Book I
Summer Snow
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Chapter 1: Queendom of the Crocus

Tell, all-knowing spirit, of that queendom on the North Way, and its frigid magic.
The which to bless, from far away where ice no longer thaws, thou didst come to visit.

Tell of their king who crossed from their fjords and dales in the south into the forest north.
The leaves of autumn fluttered down in that spirit-seen land as two peoples discoursed.
This dale-king built a dam upon the river in the woods; a gift from the south land.
The woods-chief could not feel its good, for half the realm was dry, the other water-clammed.
In vain the chief did try to tell the king of all these ills. The king gave a grin, wry:
Our people celebrate! Be stilled. But the chief's grave distress would not be mollified.
Then the king bade him rest, and escorted him to his home. Thereat the chief expressed
Suspicion at the dam's real motive. And there he would meet, on the king's blade, his death.
Punished be this deceit! The woods-folk on their neighbours turned, vicious in their grief.
In the strife naught could be discerned. The king was outwrestled, and thrown from the high steeps.
Beware, you who battle, lest your clamour over-anger the guardians primordial.
Into the fray their vast power was unleashed. Earth, water, fire and air hurtled.
The giants hurled boulders, and at each step the earth would wreck and quaver with tremors;
All through the foes charged the fierce Nøkk, the aqueous equine, most graceful of warriors;
Then up the birches climbed the Salamander's purple flames, growing as grew the strife;
Fanned by the sudden hurricane who scathingly scattered the inimical lines;—
Save one maiden, favoured of the Gale, who bade him abate his forhowling tempest,
And rescue the young prince, whose late father her tribe betrayed, but who was innocent.
Unwaking, there he lay, on the earth scorched by nature's harm, of ash and hardened clay.
She gently took him in her arms; borne on the mighty wind, they spirited away.
These two youths without sin, thou let'st from the great tumult flee. And then thou turned'st within,
And sent'st a thick mist through the trees; the war would never spread out from behind the mist.
Thus till the dale they fared upon the blessing of the breeze who too their pure hearts spared.
With years the prince became a liege. And her, long by his side, chose he in time to wed.
The oceans flowing by thy boreal home of glaciers wild to thee this did describe.
Thus cam'st thou south to seek their child, with skin as white as snow, and hair as clear as light.
The river of time flows, and folk forget the details of things happened long ago.
And long is time to children oft, and for Princess Elsa, days were joyful and slow.

Three years meandered past. The queen another daughter bore, blithe young Princess Anna.
The princesses like sea and shore were always side by side, never a door apart.
With cries gleeful and bright, they raced and played from hall to hall, from dawn till evenlight.
Then forth Elsa her ice would call, and yet more frolicked they in snow into the night.
The Northern Queen would wait for her children possessed by mirth to weary of their play,
Then draw them to her bosom's hearth, and sing a melody of a mythical place:

Where meet the northwind and the sea,
Flows a river of memories.
The oceans thereto tidings bring;
Knows the spirit there of all things.
Go seek there, those who seek the truth,
And a path when all is confused.
Dive down, deep down into her sound,
But not too deep lest thou be drowned.
Ahtohallan's voice soft but clear
Only reaches whom knows to hear.
If thou be called and thus thou goest,
Canst thou then brave the truth she shows?

But naught could damp their glee, not even this arcane warning and distant prophecy.
Slept they until the next dawning; on their brows, no furrows, as the nights passed in peace—
If only! For they rose as the aurorae did awake. In Elsa's conjured snows,
They sprinted, skated, danced and played. A snowman too they built, of hands and hearts of both.
The hall with laughter filled as Anna with the snowman waltzed amidst the columns still.
This partner Olaf they did call; and went they round and round the chamber vast and gilt.
Then much more fun they found in sledding from the very tops of giant snowy mounds.
But regret's near where caution stops: for Elsa's wayward blast square struck her sister's crown!
Ran she, stricken aghast, to rouse their parents from their sleep when midnight was long past.
Through beams and pillars deep frost seeped, a mirror of her frantic, naïve, guilty heart.
The king found an old map, writ ages past in ancient tongues, t' a vale of healing hands.
They took Anna, five summers young, in cold mortal slumber, and north by horse they ran.
As soon as forever – so Elsa felt in her dismay – come on the vale they were.
The queen, into the empty space, incanted an old tune. Her voice filled all the earth:

~Hoya, hoya, hoya, hoo-ooh-ah…~

And the earth starts to move. Come forth the ancient living stones, the blessed of the moon.
Grand Pabbi, eldest of the trolls, summoned old sorceries, Elsa's ice to remove:

Well come in haste,
For ice upon the head
Is solved with a simple spell;
Ice upon the heart,
Only true love heals.
Fade now, frosty magic,
Fade now, freezing pain;
Frolic, fair, in fun.

In slumber Anna beamed; the frozen curse was lifted, though were changed her memories.
Then to Elsa, Grand Pabbi told the whispers he could hear from the things he could see:

Thine ice is a gift
That will not cease to grow
In mystic might and majesty.
Yet so too shall peril.
Master this power,
But fear shall be thy foe,
But fear shall be thy fall;
Let not fear thee follow.

But how to ignore fear, when Elsa had with her own hands struck down her sister dear?
Dearer than life, dearer than can be explicate in words said for a thousand years.
Elsa thus turned inwards; away from Anna she would stay to master her powers.
No longer would she cause her pain, her now with white-streaked hair, her precious young sister.
Their room they no more shared; Elsa that happy hall exchanged for a far, lonesome spare.
To keep ill rumours all at bay, the palace halved its staff, and would refuse all guests.
Behind doors firmly barred, Elsa began her training to rein in her icy art.
But day by day, her power grew; the less her might would yield, the more fear gripped her heart.

To her door, that cold shield which Elsa hid her fright behind, in vain Anna appealed.
She knocked and called, but every time, silence with her stood by that door colder than steel.
Yet still with hope, she cried: Do you want to build a snowman? Come on, let's play outside!
Are you alright? Are you unhappy – have I done you wrong? Why won't you see me, why?
But underneath the door Anna would slip a souvenir of gladder days bygone.
Elsa received them year on year: likenesses of snowmen, hand-crafted and hand-drawn.
Her solitary den was lightened with these little gifts; but Anna soon had spent
Too long begging the door to shift. As that door stayed unmoved, no more gifts did she send.
Poor Elsa, how she rued her self-mandated exile in her still and chilly room!
Thou didst no wrong – only I did. Now I must keep thee safe, so this cold path I choose.
Indeed, cold was her way: no rage, no sadness, joy, nor love, lest the air glaciate.
Her hands she imprisoned in gloves, but she could never toss her true feelings away.
Continued she, therefore, in her confinement bittersweet, her waxing might t' enforce.
To aid her sought the king and queen through volumes of volumes, but no answers came forth.
At this knew Queen Iðunn that answers lay far in the north, where oceans lose their hue;
Where waves like mountains foam and froth; where never in the past dared venture human crews.
Yet readied they their masts, with sails and spars and provisions that storms and months would last.
But save those on the same mission, that southward they were gone informed they all the staff.
And so when Anna was of fifteen summers, and Elsa had seen three winters more,
They bade farewell to those embarking the mighty wave-horse headed for southern shores.
But on their northern course, the mightier horse of the waves refused to let them cross.
Its wrathful tempests they did brave, but alas! The sea turned too wroth, and they were lost.
Danced the leaves of autumn, and still no shadow of a sign of the royals' return.
Envoys were dispatched far and wide, but they had not been met on their southern sojourn.
How the folk did lament! That they, the gentlest queen and king, did meet untimely ends!
And worse, worse! to their stone-raising, only one princess came; Elsa could not attend,
For when she learnt their fates, her magic burst out with her tears, and froze her living space
Into a tundra, dead and drear. In whose arms could she cry, trapped alone in this place?—
Until Anna came by, and asked to talk to share relief – perhaps, to come inside?
So Elsa swallowed down her grief and did not breathe a sound, though floods poured from her eyes.

As leaves must turn to brown and wither and die on the earth when winter comes around,
Spring must yet spring and bring rebirth. From cruel winter snow, the croci sprout, unbowed.
Three years have now followed, and regal Elsa, touched of ice, inherits now her throne.
Her platinum braid neatly tied; while to the floor does drape her satin purple robe.
Emblazoned on her cape, a golden crocus of her realm on wine-coloured brocade.
Fear threatens to her overwhelm, as she puts her gloves on, the tint of clear cascades.
My heart as steel be strong. Conceal, don't feel, put on a show. Let no step be stepped wrong.
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know. Chants she to a portrait of loved ones three years mourned.

Elsewhere behind the gates, Anna instead brims with delight, for at last, for this day,
The castle gates are open wide; and sprints she to the piers, to sunned sky and sea spray.
Her hair, glowing ochre, a noble bun wrapped in a braid; slipping off her shoulders,
Her black bodice speckled with red. Around her rushing feet, her olive skirt flutters.
Ships arriving in fleets, for the first time in forever! So many that she meets,
For the first time in forever – could there be one among them with the love she seeks?
Abruptly halts her run, as some fool on a chestnut horse knocks her to the pier's struts!
He dismounts in hasty remorse, and stretches out a hand with which to help her up—
In a pale mitten clad, his firm but tremulous fingers, held stiff in nervous tact.
A light and simple cream blazer, over a blue waistcoat; now upward his eyes pan—
A long and slender nose, a sharp jaw and full healthy lips, the hue of a young rose.
Out from behind folded eyelids the stranger's auburn eyes, shamed, return to his toes.
Pray, grudge you not, that I, in my awkward distractedness, struck you as I did ride,
Spake he with withdrawn velvetness, I, humble and unseen; Hans, of the Southern Isles.
She stands as in a dream. Somehow she was recovered then returned to her two feet.
She might have stayed there till time's end, but for the tolling bells. With haste they take their leave.

Behold, sky, sea and dell! The crocus now does bloom again, so we are here to tell!
With hope, and love, and trust, proclaim, across the continent, the ruler of our realm!
Her hands are tremulant as they depart the safety of their old silken gauntlets.
The crocus' golden scept' and orb in her terrified grip with ice begin to burn.

Sem hon heldr inum helgum eignum,
Ok krýnd í þessum helga stað,
Ek té fram fyrir yðr,
ELSU, DRÓTTNING ARNADALS.(1)

-Notes-

(1) (Old Norse) 'As she holds the holy objects, and crowned in this holy place, I present to you all, Elsa, Queen of Eaglesdale.'

MMXX SkyInk