Gerda is a character who appears in the fourth season of ABC's Once Upon a Time.
She is based on Queen Iduna from Frozen. She is also based on the character of the same name from the fairytale "The Snow Queen."
History[]
Gerda is the youngest child of her royal Arendelle family and has two elder sisters, Ingrid and Helga. Ingrid, like Elsa, has the power of ice and snow.
Ingrid fears hurting her sisters with her powers, but her sisters promise to help conceal the powers and continue to sustain their unity. Years later, on the night of their father's birthday celebration, Gerda and Helga attempt to convince Ingrid into coming with them, but her fear of ruining the party overshadows her sisters' pleas. At the party, Helga introduces a new admirer, the Duke of Weselton, to their father.
Gerda traps Ingrid in the urn
After the party, the sisters arrive home to find Ingrid packing up as she believes with herself gone, they can have normal lives, fearing she won't be able to control her powers. Gerda mentions Rumplestiltskin, who may help. In exchange for their ribbons (which the sisters used to symbolize their sisterhood), Rumplestiltskin gives Ingrid a pair of gloves to conceal her powers, as well as an urn to entrap her if she becomes too dangerous. Later, in the royal garden, Gerda comes across Ingrid crying over the frozen and crumbled body of Helga. Realizing Ingrid, whether intentionally or not, killed Helga, Gerda entraps her in the urn. She then seeks out Grand Pabbie and asks him to erase her sisters' existences from everyone's memories, even though he implies a magical price will be extracted at her expense.
The King and Queen's final moments
After marrying her husband, they rule as Queen and King of Arendelle and give birth to Elsa and Anna. When Elsa exhibits powerful and dangerous ice powers (presumably as the price of magic), the couple travels to the nearby land of Misthaven to find a wizard to get rid of her magic. On the return trip home, the ship is caught in a maelstrom. Realizing they might not make it out alive, Gerda hastily writes a note, places it into a bottle and throws it overboard in the hopes Elsa and Anna will find it one day and set things right. Soon after, the ship capsizes and sinks, drowning them.
Gerda's message winds up on the beach of Storybrooke 35 years later. A recently thawed-out Anna finds the note and brings it to the Snow Queen's cave. There she reads it to Ingrid, Elsa, and Emma. It explains that the couple was wrong to hide Elsa's powers from the world. Gerda also explains that she feels guilty for what she did to Ingrid and wishes that she could take what she did back. Ingrid, forgiving her sister for her actions, then sacrifices herself to repent for her villainous deeds after being released from the urn. Following Ingrid's death, she, Gerda, and Helga reunite in the afterlife.
Trivia[]
- In the series, the Queen's name isn't Iduna (as revealed in Frozen 2), but Gerda, which was the original name of the heroine in the original "The Snow Queen" fairy tale, that served as the inspiration for Anna in Frozen.
- A character named "Gerda" does appear in Frozen, but she is one of the servants, not Elsa and Anna's mother.
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