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Elsa crowned

During Elsa's crowning in Frozen, specifically when she's holding the royal scepter and orb, the priest is chanting in a foreign language (which I presume is a prayer) and ends his speech with "Queen Elsa!", which the audience repeats.

What is the priest saying? What language is it in?

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  • It is Latin. However, I need to hear the clip from the movie again to translate it.
    – user12672
    Jul 12, 2014 at 2:41

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Evidently the language is Norse, possibly an older dialect (the source I have on that doesn't seem very reliable to me).

As noted in the comments bellow, when plugged into Google Translate, the detected language is Icelandic.

Unless someone familiar with either language can confirm for sure, this is about the best I can find at the moment.

The line from the movie:

"Sem hon heldr inum helgum eignum ok krýnd í þessum helga stað ek té fram fyrir yðr...Queen Else of Arendelle."

In English:

"As she holds the holy properties, and is crowned in this holy place, I present to you... Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

Source for the translation.

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  • I just plugged it into Google Translate just for kicks. It detected Icelandic.
    – System Down
    Apr 15, 2014 at 15:01
  • Well I did admit that the source I found for what language it is doesn't seem very reliable. Google is more reputable for sure, but the language detection could still be picking up on something incorrectly. I'll make a note of it in the answer.
    – MattD
    Apr 15, 2014 at 15:12
  • Funny, plugged it in myself and other than a slightly different set of words, the translation is almost dead on. Instead of "the holy properties", Google translates it as "a sacred balance assets". Assets and properties are fairly interchangeable in English, and sacred/holy pretty much mean the same thing.
    – MattD
    Apr 15, 2014 at 15:15
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It's old west norse, from which the modern Icelandic language descends. That's why Google Translate identify it as Icelandic.

Read more about the Old Norse dialects and descendants at Wikipedia.

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To pepper the script with authentic Norwegian words, accents and phrases, filmmakers called on Jackson Crawford, who teaches Old Norse, Scandinavian mythology, Vikings and sagas at UCLA. His research focuses on the history of Old Norse. “Sem hon heldr inum helgum eignum ok krýnd í þessum helga stað ek té fram fyrir yðr…” Translated: “As she holds the holy properties, and is crowned in this holy place, I present to you…” "QUEEN ELSA OF ARENDELLE!!"

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I am pretty sure that this is Old Norse. I'm Icelandic and I can read this text, but this isn't Icelandic. The form is very similar to the old Icelandic Sagas.

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    You need to go waaaay deeper than just, "Trust me, I'm Icelandic."
    – MattD
    Aug 15, 2014 at 2:11
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It must be Icelandic Because the owner of the training post that Anna meets on her way to find Elsa says " I add a quart of lutefisk for forgood feelings"...lutefisk is a common Nordic dish. There are actually a lot of Nordic references in the movie...kind of interesting.

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