Chapter 2: The Crowning
O, great and worthy Queen, forever shine thy heart of gold. Here now anointed be,
Our chosen, with trust, love and hope. Our Queen of light thou art; thy light shall follow we.
The celebration starts with casks of wine and kegs of mead, while sets the daytime star.
Her hands resheathed, she stands at ease. The phantom of a smile around her lips does dance.
For she has won this fight against the storm within her core, the monster in her ice.
In rapture she has not known for so many years alone, she greets her sister: Hi.
Her whispered undertone's a thunderclap in Anna's ears; but warm, and soft, like home.
Hi, hi me? Um, hi! And appears a broad smile on her face, warm as the evening glow.
They laugh; because how strange, that thirteen years have passed and yet they have not more to say!
And difficult 'twas to forget the girls they had last seen, now were they tall and great:
One an anointed queen, erect yet graceful while reserved, her cape and dress pristine.
The other blithe and spirited, who flits and skips and hops, who laughs and sings, carefree.
Their words may have then stopped, but rapt they hold the other's gaze, which long from them was robbed.
Then Anna moves, to start to say—! But then Your Majesty; a new voice cuts her short.
There stands an old, skinny, bespectacled high-collared man, moustache white and wispy.
Practisedly he kisses the hand of the crocus monarch, his brows high and haughty.
From Weselhaven, south in our shared sea,
Whereto great barques and ocean vessels flock,
I humbly come, your golden grace to meet,
I old, I silver, I one mere Herzog.
Your grandfather and I were friends in youth:
How tragic was his swift and sudden fall!
Condolences; but these thoughts bring but ruth;
Now of some brighter matters let us talk.
For even ere when he the sceptre held,
Our haven fair and this dale fairer were
By commerce joined, and centuries of geld
In riverfuls hath been to both disbursed.
Gold majesty, pray this Duke's invite take
To share the first dance at your royal fête!
No skill have I, alas! says she with rehearsed noble ease, to on the wind embark
As do the autumn's floating leaves; but take my sister here – she has that flight-bound spark.
So flew they amidst cheers and revelry throughout the halls, a sound unknown for years.
As more partook of the glad ball, back at her sister's side does Anna reappear.
Behold her stark delight: though out of breath she jumped and skipped to her place of respite.
What fun! Too bad this chance has slipped from your smooth silky hands, she jests in spirits bright.
Ah, yes, her captive hands! As captive as her steel-wrought heart, as her in her own lands!
So unlike Anna's fits and starts as she now dashes off toward the playing band.
Can she open the door? Can she afford to let her in, her sister long forlorn?
How would it be, to dance and sing, to frolic, laugh, and run, by treelights and birdsong?
Elsa! Come join the fun! A melodic folk-music stirs, I know you'll like this one.
While round the ballroom nobles swirl, Anna gladly beckons, as radiant as the sun.
Cruel joy! There's the reason she locked away her heart and mind, and herself imprisoned!
But to preserve that smile of thine; Her smile drops; she retreats. Her head bows, crestfallen.
I am not as I seem, she thinks, Forgive my cold act; but—'tis dangerous to dream.
I cannot bear to so long shut thee out of my cold life, but thusly it must be.
No suffering, no strife, no scorn nor strike nor punishment, inflicts a wound alike.
Elsa's quotidian banishment of Anna's love 's a frost that both sisters does bite.
Anna stands at a loss. Only just now you greeted me; but what did that count for?
What did I do that so displeased you, that for a decade, you met me nevermore?
She turns, and limps away – better to be anywhere else. As dignitaries sway,
She embraces her lonesome self – but she is struck! and dives! The floor comes for her face—
He looks into her eyes – he who had struck her once before – now clad in creamy white.
He caught her hand as she did fall, and gently pulls her up. Glad I caught you, he smiles.
The moon is upward come, but revellers and lovebirds know the night is still but young.
Dance-weary, under Winter's Road,(1) the star-crossed stroll around in the nocturnal hum.
They chatter long about detached and sundry things at first; but slowly tease they out
Some background of one another, behind the jovial dame, and this prince of the south.
She, orphaned at the age of fifteen when the royal crew was swallowed by the waves.
For three years no one to talk to, since her icy sister to meet her never deigned.
But I still remember how we were like when we were young – never not together.
Who knows why she has since become so frozen and so far? What did I do to her?
The princeling laughs, All par for the course; for I have been there, unwanted and out-cast.
Twelve older brothers spare no care, nor parents, for this son. 'tis as though I am glass.
But enough of this runt; tell me, princess, how came to be this white weave in your bun?
-When I was five, I had a dream, she pauses, and remarks, Peculiar, is this one!
I dreamt that all was swart, as in a moonless wood; and cold, as winter's icy darts.
But then light glimmered, and a troll kissed me upon the head, and I woke with a start.
My hair, before all red, now gained this streak of paper white. Then I saw Elsa's bed
And things had vanished in the night. I woke up from a dream to a nightmare instead.
-But it no longer needs to be that way, the princeling says, for now you do have me.
We know the bite of lonesome days; I will not shut you out. His hands hers gently squeeze.
How her repressed heart bounds! The love she thought from her denied, she has in him now found!
And twirl and dance they through the night, through palace corridors, through silent tended grounds.
A chance for something more, a chance to have a brand-new start: love is an open door.
Unless your hands can freeze a heart; but how could Anna know that which happened before?
But now, her face aglow with newfound happiness, she whirls with him who fast her holds.
They run and shout, dance and giggle; where have we once that seen? But see him now bend low,
And land upon one knee – in his eyes shine the milky moon, as he her hand receives
With tender grace; and as she swoons: Can I say something crazy? Will you marry me?
Her young heart sets ablaze. Can I say something crazier? Breathlessly, she exclaims:
Yes!
Under starry chandeliers, as the moon nears his peak, back to the ball they race.
Through windows midnight peeks; but who would leave, while there is cheer and laughter at the feast?
To guests the queen stays not too near, but now she turns around when she hears Anna speak.
Els—I mean, queen, allow me to present Prince Hans, she says, with brief curtsey and bow.
A distant act but radiant face: We would like your blessing—to wed! Two mouths, one sound.
What?—This is surprising, but ere the queen can object more, the pair begin talking
Of ceremonies and more balls, of chocolate and of cake, of brothers moving in—
No.
Slow down, hear me. Wait. On marriage let me hold comment; but newcomers to stay,
To this I cannot give consent. May I speak with thee please? Alone, not in this place?
Her hands repeat her plea as she wrings them before her chest in fear unconsciously.
But fear is misread for contempt, for Elsa's eyes and brows only did Anna see.
She shies back, somewhat cowed. No; you can tell the both of us, she whispers with a frown.
Fine, Elsa says, somewhat rebuffed, You have only just met, and want to marry now?
-Our love is true, so yes. -What knowest thou about love, pray? -More than you can profess!
You only know to push away, to shut out and refuse, to silence and reject!
So stunned the queen recluse this sudden passionate outburst, that words all her elude.
Composing now her shock and hurt, she breathes an excuse me, and shakenly removes.
But she must not now weep; her sadness mixes with alarm as cold energies sweep
Through her veins; her magic is armed. The party is over. Close the gates. Her voice bleak.
But Anna seizes her, and when she pulls away, her hand is pulled out from her glove!
Panicked, she tries to snatch it back; but 'tis held out of reach by her tearful sister.
Please, Elsa, please, she pleads, I can't live like this anymore. A chance for her release?
A prince could free her from these walls… Elsa enunciates with misery:
Then leave.
This spite finally breaks the long-waiting, suffering girl. Still you push me away?!
Your only kin—and all the world! What is't you hate so much?! Of what are you afraid?!
Enough. Enough! Enough! Elsa had turned to walk away, but snaps back, strained and sharp.
The air suddenly glaciates – great spikes of vicious ice across the ballroom warp!
All tumble in surprise; good fortune that no one is pierced. The nobles stare in fright;
The queen stares back in abject fear: she stands, all stripped, all bare, before their hostile eyes,
Save of one standing there: her sister looks, with confusion – she feels not at all scared,
Merely a strange ante-vision. Elsa? She reaches out. Forthward she takes a step.
And Elsa recalls now the danger hanging in the air. She flees at once, without
So much as a glance back to where there is a sudden roar, as Weselhaven shouts:
A sorcerer, a monstrous sorcerer!
An evil might, a blight upon this land!
Follow, follow! Come with me to stop her!
Before yet more ill spilleth from her hands!
Blindly through corridors, she flees from the voices behind, malevolent and wroth.
Suddenly, before her, she finds, assembled at her gates, a restless gathered throng.
The folk of her domain, on her exit from the castle, begin to cheer and wave.
Toward her they surge and jostle, while she in stark terror can scarcely back away—
Till a spraying fountain at once spews out a claw of ice when her hand encounters
Its metal rim; and in a trice the crowd falls back in shock, as envoys rancourous
Pursue her out the door; she raises an arm: no! stay back! Then suddenly a shot
Of magic ice is loosed and cracks upon the entrance steps; her hunters leap and
dodge!
Reprieved for a short breath, Elsa discards her heels and flies for the castle's back end.
Her people shrink back like a tide fast ebbing from the shore, as the moon downward wends.
Wind whips away the calls that harry her wits from the rear; soon she hears them no more.
The pound of her heart in her ears, 'neath her feet turn to ice, the waters of the fjord.
Headlong into the pines that stand dark on the other bank, she runs, and starts to climb
The foothills, through the roots and brambles; but in time she slows, now spent, to have respite.
But what cold wind here blows? Calmer, she looks around to see a mountaintop of snow.
To think she fled unwittingly to the Northfell summit! Whither now shall she go?
Naught here but my footprints,
That lead back to a lonely realm;
Naught here but howling wind,
That feeds the storm within myself.
The heavens know I tried, and failed to keep it in.
Thirteen years locked inside
A marble cage woven in fear;
And I've abided by
The rules: conceal, don't feel; but here
Where stand not those who know, wherefore still need I hide?
Let it go. Let it go;
I can't hold it back anymore!
Let it go. Let it go;
I turn my back and slam the door!
They do not bother me: nor slander nor the cold.
From high up here I see
That distance makes the world seem small;
My fears imprisoned me
But now they can't reach me at all!
Unlocked, what can I make? Unleashed, what will I wreak?
This glove let me forsake!
Behold, a snowman comes to form;
Farewell, my heavy cape!
Behold, a stairway to the top
Of this cliff, my new home; hear you, for here I stay!
Let it go! Let it go;
I am one with the wind and sky!
Let it go! Let it go;
You'll never again see me cry!
They do not bother me: nor loneness nor the cold!
As my power flurries,
Frozen both air and earth become;
And as my mind hurries,
Form now an ice palace for one;
And now an icy blast – to form, to shape, and freeze!
Now make a dress like glass;
That shines and shimmers in the dawn!
The past is in the past;
That perfect girl we knew is gone!
Buried deep in the snow; I am now free at last!
Let it go! Let it go!
Cold won't bother me anyway!
Let it go! Let it go!
Behold me in the light of day!
Atop this lofty peak, rage on, my storm so cold!
-Notes-
(1) Calque of Old Norse/Icelandic Vetrarbraut or Swedish Vintergatan 'Milky Way' (lit. 'Winter's Path/Road').
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