questions (feel free to send us more)

Get the full PDF-list here

Here's a little snapshot

[virtual-winter]

New 2D renders of New Elsa and Anna looks | News/ Analysis

Courtesy of @/Snow from Discord, we have new looks for Elsa and Anna!

This sticker sheet is from the Frozen Mega Colouring Book by Ameet.

Animals of Arendelle: Lost and Found looks

The purple outfits seen on the right image are based on the Animals of Arendelle: Lost and Found playset, which I made a post on. The doll set storyline had Elsa and Anna saving the animals of Arendelle set in Autumn. Elsa's outfit is a redesign of her main Frozen 2 look and recoloured to be the same colour as her nightgown in F2. I think she looks so pretty and the colour really stands out with this style! Elsa also has her iconic braid. Anna has a mostly brand new look with a new pale red bodice/ jacket, purple skirt (seemingly the same length as her main Frozen 1 outfit), black boots and her double braid! These looks were seen as regular playable dolls, mini dolls and now as stickers and based on YouLoveIt.com, it's supposed to be a short form series like Winter Festival. It's unknown when its release will be. Most likely is September - November around Autumn, if it's not discarded.

Spring looks

But what's brand new is the spring inspired looks on the left! Definitely give hard Frozen Fever vibes! Again, these outfits are redesigns of previous official outfits. Elsa has the same style as her Show Yourself look, with the transparent skirt and leggings, but this time it's a bluish green with pink flowers on it and in her braid just like Frozen Fever. Anna has her outfit from Frozen Fever with the bodice being the same dark blue colour and her shirt sleeve top being the pale yellow colour but her jacket is a cooler shade of green and her skirt is yellow. This time she has no tights and her shoes have higher heels with a strap design on the front. Anna's hairdo is exactly the same too.

I have no idea what these new outfits could mean. Mostly likely just another short form series on YouTube set for this summer since Spring is over soon. I honestly don't expect an official short, especially with these designs being redesigned off of official outfits seen in the movies and shorts. If canon, it might take place before Frozen 2, since Anna has her braided bun and not her Queen bun. I will say, they could have used old concept art for some of their designs, I know Elsa's purple look, is a concept design for her travel outfit but they could have been a bit more ranged but I guess it doesn't matter if it's just for younger children.

[virtual-winter]

HAPPY 4TH ANNIVERSARY TO ALL ARCHIVES-MEMBERS! 🥳🎉✨🎂

Gif by @snowflaketale12

Arendelle Archives started as an idea by @saiten-gefroren in 2021 to be a platform for researching and discussing Frozen lore and history.

It got expanded to a discord server in February 2021 with the help of @virtual-winter, @bigfrozenfan and a few other members and finally to tumblr in January 2024. Today, we have grown to almost 20 active members and we have put out... to be frank I don't even know how many projects we have at this point! That's why we will be back with a complete list tomorrow were we will list every project that we've been involved in, so stay tuned for that🤗

In the meantime, we wanna send out a big THANK YOU to everyone who have liked and reblogged our projects for the past year and a half! Thank you for being on this Frozen learning-journey with us.

[virtual-winter]

Memories don't fade, they echo. Even in broken glass, they find their way back... 💙

I made this random edit which was inspired by a poster from another fandom lmaoo 😂 The memories shown are all key moments from Frozen 1 and Frozen 2. Anna and Elsa have been through so much together, and in the end they found each other again and continue their journey side by side, tbh I seriously can't wait for Frozen 3 and 4 and have more adventure with them! 💙

It took me a few hours to make, but I'm really happy with how it turned out! 🌹

[virtual-winter]

So why did Arendelle have no future with the dam there?

Cause it seemed to do pretty well for 34 years?

After doing a write-up on how Ahtohallan’s issue wasn’t with the dam itself at all, I got a wake-up call from a smarter friend. What about the dam was denying Arendelle a future? (posted with permission from the original writer):

The dam is based on a real dam. More than just a test, it is symbolic of how colonialists come into lands that aren’t theirs, assume their own ways are superior and therefore the only thing that is relevant, massacre the people and then erase natural beauties and features in order to make the land into what they want it to be.

It is pretty much the worst stuff imaginable, which is why details were left out of the Disney movie. The dam stands for a different people coming in and completely disregarding a way of life. They ignore the Northuldra spirituality, dismissing them as taking advantage of magic without recognizing that there was a relationship there. They attack and kill the people. If it wasn’t for Ahtohallan’s actions, we all know how that chapter would have ended, because we have hundreds of chapters just like it in real life. So yes, the mist was about protecting the Northuldra, but it was also symbolic of how these peoples are still suffering the harm from past actions into the present while Arendelle continues on just fine. 

The dam is a test, but it was also a physical symbol of things like reservations, sterilizations, genocide, the trail of tears, AND it was still screwing with the harmony the people once lived in. (For an example of someone being denied a birthright by past violence, we have Ryder: “Some of us were born in here, we’ve never even seen the clear sky.”)

The Northuldra were only protected from further harm from the Arendellians themselves, not from the lasting damage of Arendelle’s past actions.

I think Ahtohallan was waiting to see if King Runeared would take the dam down after being told it was hurting the land, but he didn’t–he attacked instead. The mist came down to not only protect the Northuldra, but to put a hold on things until there was new leadership on the problem side. The dam was there to make sure there was a price to Elsa and Anna’s decisions.

It wasn’t just that what happened in the past was wrong. Until the truth is acknowledged and rectified as much as possible, no country can truly move on. The fact that all of this is in a Disney princess movie is mind-blowing and honestly makes me really hopeful. These kids are going to grow up with this reference point and this vocabulary and just like…damn.

[virtual-winter]

Arendelle Archives 4-year-anniversary countdown - 10/10

In our FINAL PART of our anniversary series, we take a look at the citizens of Arendelle and all facts known so far about Frozen characters. This project began in 2023, almost three years ago, and will continue for future releases such as Frozen III and IV, as well as all future Frozen comics and books.

This is perhaps the most comprehensive reference for all Frozen fans and nerds, fanfic writers and analysts, who now finally have an overview of all Frozen media. The project consists of two files: the pdf book with 92 pages and the spreadsheet source file with 11 tables.

I (@bigfrozenfan) had the idea for the design of this book back in February 2024, when Disney's cookbook was first announced, with recipes from Arendelle. I will use this design for all my future projects, like I already did with Arendelle - Speculations about history (LINK). Other works are in progress, coming soon.

I first presented a table called ‘Frozen names and places’ in March 2024, which included a list of the 20 most famous kingdoms, 94 characters from books and comics, a list of 124 professions (partly based on my own assumptions) including shops in Arendelle and an initial list of popular dishes.

However, the preparatory work for this began much earlier, in 2018, when I entered my entire Disney Frozen collection in a spreadsheet and finally, in 2022, all my Frozen books, including cover images, brief information, publisher, price and ISBN numbers. The Frozen comics were added later and my digital collection grew from year to year.

In October 2023, I finally began to collect all the available character information on the Disney Frozen universe in a very comprehensive spreadsheet.

This book, “The Official Book Citizens of Arendelle”, is based on these findings, compiled from all the Frozen films, shorts, books and comics available to me.

Read on in my pdf: LINK

You can find the greatly expanded spreadsheet here: Frozen Facts Spreadsheet

It includes all known kingdoms and locations, characters with professions and where to find them, all source information, locations/shops/restaurants, dishes and other foods, all known festivals and events in Arendelle, in-universe books, fun facts and other finds. This spreadsheet is constantly being expanded and is currently in version 4. All abbreviations of mentioned books and comics in the pdf can be found in the spreadsheet too!

A total of 148 Frozen books (novels, guides and chapter books), as well as all Frozen films, shorts and audio stories were analysed for this book. In addition, 335 comics from Dark Horse, Joe Books and all comic collections available to me from Frozen magazines. The result is currently over 250 characters known by name, mostly with scanned images, and the list is sure to grow.

However, the first few pages of the book deal with the monarchs of Arendelle and how it all began.

I would like to thank my fellow editors @virtual-winter, @snowflaketale12, @sunflowers-and-sandwiches, Lilythesnowgie and many other Royal Archivists of Arendelle Archives for their help and suggestions on our Discord Server.

Disclaimer: Please don't edit the copyrighted spreadsheet file! You are not allowed to use any data shown in this file on other websites! But you are allowed to share the link to this file on my Google Drive to other fans. It took me more than two years to collect all of this data. I did this for all Frozen fans and only for private use!

And now have much fun with this project!

[virtual-winter]

Arendelle Archives 4-year-anniversary countdown - 9/10

In part 9 of our 10-part anniversary series, we'll attempt to figure out when King Agnarr's birthday might be!

We got this anon question a while ago!

First and foremost, thank you for your question, anon!

Agnarr's birthday is a bit of a mystery and we can't seem to reach a consensus about it even in our server 😂 I don't recall that we have any specific mentions of when exactly during the year it might be, unlike Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Iduna's birthdays. But we will do our best to bring us closer to an answer.

The book you're thinking of is called The Mysterious Treasure (Valentina Cambi, 2022) and does indeed feature Anna and Elsa preparing for Agnarr's birthday:

Right pic above is a translation of the French version. Also, Rolf the rocking horse is there!

In the English version, the text is worded in a slightly different way:

It was a special occasion: the birthday of Elsa and Anna's father, King Agnarr. To celebrate, they headed into the castle attic to look for old memories. There, in a comer, they found a trunk that they had never seen before! "This chest belonged to Father!" Anna exclaimed, recognizing Agnarr's royal symbol carved into the lid. "What could be inside!" Olaf asked. "Let's find out!" suggested Elsa.

Neither version goes into further details about what time of year it is. And even if it did, we of course don't know exactly when his birthday is in relation to the story.

Judging from the illustrations though, the trees are fully green and there appears to be at least some flowering plants in the background. In southern Norway, trees typically turn green in late April and early May (same as in Sweden where I'm from) and start to turn yellow in late September and early October. So, solely based on the illustrations in the book, we can safely say that Agnarr's birthday is between May and September.

Several server members presented the theory that Agnarr's birthday would be on or close to the September equinox (September 21 to 24), to mirror Anna and Elsa's summer/winter solstice birthdays! Iduna's birthday is theorised to be close to the March equinox at the end of winter according to Anna and Elsa's Winter's End Festival (Amy Weingartner, 2014) and The Winter Festival (Valentina Cambi, ca. 2021) so it would give us a perfect "symmetry" of birthdays😀

The only other indicator we know of for when his birthday logically must be is that he must have turned 21 at the time of his coronation.

Dangerous Secrets (Mari Mancusi, 2020) only makes a few references to Agnarr's coronation and only in terms of being "in three years" from a time when Agnarr is 18 years old.

So, yes! The theory that King Agnarr is born near the September equinox holds up!

[virtual-winter]

doodle with brush pen

—————-

A-KA

[virtual-winter]

Arendelle Archives 4-year-anniversary countdown - 8/10

(source)

In part 8 of our 10-part anniversary series, we take a look at the newspapers and articles that have been featured in the franchise so far and see we can learn from them.

🗞️

The Arendelle Times

The very first time (to our knowledge) an Arendelle newspaper is mentioned in the franchise is in chapter 2 of the 6th Anna & Elsa-chapter book The Arendelle Cup (Erica David) from late 2015. In the book, Anna and Elsa welcome contestants of the annual sled race known as the Arendelle Cup and note that defending champions Sivoy and Suqi from the island kingdom Tikaani have arrived. They have read all about the sibling duo in the village newspaper, the Arendelle Times.

🗞️

The Southern Isles Gazette, Vol. XXI, No. 1122

1st version

Some of the first proper pieces of "Frozen news" appeared at EPCOT World Showcase in June 2016 when Frozen themes, shops and attractions were added to the park's Norway Pavilion. At the new Frozen Ever After boat ride, visitors could find a fragment of a page from a newspaper called the Southern Isles Gazette. It features an article about Prince Hans and how he was struck by an unexplained extreme weather phenomenon. This is a reference to his short cameo in Frozen Fever (2015) where he is hit by Elsa's massive snowball. From the article, we learn that Anna's birthday happened on a Tuesday.

Below it are two ads, one for the Den Dulk, Winter & Co., a hardware store for "great adventurers" that sell fine cloaks, and one for Southern Isles Apples that appear to be the nation's "most enjoyed export." As pointed out by Main Street Gazette, "Den Dulk" is most likely a reference to Michel den Dulk, a Senior Concept Designer at Walt Disney Imagineering who worked on the re-design of the Maelstrom ride into Frozen Ever After.

The page is labeled as volume 21, number 1122, which would indicate that the gazette is on its 21st publishing year and that this was the 1122nd (!) issue for the year. That's a ridiculous number, obviously. Maybe it has some other meaning that we're just missing 😂 Or perhaps it's the total number of issues since the newspaper started?

In that case, assuming that the gazette had 52 weekly (except in its first year) plus 3 special issues per year, it would have reached no. 1122 by the 25th week (around Anna's birthday at June 21st) of its 21st year.

2nd version

At some point during 2016, the news clipping was either relocated or replaced by a second version. This new page has some additional text added to the bottom. It reveals that the fine cloaks are sold at the hardware store has "very reasonable prices." A cool Easter egg is that the article on the left edge appears to be about the Frozen Ever After boat ride itself.

Below the newspaper, you can also find a flyer depicting the Duke of Weselton who is described as being banned from all commercial activity within Arendelle and not allowed to set his foot in the kingdom. From the flyer, we also learn that Arendelle is divided into provinces and waterways.

Other things found on the same billboard include ads for the Frosty Fisherman, various inventions by Oaken, "summer ice" from Kristoff and an announcement about Kristoff performing songs with his lute at the Royal Arendelle Playhouse.

The full billboard actually reveals that the different "plates" were indeed rearranged early on (the pics above and below are from 2016), as you can see the outline of the previous placements along the bottom. The Kristoff-ad appears to have been kept on the same side. Perhaps the park staff were afraid people would try prying them off the board and had to secure them more tightly? It's possible some were actually stolen which would explain why the new Southern Isles Gazette-plate has a slightly different design.

🗞️

Miscellaneous clippings and flyers from A year with Elsa & Anna

These pages are from the anthology book A year with Elsa & Anna (and Olaf, too!) (Matthew Sinclair Foreman & Erica David) from 2016). In this book, we are treated with news about the births of Princess Elsa and Anna, information about the annual Spring Flower Show (April 27th-may 7th) and Harvest festival (September 20th) as well as a random page with plenty of interesting offers. Also, making weather forecasts in Arendelle seems tricky... Also, in this book it appears Arendelle is using cents as part of their currency?

Side note: the harvest festival date can be used to determine the timeline for Frozen II.

🗞️

The Village Crown

The Village Crown is a newspaper appearing in the two novels Forest of Shadows (Kamilla Benko, 2019) and Polar Nights (Jen Calonita & Mari Mancusi, 2022). In Forest of Shadows, we meet self-proclaimed investigative reporter Wael who is openly critical of the royals' way of managing the kingdom. He appears to be running the paper all on his own.

In Polar Nights, the Village Crown is described as the official newspaper of Arendelle and that it's released on a weekly basis. The paper has an archive that stretches back to the very first issue, which Olaf guesses must be around 60 years ago.

🗞️

Miscellaneous stuff from Arendelle: A Frozen Dining Adventure

A Frozen Dining Adventure is a Frozen-themed theatrical dining experience party, running aboard the Disney Wish cruise ship since 2022. The show is centred around Anna and Kristoff's engagement party. Alongside several unique decors and set pieces in the style of the Arendelle Castle interior, you can find a billboard by the entrance with ads for fresh ice and the Frosty Fisherman, same design as in EPCOT. The EPCOT-flyer featuring the Duke of Weselton is here as well. Wandering Oaken's Heart Party Planning Services is the event business hired by Anna and Kristoff for their party. The name was reused in Jen Calonita's story Engaging Anna and Kristoff in the 2022 anthology book All is Found.

🗞️

Arendelle Daily Press, Vol. LII, No. 172

The Frozen-themed land "World of Frozen" in Hong Kong Disneyland opened in November 2023. In the Arendelle village-area, you can find a newsboard featuring the newspaper Arendelle Daily Press.

From the article about preparations for "Summer Snow Day," we learn that Wandering Oaken (his full name) has been appointed Entrepreneur of the year and that Anna and Elsa will be hosting a celebration for the people at the Ice Palace. Summer Snow Day is an annual event that honours Anna's sacrifice to save her sister and the kingdom.

There's another article about Oaken's new sleigh slide (one of the park attractions), a "reindeer-powered and snowman-operated" ride and some political news about Elsa's attempts to improve relations with the Southern Isles royal family. Prince Hans is described as being "imprisoned" and still "recovering from injuries" after the snowball incident (which remains unsolved).

The rest of the paper features ads for Kristoff's ice business, the Golden Crocus Inn, Northern Delights, Tick Tock Toys, Oaken's sleigh slide (shops and attractions in the park) and a weather forecast that looks just as unpredictable as the one in A year with Elsa and Anna, mirroring actual Norwegian mountain weather.

The newsboard stands just outside the Arendelle Daily Press "office" by the main square in Arendelle village, right next to the Golden Crocus Inn restaurant.

This newspaper has the volume number 52 and the issue number 172. The 172nd day of the year happens to be the 21st (20th if it's a leap year) of June, aka Anna's birthday! Since Summer Snow Day is said to be the day Anna saved her sister, which happened a couple of days after Coronation Day some time in July, the timeline doesn't add up perfectly but the articles also imply they're published before Summer Snow Say so there's still some headroom. If the Daily Press doesn't have an issue every Sunday, this issue would instead have a date closer to the second half of July, which would align perfectly with Coronation Day being in July!

🗞️

Miscellaneous stuff from Frozen Kingdom

Similar to "World of Frozen", "Frozen Kingdom" is a Frozen-themed land in the Fantasy Springs-area in Tokyo DisneySea that opened in June 2024. This billboard doesn't have much to offer in terms of news value but but does feature a redesigned ad for Kristoff and his lyrical lute, now said to be performing at the Shaky Ship Tavern (one of the parks restaurants). This time he's accompanied by Olaf. Guests are also invited to enjoy a banquet at the castle (also a restaurant) or to audition for the Village Band. Oaken's cold remedy is 50% discounted and you are welcome to eat at Oaken's OK Foods (the third restaurant). Gerda and Kai are giving away Elsa's old gloves for free at the castle and Kristoff is looking for a sitter for Sven. I guess he forgot he keeps Sven at the royal stables in the castle that has plenty of stable hands to care for the royal horses😄

[virtual-winter]

Arendelle Archives 4-year-anniversary countdown - 7/10

For part 7 of our 10-part anniversary series, we take a look at the ancient history of Arendelle, the connections to Vikings and the legend of Aren, the Great.

This specific project was too big for a standard Tumblr post and most of the content would be hidden below the cut. So I decided to use my project book format as PDF-file with 16 pages in total, plus external link to a high resolution picture that Tumblr wouldn't show in it's full size, besides all the formatting :-)

This is a follow-up to the project "How old is Arendelle?"

You can all guess that this is not a real history lesson with real characters and events, etc. This is about Disney's fictional kingdom of Arendelle, whose position on the world map is based on real-life Norway in the mid-19th century, with models in architecture, flora and fauna, unique fjords, typical weather conditions for this area, traditions and behaviours, traditional dishes, design and much more, down to the smallest details.

Most of you are satisfied with the Frozen films, some of you also read the additional novels and sometimes the countless comics, but very few of you question Arendelle's worldview and what lies behind it, or want to spend your free time doing time-consuming research. This is where we at “Arendelle Archives” come in, taking you deeper down the rabbit hole and presenting you with amazing facts, findings, analyses and speculations that many of you have never even dreamed of.

You are all familiar with the name “Arendelle” and some of you also know the name “Arenfjord”, where the royal castle and the picturesque town behind it are located. But do you notice anything here? It is the name “Aren“, and there is a fictional story behind it, a story about the namesake whose traces actually seem to lead back to our own past. Well, not really, but Disney has used many references from past centuries and shown them everywhere as little clues in the films. It's about the Vikings. And it's about Aren the Great. Incidentally, “Aren” is said to be derived from “Ørn”, which means “eagle” in Norwegian.

The Old Norse name for Arendelle is Àrnadalr, which very conveniently aligns with "Arn" being an Old Norse word for "eagle". So, it's possible Aren was originally named Arn.

We've all seen it, or at least noticed it subliminally, in all the Frozen films and short films, Frozen 1, Frozen Fever, OFA, with the exception of Frozen 2. Even in the sequels Frozen 3+4, currently in production, there is a hidden reference to Vikings in Brittney Lee's concept art, albeit with a misrepresented helmet. Vikings never wore such horns on their helmets, if at all.

But that is not the subject here. Rather, it is the history of Arendelle, dating back to the kingdom's beginnings with its founder, Aren the Great, who landed with the first settlers on the coast of the land that would later be named after him.

Read on in my pdf: LINK

About Arendelle Archives Chats on Discord It's often about pretty nerdy stuff, and sometimes I can really let loose about things I can't talk about anywhere else, or because nowhere else anyone would listen to me. Most of the time it's really fun, and before I started this project, Aren was always one of my favourite topics, for me on Discord already since 2020. Last year in May and August, as well as this year, I even speculated in our chat that Ahtohallan had taken notice of Arendelle's founding father and had something very special in mind for him, something I even used in my fanfic novel.

Virtual Winter made some very interesting drawings for the chat back in July 2022, referring to Aren, the Great. I got the permission to post it here now.

Update and last addition, found by @virtual-winter