Queen Elinor

Queen Elinor is the deuteragonist in the 2012 Pixar animated feature film Brave. She is the queen of the Scottish kingdom of DunBroch, ruling the throne alongside her husband, King Fergus, and is the mother of their eldest daughter, Princess Merida and three young triplet sons, Harris, Hubert and Hamish. She is voiced by Emma Thompson.

Background
A vision of grace, beauty, wisdom and strength of character, Queen Elinor is fiercely dedicated to the well being of her family and kingdom. As the diplomatic counterpoint to her more impulsive husband, King Fergus, Elinor carries the weight of the kingdom on her shoulders.

Brave
Elinor is first seen playing hide-and-seek with her daughter, Princess Merida on her birthday. Then, Elinor sees her husband, King Fergus's bow on the table and asks him to not put it on the table until Fergus presents Merida with her own bow as a birthday present. Elinor nervously watches as Merida accidentally shoots her sixth arrow into the forest and goes to get it back. Merida comes back and says she saw Will O' the Wisps. Elinor explains that the wisps lead people to their fate but, Fergus doesn't believe it. Suddenly, Mor'du attacks, and Elinor and Merida flee while Fergus stays behind to fight the demon bear.

Years later, Merida is a teenager that Elinor is trying to make into a proper princess despite Merida's objection. One night, at dinner, Elinor once again corrects Merida about being a princess and confesses that a princess should not have weapons in her own opinion. After receiving three letters from Maudie, Elinor tells Merida that the three Lords are coming to present their sons as suitors to compete for her hand in marriage. Not wanting any of this, Merida angrily storms out of the Great Hall to her bedroom then Elinor goes after her. Elinor enters her room; telling her the story of a king who divided his kingdom for each of his four sons to rule but the eldest wanted to rule the entire land so he brought chaos and war that led to the downfall of his kingdom for following his own path. Merida refuses to listen and Elinor tells her to go through with it but, Merida still doesn't want it. Moments later, Elinor is seen in the tapestry room sewing the family tapestry and talking to Fergus of what she would say to her daughter about her wishes if she would listen.

Days later, the Lords arrive in DunBroch and Elinor prepares Merida in a tight formal dress, tells her to smile, and they all gather in the Great Hall for the presentation of the suitors. Each of the Lords present their sons and a brawl breaks out. Elinor is not as pleased as Merida is. King Fergus silences the brawl but it breaks out again; due to the mischief caused by the triplets. Then, Fergus joins the fight. Elinor, not pleased with event, grabs Fergus and the Lords by their ears, then proclaims that only the firstborn of the great leaders may compete in the games. When Merida declares that she chooses archery, it was time for the Highland Games to begin.

When the competition begins, Elinor tells the three suitors good luck. As each of the suitors shoot arrows, she tries to silence Fergus and Merida chatting about each of the suitors until Wee Dingwall wins by accident. Merida appears on the field; declaring she will shoot for her own hand; to Elinor's shock. Elinor walks on the field; telling Merida to stop while she shoots arrows in the bullseye of the first two; ignoring her protests. When Merida shoots an arrow through Wee Dingwall's arrow through the target, she is horrified until she becomes furious with Merida.

Elinor drags and throws Merida into the tapestry room as they argue with each other with Elinor calling her a child and Merida calling her a beast for trying to force her to be like her mother. Merida then slices the family tapestry with Elinor separated from her hand, and Elinor furiously throws her bow to the floor, and it lands into the hearth. Merida tearfully runs away from the castle as Elinor quickly fishes the bow from the fire, feeling horribly guilty.

Later that evening, Elinor notices Merida back home and enters the kitchen, relieved that she's home. Elinor is given a cake on a false peace offering and eats a piece then suddenly, she starts feeling sick. Merida escorts Elinor to her chamber and puts her in bed until Elinor starts transforming into a bear. Elinor is horrified that she had been turned into a bear because Merida had seen The Witch, thus, causing Elinor to roar in anger in her face, which somewhat alerts Fergus, the Lords, and their clans. Merida helps Elinor escape the castle from Fergus, the Lords, and their clans with her brothers' help. They both journey back to the Witch's cottage but, they find her gone. Then, they find the witch's cauldron with a ghostly image of the Witch telling them that they have until the second sunrise to break the spell or Elinor will remain a bear forever. The Witch tells Merida the way to do it is to remember the riddle "Fate be changed look inside, mend the bond torn by pride." Confused, Merida accidentally sabotages the cottage, so Merida and Elinor take shelter in the remains of the cottage for the night. Merida has a dream about a memory of her as a child with Elinor as they are both singing "Noble Maiden Fair" together.

The next morning, Elinor brings some berries and water for breakfast until Merida explains that the berries are poisonous Nightshade berries and the water has worms in it, which causes Elinor to spit out afterwards. So, Merida and Elinor head to a creek to catch a fish and Merida then teaches her how to catch a fish as they both start bonding. Then, Elinor heads into the forest and Merida goes after her until she notices that Elinor is not herself and nearly attacks her until she regains consciousness. They see a trail of Will O' the Wisps and follow them to the ruins of a castle. Merida falls through the floor into a throne room and realizes it was the kingdom from the story Elinor was telling her about. Merida sees a stone with three figures and a split stone with the fourth figure and realizes that the curse has happened before when the prince sought to change his fate that resulted his kingdom's downfall and then became Mor'du. Then, she sees Mor'du and he attacks her until she barely escapes with Elinor's help and they flee back to the Ring of Stones. Merida realizes that Elinor will become like Mor'du unless she sews the tapestry back together to "mend the bond torn by pride" in hopes it will break the spell.

That night, they both sneak into the castle under the castle, through a well. Then, they sneak through the kitchen and peek into the Great Hall to see Fergus, the Lords, and their clans behind barricades and weapons flying through the air. They are on the brink of war so Merida tries to tell Elinor that she must stop them but Elinor, in bear form, can't do such a thing, thus, it's up to Merida to stop this madness. Merida walks into the middle of the room as Elinor poses as one of Fergus' stuffed bears to avoid detection. Merida walks into the room and tells them she was in conference with Elinor. The Lords demand to see the queen until Merida silences them all. She tells them of the story of the selfish prince who brought chaos to the land, and reminds them that legends are lessons and they ring with truths. The clans had been enemies until they were threatened by the Northern Invaders and joined forces to defend their lands. When they won the war, the clans made Fergus their king for bringing them together and made an alliance. Elinor signs to Merida the message that they should be free to follow their hearts and find their own love. The Lords' sons agree with this and confess to their fathers that they didn't want to fight over a girl who doesn't want any of it. So, they all agree. Finally, Elinor is so proud of Merida. A guard stares at Elinor's frozen pose so, Merida distracts everyone by telling them to got to the cellar to celebrate. When everyone is gone, Elinor hugs her daughter joyfully and they both head to the tapestry room.

As Merida is looking for thread and needles, Elinor turns wild again and Fergus enters the room (after realizing that his wife is gone and her clothes torn off; thinking that she has been killed and eaten by Mor'du) and she attacks him. When Elinor snaps out of it, she sees that she has hurt Merida and flees to the forest, and Merida tries to tell Fergus that it's Elinor but doesn't listen and locks her in the tapestry room for protection as he, the Lords, and their clans go after Elinor. Elinor runs through the forest with Fergus, the Lords, their sons, and the soldiers chasing her. Elinor is captured and is about to be killed by Fergus until Merida interferes.

Suddenly, Mor'du appears and attacks the soldiers and Fergus. When he attacks Merida, Elinor breaks free from the ropes and saves Merida just in time and starts fighting Mor'du. After slamming Elinor into one of the stones, he turns to kill Merida again until Elinor lures him into smashing again the now cracked stone, which then crushes him to his death. They notice a wisp coming from his body revealing the image of the prince; nodding thankfully for releasing him from his curse, and then disappears. Merida realizes it is the second sunrise and grabs the tapestry and throws it around Elinor but realizes nothing's happening. When Merida thinks she failed, she tearfully hugs her mother and apologizes for everything and that she loves her. Then, the tapestry magically seals and Merida feels a human hand touching her hair and realizes Elinor is human again. Elinor is so happy and proud that she kisses her daughter lots of times. Fergus comes and hugs his wife and daughter and kisses Elinor. Merida reminds her that she is naked under the tapestry then Elinor tells Fergus the same thing, so, he tells the Lords to turn around as the triplets, (who were, later in the film, turned into bear cubs; due to eating the rest of the cursed tart) turned back into humans, come running naked and hugging their parents and sister.

Later, Merida and Elinor are sewing a new tapestry together of Merida and Elinor as a bear until they are called to the docks to say goodbye to the Lords and then, they both ride on their horses and journey around Scotland making their bond stronger than before.

Disney Parks


Queen Elinor makes very rare appearances at the Disney Parks, with the official explanation stating that she has a lot of very important things to do back in DunBroch and that her duties prevent her from meeting her daughter's fans. She had the honor of coronating her daughter at her Disney Princess coronation ceremony, and very briefly met Jeffry Lange.

Trivia

 * The way Elinor got spooked by her bear shadow (thinking it's the bear Merida was screaming about) when Merida got scared and shouted: "Bear!" is very similar to a scene in the 1977 Disney movie Pete's Dragon where, in his cave, Elliott got spooked by his own shadow (thinking it's the monster Lampie and Hoagy were screaming about) when the 2 men got scared and panicked.
 * Elinor is the fourth Disney Character to be turned into a bear; The first being Kenai from the 2003 Disney movie Brother Bear, the second being Nita from the 2006 Disney movie Brother Bear 2, and the third being, of course, Mor'du. She is also the second female character to be turned into an animal through magical means (the first being Nita). The rest being males.
 * She crowned her daughter Princess when she was about to join the Disney Princess line-up.
 * It is unknown if she has any siblings.
 * Eurasian bears are brown (like the stuffed trophy bears in the castle), but Elinor in bear form was black, Ellen_Terry_as_Lady_Macbeth.jpgbly because instead of being a real bear she was turned into a bear by magic.
 * In her bear form, her weapons are her claws and teeth, but in her human form (her real form) she never had or used a weapon.
 * She could be inspired by one of the pictures of Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's play, "Macbeth".