For part 5 in our 10-part anniversary series, I'm bringing back a discussion we had in our Arendelle Archives discord server in August 2024.
The chapter book Anna & Elsa #2 - Memory and magic (Erica David, 2015) is an early little treasure of a story. It contains one of my favourite Anna and Elsa-moments from any Frozen story. In chapter 5, Anna is confronting her sister about what happened the night she lost her memories. But after the two have a talk about it, Anna understands what happened. Elsa had decided to hide as a means to make sure Anna stayed safe 😭🥹
When re-reading this book, I came across THIS very interesting paragraph in chapter 8:
The queen had loved to fish with her family since she was a little girl. She was good at it, too. She was proud to pass on the tradition to her daughters.
Now, take into account that this book was written WAY before Iduna's past was figured out, but doesn't this sound like something she would have definitely learned together with her Northuldra family?
Next page brings up something equally interesting:
The queen was away visiting relatives.
For obvious reasons, when this was written, David would not be referring to Iduna's actual family but rather to some imaginary family members that are never seen or talked about again. Besides this comment about "relatives", I don't think Iduna's past was ever even hinted at before Frozen II (except in Once Upon a Time, of course). And given that F2 gave Iduna a background as Northuldra, the movie would have retconned any previous ideas any writer or editor might have had about her past. But WITH the context of F2 and more specifically the novel Dangerous Secrets in mind, does the comment from the book mean anything?
This is my interpretation:
The first paragraph about her being good at fishing is actually given a lot more (although unintentional) substance, as fishing was definitely something she would have learned with her nomad family. Not just as a simple leisure activity, but as a necessary part of her family's life. There are a couple of other stories where some emphasis is put on Iduna's love for the outdoors. Most notably in DS but also in the chapter book Elsa's icy rescue where she is shown to enjoy nature trips and where she "can't wait to put [her] toes in the water" of the fjord.
There is also the graphic novel True treasure where Iduna is seen taking the girls for trips through the woods (after the accident) and where Elsa says to Anna "you know how Mother was about nature--she probably thought every tree was the greatest for one reason or another".
Iduna's background with her nomad tribe sure starts to make a lot of sense. For the second line, how would she be able to visit "relatives" when we know she has no family in Arendelle? We need to remember that the memory that the book describes is told from young Anna and Elsa's perspective. They would only know what their parents told them. I believe this easily could be connected with their trips to the mist wall, or perhaps just be a cover story for some other important trip (would not be the last time).
According to Dangerous Secrets chapter 43, at this point in time Agnarr and Iduna simply sent a scout to check on the mist:
Now we were busy, ruling a kingdom, parenting two little girls. We did still send a patrol to the mists every six months, but they always came back with the same news.
But what if this was a rare exception? Maybe Iduna had felt she wanted to go this time? Of course, she had not told Agnarr her secret yet. Heck, Agnarr hadn't even told the girls about the mist yet! So, to simply say Iduna was away "visiting relatives" was a story as good as any to explain why she was gone temporarily. BUUUT, in a way, saying she was visiting relatives wouldn't even too far from the truth! As far as Agnarr knew, Iduna's parents were still trapped behind the mist. And as far as Iduna knew, it was her foster parents who were there!
Some alternate interpretations of Iduna’s trip that were suggested in our server:
She was visiting Agnarr’s side of the family, a visit he didn’t go on because of kingly duties
She was managing her windmill business
She was visiting the orphanage. She could technically consider them relatives because that’s where she lived for a significant portion of her life
