When he first appeared in the comics, he said that his family were a rightful rulers of Arendelle because of that horn
What if he was telling the truth? What if his family were the rightful rulers?
And if he ever does return into a comics or a graphic novel, what if he finds proof that his family were and still all the rightful rulers of? Arendelle
Hi again, Dragonknights-world,
I just read the comic after you had asked so apologies for the delay in replying! The story in this comic sounds SO interesting and has SO much lore for a regular comic you'd find in magazines. But I'm not complaining, I really enjoyed it! I'm all about the lore! So just allow me to do a breakdown on the story first then I'll get to your question! And for those who want to read the story, here's the link to @virtual-winter's Reddit post to part 1 and 2 of the comic story.
What I love about the story
There's so much about this sorry that I love: I like how we have a new neighbouring kingdom that is potentially related to Arendelle. I love how Elsa was intrigued to know more about Arendelle and her family's history since it could be related to the source of her powers - showing us that she's been wanting to find that out ever since she embraced them in Frozen. And I love how they go to Grand Pabbie for information and then are off to do their adventure, just like they did in Frozen 2. I love how we saw actual animals called Narwhals and how they were part of the story in some way. I liked the little puzzle at the end destination in the cave which led to a display of viking elements like the helmet and then the Lure Horn they were trying to find.
Frozen 3 vibes
felt like a mini movie or book which I loved!
This gave me major Frozen 3 vibes with the vikings being part of Arendelle's Royal family ancestry and somehow it linked to Elsa's powers. The Frozen 3 concept art shows a viking so we know that Frozen 3 will dive further into Norse mythology. Also the stranger who claims he's related to Elsa and Anna through ancient family ties is giving the mysterious member of the royal family set to appear in Frozen 3.
Connection the lore and unintentional Frozen 3 foreshadowing?
Also this kind of builds in my theory on the real reason why Elsa stayed behind in the Forest in From 2, which is because she feared danger now that the forest is free and more magic is exposed to the world and doesn't want history, like her grandfather's war, repeating itself. Thord who claims he's related to the sisters, is after the horn because he believes it could give him powers like Elsa's. So we have people fear Elsa's powers and try to kill her, and we have people who envy her powers and try to get their own set with her help. And obviously now we know Elsa's powers came from Ahtohallan all because it was a gift to Iduna as a reward for her sacrifice. The powers made Elsa and Anna the Fifth Spirit because Ahtohallan knew they could, together, balance humans and magic and save the world when those woe sides turn on each other.
Also instead of the horn giving Thord powers, it is called the Narwhals which means their ancestors are connected to the Narwhals in terms of having a relationship with the Narwhals. It's all part of the lore which I absolutely love and makes me believe Frozen 3 will touch on Arendelle's ancestry. And I hope the Narwhals are featured in the movie because they look majestic and could be other physical animals that the sisters connect with. Plus the horn has carvings inside of it of two sisters holding hands who Elsa and Anna believe are their great great great grandmother (Runeard 's grandmother's grandmother) and her sister and Thord said that the horn carried the strength of their family and Elsa and Anna believe it's the love for each other that's the strength so what if the carving sisters are the Fifth Spirit that was mentioned in the Myth short and Frozen 3 expanded on that hence the viking aesthetic the concept art is giving??! I mean it would make sense why Thord thought the horn would give him powers, because of the magical and literal bond the sisters in the carvings had and hearing about it made him envy for powers like Elsa's.
Reading this comic and coming up with this theory is blowing my mind and making me obsessed with lore!
Also one of these sisters has a cape and a single braid and off the shoulder neckline like Elsa whilst the other has two braids, cuff and neckline details/ designs like Anna and also has a viking helmet to show they're from those times. But I obviously don't know if the fight spirit idea it's hinting at was intentional. This comic was released in December 2016 and Frozen 2 was announced in March 2015 so maybe just maybe the Fifth Spirit thing was always an idea and this comic touched on it for the idea it had. I don't know for sure but either way I love this and this is my strongest headcanon theory that these two above are the Fifth Spirit we were told about in the Myth story which had them falling out of sync with the other elements suddenly and was never seen again. So they weren't a very successful Fifth Spirit as far as we know and Ahtohallan spent centuries looking for the next one through Iduna giving her the daughters who'd be the Fifth Spirit and create balance and harmony between the spirits, magic and humans and we're witnessing their story in hopes they'll be successful and prevent history repeating itself.
The Ask
Okay now to your question, do you think Thord is actually related to the sisters and proves so? Possibly yes! Because if the grandmother had a sister, perhaps she got married to a nearby kingdom or wanted to rule her own kingdom and had the Lur Horn. Perhaps that Lur marked their bond, especially if they were the original Fifth Spirit before Elsa and Anna, and it was stored somewhere safe with other artifacts from their era. And so Thord heard of that story from his kingdom and realized Queen Elsa from Arendelle had powers so he would go to the kingdom and find the Lur that he believed would give him powers but instead it just attracts the Narwhals and is a symbol of the love between Runeard's grandmother's grandmother and her sister who could possibly maybe be Thord's grandfather's grandmother's grandmother.
But overall, as much as I love this comic and their theory/ headcanon, I don't think these comics are strictly canon but then again we can consider them so if we wanted to but I wouldn't expect this mentioned if Frozen 3 has a similar story. Thank you for introducing me to this story because I had no idea how much lore could be in a comic story and give Frozen 3 vibes!
That's all for now but I will make a theory post explaining all this soon! ❄️
Thanks for the tag! Sorry it took me forever to respond 😆
It's so funny to think about the impact of some of the Joe Books Frozen comics despite them being a decade old at this point! And I agree that "Lur thief" is among the most interesting written Frozen stories. The strangest thing about it is the cave puzzle for sure. Who built it? How does it operate? Why does it seem like it's designed to react to Elsa's powers even though the place must be many generations older than her? It reminds me a lot of an old episode of the sci-fi show Stargate SG-1 where the team is stuck on a planet and has to solve a Norse mythology-themed puzzle in a cave.
Here are some of my other thoughts about it.
About Thord
I think it's possible he was telling the truth about his origin, or at least some version of the truth. I doubt his claim about being the rightful heir to the throne was accurate but I really like your theory about him being related to the sister of Anna and Elsa's great-great-great-grandmother.
Not Vikings
Despite their attire, there is no chance Anna and Elsa's great-great-great-grandmother and her sister were Vikings as they lived "only" five generations before the time of Frozen (so probably in the late 1600s or early 1700s). The Viking Age was a period at the end of the Iron Age that lasted from around the late 700s to the mid 1000s, so many many generations earlier. Maybe the artist overestimated how distant of a relative the queen really was or perhaps they intended for the queen to be a big Viking-fan and wanted herself and her sister to be depicted as Viking rulers? This second option is definitely more interesting and is something that I have as a personal headcanon regarding Arendelle's history.
Them being from a "modern" time period also makes sense when you consider that the classic image of the Viking wearing a horned helmet is completely false. This idea was only popularised in the 1800s and has no basis in actual archaeological finds. This is such an easy trap to avoid and unfortunately, the franchise has doubled down on this depiction many times and chances are they might do it in the sequel as well. In the first movie though, something much closer to real Viking armour can be seen in the background:
There is some other Viking memorabilia seen in Arendelle castle both in the movies and the comics so it was probably always a big deal in Arendellian culture.
About the lur
I'm puzzled by the decision to call the horn the "elfenben lur". "Elfenben" is the Swedish word for "ivory" and the horn is definitely made of bronze (confirmed by Grand Pabbie in the story). But perhaps it has ivory decorations?
Bronze horns ("lur") of the type shown in the comic were common in Denmark during the Nordic Bronze Age (ca. 1800 – 500 BC) so it’s possible the kingdom mentioned in the story is meant to be Denmark or possibly The Southern Isles that could have had access to artefacts of that type. It’s also possible it’s simply meant to be a “modern” replica since it was engraved with pictures of existing people.
Your idea about the horn being a gift of friendship from their great-great-great-grandmother's own sister definitely adds more to the story! Much more than I think the author intended.
The engraving inside the bell is also a great example of the level of detail that went into these comics. I can totally see the implied resemblance between the two women and Elsa and Anna (upscaled and edited image):
Some years ago, I wrote an analysis covering Anna and Elsa's relatives that has some information and theories about the "Viking" sisters and other characters that appear in books and comics.
About narwhals
I agree they are some of the coolest creatures in the ocean. There was actually a short story released after Frozen 2 that featured Elsa and Olaf searching for a unicorn but they instead found a narwhal in the fjord. Elsa explains that narwhals are known as "unicorns of the sea." 🦄
About the Fifth spirit
IDK how this comic could possibly play a part in the ongoing Fifth spirit lore. Since Jenn, Trent and others are probably not even aware of its existence, I'm (unfortunately) skeptical it'll have any impact on the continuation of Anna & Elsa's story in Frozen III. But it's still a very cool idea!
About Ødemark Isle
My theory is that this island is (or was) a remote Arendellian colony similar to Iceland or Svalbard (still a part of Norway) that offered plenty of natural resources not found on the mainland: "exotic" game like polar bears, walruses etc., whales, minerals, coal etc. In my headcanon, Ødemark was also [Spoiler Warning for the novel Polar Nights] the intended destination of the prison ship that was meant to transport Princess Inger. And yeah, I'm calling it "Ødemark" since the original Odemark is clearly an anglicised version of the Norwegian and Swedish words for "wasteland".
