King Runeard/Synopsis

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The history of King Runeard from the Frozen franchise.

Background

Ruling Arendelle

“	Grand Pabbie: I do not wish to speak ill of any man, but suffice to say your mother married out of duty to her kingdom, not for love, and the marriage was not a happy one, and though she loved her baby boy, she could not see the sun through the clouds. She told us she would lie in bed all day crying, mourning the life and kingdom she left behind. Your father grew impatient at her behavior. He couldn't understand why she was so sad when he had given her everything she could possibly desire, but there was one thing he could never give her. Bulda: Love. Poor dear was starving for love. Grand Pabbie: She struggled with her sadness for years, but at last, she could take it no more. She fled the castle with only the clothes on her back— Agnarr: And left her son behind. How could a mother do that? To her own child! Grand Pabbie: You must understand. It was the hardest thing she ever had to do, also, the bravest. She knew she could not make a life for you outside the castle. If she took you, they would come after you; it would likely start a war between her home country and Arendelle. Many would die, and your life would hang in the balance. Leaving you behind wasn’t selfish. In fact, it was the most selfless act she could have chosen. Iduna: So she came here? Grand Pabbie: She did. She knew we had the ability to help her forget, and forgetting was the only way she could live with what she’d done. She wanted to forget who she was, who she’d left behind, but before we performed the spell, she had one other request: to see her son, not as he was then, but as he would be. So, we searched the Northern Lights for vision of your future. It is how I knew you would come to us someday.	„
	~ Grand Pabbie and Bulda telling Agnarr about Rita and Runeard's abysmal marriage.

Years prior to the events of the film, Runeard oversaw the construction of what would be known as the Castle of Arendelle. He was responsible for greatly expanding the location, though he had predecessors presumably from previous locations, such as his great-great-grandfather Eric and his grandmother Else. He had the castle chocked full of secret passages to hidden libraries in which he would obsessively study magic, its causes, and its whereabouts. He also established a proud annual naval tradition where the Arendellian fleet would navigate the close-lying seas.

At some point, Runeard arranged to be married to a woman from another kingdom named Rita, who became Arendelle's Queen upon their marriage, and the couple had one son and heir named Prince Agnarr. Even though Rita loved her son, she grew increasingly depressed, pining for her home kingdom to which she had no access and longing to be free. Runeard initially tried to satisfy her materialistically by showering her with royal gifts, but as she became so encumbered with grief at being trapped that she would spend all day sobbing in bed, Runeard grew impatient at her for seemingly being ungrateful, unable to fathom why she would be sad when she could have everything she wanted. Realizing Runeard would never give her love nor allow her to exit their marriage, Rita eventually broke down, sought out the Trolls and begged their leader Grand Pabbie to erase her memories so she could forget her life in Arendelle and who she was. She then fled, having to leave her son behind with Runeard as she knew running off with Agnarr meant a war breaking out between Arendelle and her kingdom, causing many deaths. Furthermore, Runeard would likely hunt them down, and in the war, Agnarr's life would hang in the balance.

After having her memories wiped, Rita disappeared, and Runeard resolved to erase any documentation of her existence from the kingdom by locking away all her belongings, barring her bedroom door, and criminalizing the mentioning of her name; anyone who brought Rita up would face immediate banishment. Runeard told a heartbroken Agnarr that Rita had been "carried off by evil spirits". When Agnarr wept for his mother (who he thought had died), Runeard shamed him, causing his son to lock himself in his room for years, praying for the evil spirits to return her in the day and fearing the evil spirits would come to snatch him up in the night. Rita had made Agnarr a puffin called Sir JörgenBjörgen which Runeard did not know about, and the royal servant Gerda quickly hid it away so she could return it to Agnarr in the future. Runeard publicly made magic and its users the scapegoat of all the problems in the kingdom, teaching his subjects that magic users were dishonest and that their souls had been turned black by the corrupting darkness of their magic.

Betrayal

“	That dam wasn't a gift of peace. It was a trick.	„
	~ Anna realized that her grandfather tricked the Northuldrans into building a dam as a gift of peace.

Sometime after beginning his reign as king, Runeard and the Arendellians discovered and made peace with the Northuldra tribe, who lived in the Enchanted Forest north of Arendelle alongside the elemental spirits. Despite their different ways, the Northuldra promised the Arendellians friendship. Some of the visiting Arendellians even offered the Northuldrans books of Arendellian legend, which instilled Arendellian ideals of royalty and honor into the nomadic people. In honor of their alliance, Runeard commissioned the construction of a dam in the Forest, a feat which took many years to complete. The dam was gifted as a peace offering designed to help the Northuldran people and bring prosperity to their lands by strengthening their waters.

However, in truth, Runeard actually feared and despised the Northuldrans, as he believed that their following of magic made them feel so entitled and more powerful than monarchs that they could potentially threaten his own power and rank as a king. The dam was, in fact, only to be created to weaken Northuldra's resources by draining their lands on which they agriculturally depended so that Runeard could subjugate them to his rule and force them to depend on him for resources. Though it was evident to a portion of the Northuldran population that Runeard was not sincerely a friend to them, as he would often glare at their adults as well at children with hate and disgust, he still made a point to prove to them his intent to establish peace, and no one knew the extent of his bigotry and wrath towards the tribe.

When the dam was completed, a celebration gathering was prepared to take place in the Forest. In the run-up to the celebration, the only person in whom Runeard confided over the true purpose of the dam was his second-in-command, whom he ordered to bring in Arendelle's grand army to speed things up and prepare for an imminent attack after sizing up the Northuldran population. Even when his second-in-command wisely pointed out that the Northuldrans aren't distrustful in nature, Runeard stubbornly and arrogantly refused to heed his advice as he still despised magic, then explained how the Northuldra's magical ties makes them untrustworthy to the Arendellians.

Dangerous Secrets: The Story of Iduna and Agnarr

Runeard's War and Death

“	Many lost parents during the battle of the Enchanted Forest, myself included.	„
	~ Agnarr speaks about how his father and many other people's parents were killed during the Battle of the Enchanted Forest.

When the Arendellians, which included Runeard, Agnarr, Lieutenant Mattias, the other royal guards, and citizens of the kingdom, arrived in the Enchanted Forest for the celebration, upon approaching the Northuldrans, Runeard flicked Agnarr under the chin and ordered him to straighten his posture and act regal. He then reminded his son that he represented Arendelle and ordered him to stay behind and mind Mattias before walking away with the rest of his soldiers. Realizing that his father did not want him around while he spoke with the elders, Agnarr despondently watched Runeard as he was left behind before Mattias stepped in to cheer him up.

Right before the celebration began, Runeard impatiently called Agnarr over, then chided him for exploring the Enchanted Forest in childlike wonder and fascination. Agnarr tried to apologize without looking his father in the eyes, but Runeard walked off and dismissed him without even saying goodbye. As Agnarr looked shamefully down on the ground, he was cheered up again when Lieutenant Mattias appeared. Runeard then conferred with some of his soldiers stationed at the head of the Northuldran camp and ominously asks if they are prepared for the “festivities”, indicating he is preparing them for the massacre.

Unbeknownst to the Northuldrans and Arendellians, as the festivities went on, including with a reindeer riding event that Agnarr and Mattias watch, the Northuldran chief confronted Runeard about the dam, as he has noticed that the dam had been weakening the land's resources instead of strengthening them. After looking past the leader to see if anyone was close enough within earshot to hear, Runeard interrupted him and declared that they could discuss the matter in private and find a solution while having tea on the fjord, a proposal upon which the chief agreed. However, this was just a ruse to let the chief's guard down: as the chief sat down to take a drink from a cup in his hands, Runeard snuck up behind him while wielding his sword and murdered him. To cover his tracks, Runeard claimed to his army that the Northuldrans attacked him.

Because of Runeard's murder of the Northuldran chief, a battle broke out between the Arendellian soldiers and the Northuldran people during the once-peaceful celebration, putting both the Arendellian and Northuldran civilians at risk and resulting in a number of casualties between both sides. Eventually, during the fight, Runeard was driven to a cliff and fell off of it to his death, but not before dragging down with him the Northuldran that he was trying to strike down.

Influence on Arendelle

“	Are the Northuldra destroyed?	„
	~ A worrisome Iduna asking about the fate of the Northuldra following Runeard's war.

The spirits of the Enchanted Forest, enraged by the fighting, cursed the forest by enveloping it in a powerful mist that would keep anyone from leaving or entering, trapping the Northuldran people and Arendellian soldiers inside. Despite Runeard's disillusioned squadron of soldiers vowing to kill any Northuldran on sight as the latter had begun “slaughtering” their people, the mortally wounded Agnarr was saved from the attack by the Northuldran girl named Iduna along with her friend Gale, the Wind Spirit.

When a squadron of soldiers returned to Arendelle and discovered that Iduna had stowed away on one of the many evacuation wagons loaded with wounded soldiers and civilians, they violently seized her and interrogated her until the Arendellian Lord Peterssen falsely asserted that Iduna has been the daughter of two Arendellians who were killed in the battle, saving her life. Iduna then spent the next period of her life in the Arendellian orphanage, which, due to the amount of deaths caused by Runeard's attack, was heaving with newly orphaned children to the point that it had to ask for additional state funds to be able to expand and feed them all.

The foul lies propagated by Runeard against the Northuldrans carry over into the Arendellian kingdom. For decades, the citizens of the kingdom considered it a mercy that the dam and mist both served to cordon the Northuldrans off from their people, thinking they were malicious and would attack them again if given the chance. Many even promised to attack any Northuldrans they came across on sight. This caused Iduna to hide her origins to stay safe, and also inspired the King of Vassar, King Nicholas, to practice upon the Arendellians' credulous paranoia in order to insinuate himself into the kingdom by faking Northuldran attacks. Even though they were fully aware that the surviving Northuldrans as well as the Arendellian survivors were locked behind the impenetrable mist, the hateful picture Runeard had painted of the Northuldrans lead many of the civilians to assume the Northuldrans had somehow pushed through the mist to finish what they started by murdering them all.

In the following years, Agnarr married Iduna upon inheriting the throne of Arendelle, thus becoming the new King and Queen, and Runeard posthumously became a grandfather after Agnarr and Iduna give birth to Elsa and Anna. Due to Iduna's selfless act of rescuing Agnarr during Runeard's attack, the elemental spirits rewarded her by giving her first-born daughter, Elsa, with ice powers. Years later, Agnarr told Elsa and Anna about the story of what happened in the Enchanted Forest, unaware that his father had actually started the conflict that sealed it off from the world in the first place. After keeping Anna and Elsa separated for ten years due to the latter having accidentally injured the former with her powers and their efforts to help Elsa control them fail, Iduna finally comes clean to Agnarr about her Northuldran roots and saving him from the battle in the Forest. She tells him that she believes Elsa is a gift from the spirits as a child born from love between an Arendellian and a Northuldran. When she tells him about the magical river Ahtohallan and that it is said to hold all the answers about the past, Iduna thinks it could give them answers about Elsa's powers, and Agnarr declares that she should find Ahtohallan. Iduna agrees, and the couple set out on a two-week trip to find the river on the Dark Sea while claiming to be taking a trip on the Southern Sea. However, both Agnarr and Iduna perish when their ship gets caught in a violent storm, leaving a distraught Elsa to take over as the new Queen of Arendelle.

Frozen II

Legacy

“	Anna: Arendelle has no future until we make this right! King Runeard betrayed everyone! Lieutenant Mattias: How do you know that? Anna: My sister gave her life for the truth. Please… before we lose anyone else.	„
	~ Anna tells Lieutenant Mattias and his soldiers the truth about Runeard's heinous crimes.

Elsa seeing a projection of Runeard in the Wind Spirit, unaware it's depicting him killing the Northuldran chief.

Three years after her coronation and the defeat of Prince Hans, the Duke of Weselton and his thugs, Elsa hears the call of a mysterious voice and accidentally awakens the elemental spirits, who strip Arendelle of its natural elements. To save the kingdom, Elsa decides to travel to the Enchanted Forest alongside Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven and find the voice. After entering the Forest, the group gets swirled up in Gale's tornado before dropping everyone else and keeping Elsa. Foreshadowing what was to come, while fighting Gale inside her vortex. Elsa is met with vague glimpses of the past that show Runeard roaring in rage (amidst screams of terror and Agnarr calling for his father in vain) as his sword falls down on something veiled by the fog. Then as Elsa is face to face with her grandfather, she sees Runeard coldly glower at whomever he attacked, stating: "For Arendelle."

After taming Gale, the groups meets the trapped Northuldran people (led by their tribe leader Yelana) and Arendellian soldiers (led by Mattias). The two parties still obstinately accuse each other of instigating the brutal war all those years ago. Yelana claims her people would have never attacked first, though Mattias ends the argument by solemnly stating they should wait for the truth to be found, insinuating it would surely incriminate the Northuldrans.

Afterwards, the two groups encounter Bruni, the Fire Spirit, who is also tamed by Elsa. Then when the tribe recognizes that a scarf Elsa and Anna had brought with them is a Northuldra scarf, the girls discover from an ice statue of a Northuldran girl saving Agnarr, which Elsa had created earlier, was actually Iduna. Explaining that she and her sister had a Northuldran mother and Arendellian father, Elsa is finally able to arrange a truce between the Northuldrans and Arendellian soldiers.

While traveling further north and towards the Dark Sea, Elsa, Anna, and Olaf discover Agnarr and Iduna's shipwreck, realizing that they had perished trying to reach Ahtohallan themselves and find answers about Elsa's powers. Believing that her powers are the reason why both Agnarr and Iduna died, a guilty Elsa forces Anna and Olaf away and seeks out the river by herself, conjuring up an ice boat on which she forcefully slides Anna and Olaf down a steep decline. Upon reaching Athohallan with the help of the Nokk, the Water Spirit, Elsa finds out about the true origin of her powers and that she herself is one of the spirits because of it. Gazing at moments of the past, Elsa finds one of Runeard conversing with his second-in-command, sternly ordering that Arendelle's full guard is to be brought to the Enchanted Forest. The aide hazards to protest Runeard's order, stating the Northuldrans have never given them any reason to distrust them, but stops short when Runeard halts and shoots him a furious glance. Leaning close, Runeard emphatically asserts that since the Northuldra follow magic, the Arendellians can never trust them. He maintains that magic makes them feel too powerful and leads them to think that they can challenge the will of a king, despite the fact that Runeard is not in any way the actual leader of the Northuldra. Outraged to learn that her late grandfather was really a ruthless tyrant who allowed his own fear and hatred to consume his mind over trusting others, Elsa furiously denounces Runeard for his actions.

As Runeard strides deeper into Ahtohallan along with his conflicted aide, Elsa trails after them, determined to know the full extent of the truth despite hearing her mother's voice warning her of going too far. Runeard boasts with a twisted, sadistic, satisfied smile that he truly built the dam to weaken the Northuldra's lands so they would be forced to be under his mercy and will. He also adds that the celebration will double as an opportunity to measure how many Northuldrans there are and how strong they are. Horrified by the way things are going, Elsa teeters on the brink of the deepest pit of the Ahtohallan as Runeard's voice reverberates through the dark cave, deceitfully welcoming the Northuldrans as the Arendellians' friends at the celebratory gathering. Making her ultimate decision to discover the truth no matter the cost, Elsa jumps down from the cliff and lands in a pitch-black forest of crystallized trees.

Here she witnesses the Northuldran chief plead with Runeard over the dam before Runeard cuts him off and offers for them to discuss the issue down by the fjord. Elsa finds that she is beginning to shiver, a sensation utterly alien to her. Whirling around, she watches the Northuldran chief kneeldown to drink some tea. Runeard then comes marching from behind Elsa with resolute steps towards the unsuspecting chief, gripping his sword with relish and a smirk to prove it. Just as Elsa grasps what is about to happen, she reaches out and cries, "No!" just as Runeard runs up to the chief and murder him from behind with one swipe of his sword. Overcome with horror at the realization and the incomprehensible cold which venturing into the most dangerous part of Ahtohallan brings, Elsa's entire body is encrusted with ice. In her last moments before her temporary death, she sends a signal with the information to Anna before freezing.

While trying to find a way out of a cave in which she and Olaf had become trapped, Anna receives Elsa's message in the form of an ice sculpture of Runeard about to murder the unarmed Northuldran chief. Realizing the atrocious scoundrel their grandfather truly was, Anna concludes that the dam must be destroyed to end the curse and the war, despite being informed earlier by Kristoff that doing so would also cause a huge tidal wave to go down the fjord and flood Arendelle. Unfortunately, Elsa's death causes Olaf to fade away due to the loss of her magic. Though bereft over the loss of her beloved sister and snowman friend, a mournful Anna escapes the cave the following morning, determined to do the next right thing by breaking the dam. She provokes the Earth Giants into chasing her to the dam, where she finds Mattias and the Arendellian soldiers on guard and explains to them about Runeard's heinous crimes. Realizing their mistake for following a despicable tyrant, Mattias and the soldiers signal the Giants towards the dam, then Anna goads them to destroy it with their boulders. Like Kristoff said, the breaking of the dam causes the tidal wave to head down the fjord towards Arendelle. But its destruction also thaws Elsa, who races back to Arendelle on the Nokk and uses her powers to create a wall of ice, which successfully blocks the wave and saves the kingdom. Once the dam is gone, it lifts the mist from the Forest, freeing all of the Northuldrans and Arendellians. Elsa returns to the Forest soon after, reuniting with Anna, Kristoff, and Sven, and recreating Olaf with Gale's help.

With the curse finally lifted, Elsa decides to remain in the Enchanted Forest as it's new protector while abdicating the throne to Anna, thus bringing a true peace of peace between both Arendelle and the Northuldra, and ending Runeard's dreadful legacy for good.