Trolden Glass

The **Trolden Glass** is a magical item featured on ABC's *Once Upon a Time*. It first appears in the fifth episode of the fourth season.

The Trolden Glass is based on the Troll Mirror from the fairytale, "The Snow Queen".

## History

### Before First Curse

In the Arendelle castle library, the royal princess Ingrid loves to read books. Of all of them, her favorite is the Norse mythical tale of *The Trolden Glass*, in which a king crafted a mirror for his daughter's upcoming birthday so she could see her own beautiful reflection. Tragically, the girl dies before receiving the gift and thus the mirror begins reflecting the king's sadness and pain. Deciding the kingdom should suffer as he is, the king masters dark magic and casts the spell of shattered sight on everyone. Influenced by the spell, people begin to see the worst in their loved ones and turn on each other. *("Smash the Mirror")*

Later, Ingrid is entrapped in an urn by her sister, Gerda, after accidentally killing her other sister, Helga, with ice magic. Once freed, Ingrid seeks out Gerda's daughters, Elsa and Anna, as her new family. However, while Elsa has inherited ice powers like her, Anna is completely ordinary. Thus, Ingrid deems her the "odd woman out" and vows to find someone else to take her place. When her first attempt to drive the two sisters apart fails, Ingrid shackles Anna before she can reseal her in the urn. Under duress, Anna is forced to relate the myth of *The Trolden Glass*. Using a mirror piece, Ingrid casts the spell on Anna by shattering the shard, which absorbs into the girl's eyes. This, in turn, causes Anna to grow hateful towards Elsa. *("Smash the Mirror")*

### After Second Curse

To complete the last piece of her mirror shard collection for casting the spell of shattered sight, Ingrid agrees to revert Sidney to human from his mirror form if he helps her corner Regina. After he follows her instructions, Ingrid steals Regina's compact mirror where Sidney is trapped inside and later restores him to human. In her plan to wipe out the town's residents and keep Elsa and Emma so they can become her new family, she breaks a piece of the compact mirror and inserts it into her own mirror. With all the shards assembled, they smooth over and form a clear reflection. *("Breaking Glass", "Family Business")*
Belle, out of guilt for once causing Anna's capture by Ingrid, sets out to make things right so Elsa can finally be with her sister. Utilizing the dagger, or what she believes is the real one, she commands Mr. Gold into leading her to Ingrid's lair. There, she announces her intent to find a hat; using it to force Ingrid into revealing Anna's location. Instructing Mr. Gold to stand guard outside, she ventures in alone and uncovers a mirror, which reflects a talking doppelganger of herself. Belle's twin instigates that she is a coward for choosing a stone, capable of restoring her memories about her mother, over Anna's life. The doppelganger unveils all of Belle's inner doubts such as Mr. Gold marrying her for the sake of having someone to control and the dagger being a fake. As Belle continues to gaze into the mirror, she falls into a trance, which is how Mr. Gold finds her. Fueled by the mirror's manipulations, Belle cuts him with the dagger. Only after he wrestles her into his arms and teleports him away, she regains normalcy. She expresses horror at what the mirror was telling her about the dagger, but Mr. Gold assures that it was just dark magic influencing her. Later, Belle admits the truth to Elsa and informs her about Ingrid's mirror as well as the spell of shattered sight. *("Family Business")*
To lure Emma away from her family, Ingrid plants a fake mirror in the tower where she is apprehended to the sheriff station for questioning. While this is going on, David, Elsa and Hook examine the mirror. When Belle sees what they are doing, she insists against looking into the reflection since it'll brainwash them. On closer examination, she notices it's not the same mirror as in Ingrid's lair. Realizing they have been duped, the group rush to Emma at the station, but Ingrid has already frozen the doors shut. Slowly but surely, Ingrid pressures Emma by insinuating her family doesn't understand her magic and will come to see her as a monster. As her rage builds, Emma blasts a hole in the wall and she loses control of her powers while Ingrid escapes. After accidentally injuring David and seeing the fear in her family's eyes, Emma flees. During the night, Ingrid returns to her lair and smiles, in front of her mirror, in satisfaction as the day's events went exactly as she had hoped. *("The Snow Queen")*
In a deal with Mr. Gold, Ingrid tells him the last thing needed to be free of the dagger's will and he returns her and her sister's ribbons. As Emma's powers spiral beyond her control, she asks Mr. Gold for a solution to be of her powers. Needing more magic in the sorcerer's hat, which is key for retaining his powers after being free of the dagger, he tricks her into meeting at a manor where her magic will be stripped. Interfering with Ingrid's ploy to put one of the ribbons on Emma, Mr. Gold temporarily traps her with the urn's ashes. Despite this, Ingrid uses her mirror to find Emma driving and projects herself on the road. She insists Mr. Gold is up to no good, but a distrustful Emma won't listen. Emma, with Elsa's encouragement, keeps her magic, and the two women learn to fully accept their powers. Unknown to them, this triggers the ribbons into appearing on their wrists. Their powers are then harnessed and absorbed into Ingrid's ribbon. As she gleefully tells Mr. Gold, there is now enough magic to defeat even him. Following a spiteful exchange of words, Ingrid shatters her mirror with the ribbon's power. *("The Snow Queen", "Smash the Mirror")*

### On-screen Notes

* In the original fairytale, the troll glass belongs to the devil himself.