Today, we will journey to the Ice Kingdom, where we will look at the Great Ice Cliff. Spoilers for The Dangerous Gift ahead!
The Great Ice Cliff is a giant wall of ice that defends the southern part of IceWing territory. It is enormous and seems to stretch all the way from the western coast to the eastern shore. It was enchanted by an animus dragon and is officially named the Gift of Defense. Any dragon that is not an IceWing (or at least part IceWing) will get shot at with magic ice spears created by the wall. There are three enchanted bracelets that, when worn, will make the wearer safe from the wall.
Because there aren’t many books that take place in the Ice Kingdom, we don’t get to see the Great Ice Cliff very often. It was first seen in Winter Turning, but it has much more significance in The Dangerous Gift. In the epilogue of the previous book, we see from Jerboa’s perspective that Queen Snowfall demands that the Cliff be extended to protect all sides of the Ice Kingdom. At this point, Jerboa’s animus magic is not working, so she is unable to fulfill this request.
Why did Queen Snowfall want the Great Ice Cliff expanded? At the beginning of her story, Snowfall is shown to be very paranoid. Not too long ago, an animus named Darkstalker infected the IceWings with a magic plague that killed Queen Glacier, Snowfall’s mother. On her deathbed, Glacier requested that Snowfall precede her as queen. Since Queen Snowfall is not the oldest heir, she is worried that her older sister, Crystal, is lurking in the shadows, ready to attack and usurp the throne.
As you can see, there are many things Queen Snowfall perceives as a threat. The Great Ice Cliff acts as a way for her to hide from her worries. It doesn’t appear much after Snowfall leaves the Ice Kingdom with the Pantalan refugees, but in the end, Queen Snowfall returns and destroys part of the Cliff. She has opened up and is now willing to let others help her. The wall being destroyed is a pretty obvious symbol of her character change throughout the book.
The Dangerous Gift is by far the book that focuses the most on the Great Ice Cliff, but it does show up in a few more books. As previously mentioned, its first appearance is in Winter Turning. Winter and Hailstorm are finally coming back to the Ice Kingdom and, of course, have to go over the Ice Cliff. While it doesn’t directly show up in Darkness of Dragons, it is mentioned by an IceWing-SeaWing hybrid named Typhoon, who helps take enchanted earrings to cure the plague Darkstalker inflicted one book prior. It also indirectly appears in Winglets: Runaway. This book is where we learn about the Gift of Diplomacy, the bracelets that allow non-IceWings to cross over the wall.