The Hidden Pagan Lore of Disney’s Frozen II
Pagan Spirits of Disney’s Frozen II
We’ll start off by pointing out that this animated feature actually didn’t have a villain. Instead, the main characters, Anna and Elsa, had to struggle with their inner demons and focus on their strengths. I thought that was really interesting because I don’t know that Disney has ever done that before. The exciting part was seeing all the hidden pagan lore of Disney’s Frozen II. The leader of the beloved trolls calls them nature spirits. These nature spirits are actually inspired by old pagan lore. It’s interesting to see what they decided to pull from it and how to use it.
As is common, there are four main nature spirits: fire, water, air, and earth. In Frozen II, earth is represented in the monstrous forms of stone giants. Trust me, you don’t want to make those guys mad. Next is the little fire salamander who vaguely resembles the chameleon in Disney’s Rapunzel. We won’t start harping on design choices for that though. Then, there’s the air element that gets named Gale by Olaf. It’s quite literally a force of wind flying around being mischievous and cute. Lastly, there’s the Nokk, the water horse that Elsa has to subdue to reach Ahtohallan.
I will say that the hidden pagan references are pretty blatant in some areas but very subtle in others. Gale’s design may seem somewhat a lazy, but there are a lot of old stories about just that. Those stories are about the North Wind, or the Seaward Wind if you are talking about Gaelic mythology.
Pagan Creation Story of Dani and Nanu
Before we get into any more about Frozen II’s nature spirits, I want to give you a quick rundown of one of my favorite creation myths according to Gaelic mythology. That is the tale of Dani and Danu. In the beginning, there was nothing called the Null. Except, there was Dani and Danu which represented white light and dark light, Fir Solas and Dubh Solas. At one point these two energies collide in space and create everything. All the planets, stars, and cosmos came from it.
The first place that life emerged was here on Earth, and the first creature that emerged was the goddess Danu. The first elements to emerge were the creation elements: fire, water, earth, and wind (or air). It’s important to note that wind and sky are different elements in old school Gaelic mythology. Furthermore, the number of elements totals thirteen, but we’ll talk about that in another tale.
These source energies, source beasts, and essentially early gods are what we refer to as the Fomorians, or Titans as they are known nowadays. If you look at post Catholic mythology, Fomorians are made out to be these shapeshifting, terrible monsters, but in the old mythology, they were the old gods, the Titians, the ones that created everything.
Water Spirit
The first ones to emerge after Danu were the fire, water, earth, and air gods. Here’s where we get a nice big chunk of the hidden pagan lore of Disney’s Frozen II. The water god was seen as a horse. Modern depictions would tell us that it is the goddess Epona, but in old mythology it’s Eponeska. She is essentially a giant, over 200ft tall horse that consisted of water, seaweed, and the bodies of fish. She turned the tides of the original oceans before there was land.
Of course, there was land, but this was before there was land that could sustain life. Before then, there was this chaotic separation where things were constantly shifting and merging. The creation elements were always colliding with each other. Then, there were cataclysms that happened that would eventually bring balance to all the different elements. So, Eponeska was the water titan and the spirit of all things that had to do with water and the life of water. There are creation gods and titans pertaining to water, oceans, and tides, but again, that’s for another tale.
Fire Titan
The original titan for fire is somewhat akin to a meteorite. So, more or less, it’s seen as being a rock. However, there is an ancient dragon, a source dragon, named Alsafir. He was the dragon from which all fire flowed. It’s believed that fire that flowed from the mountain came from him. Another interesting side note is that in Gaelic mythology, dwarves were actually born from the scales of Alsafir. Anyway, I couldn’t find anything about salamanders in ancient Gaelic or Gaulish mythology, but large lizards in mythology tend to be associated with Alsafir as well.
Air Titan
The wind spirit is often just seen as being a breeze, and the Seaward Wind is on it’s own a god as well as one of the elder gods of creation. In Norse mythology, this god would have taken the form of the elder god Mimir the god of knowledge. I thought this was an interesting subtle tie in with the lore of Frozen II because there’s such an emphasis on memories and knowledge albeit being related to the water spirit. I’m sure many of you have heard of Mimir’s well.
Earth Titan
The earth giants that you see in the movie are actually akin to the original earth giants of the Fomorians in Gaelic mythology. This is one of the more obvious examples of the pagan lore of Disney’s Frozen II. They were made up of wood and stone, and these giants would sleep through most of year and foster fertile soil as well as help the trees grow when they were awake. As mankind took over more and more, the giants would sleep less and less, and that’s why there was disease growing into the lands, and there were fewer and fewer trees as mankind cut them down.
What ends up happening is these giants go deep into the mountains near Roe in Ireland where they could not be disturbed. It’s said that because it had been so long since they had slept properly, they slept for an eternity. As they slept, the river of Roe began to flow from them, and the river of Roe is often associated with being the source of life for nature itself. But then we have the River Boyne, and the River Boyne is associated with the Tobar Sagais which is the well of knowledge. All knowledge flows through the Tobar Sagais and through the River Boyne, and knowledge is also memories.
In the movie, Ahtohallan is the frozen river that contains the knowledge and memories that end up helping Elsa reach the conclusion of her self discovery and journey! It’s interesting and fun to see how these mythologies connect. It’s kind of merging the memories of nature and the memories of humankind into one, and it’s really, really cool.
Is Elsa a Goddess?
Now, for the possibly accidental hidden pagan lore of Disney’s Frozen II. The part I love more than anything else is that we’re given this idea that Elsa is a goddess. In the mythology I mentioned earlier, I didn’t mention that Danu is also seen as the goddess of winter. She’s the goddess of cold and ice! So, it’s very possible that they took inspiration from this old mythology to make Elsa’s character. I’m not sure when this film was written, but if they played the long game on that, then it’s absolutely brilliant!
If you have some additional lore you’d like to share with everyone, please feel free to do so in the comments below. Thanks for joining me for this tale and remember, all hail!
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