| Wood Man | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | N/A | ||
| Personal information | |||
| Species | Wood Folk | ||
| Gender | Male | ||
| Current status | Active | ||
| Biology | |||
| Body type | Humanoid | ||
| Diet | Unknown (consumes "dirt tea") | ||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Sapient | ||
| Behind the scenes | |||
| Universe | Hilda | ||
| Created by | Luke Pearson | ||
| Designed by | Luke Pearson | ||
| Performed by | Ako Mitchell | ||
The Wood Man is an odd magical being who customarily invited himself into Hilda's woodland home.
Biography[]
While Hilda lived a wilderness life, the Wood Man would often avowedly intrude into her house to settle by the fire thus read his book about Giants. This always made Johanna quite annoyed with him. But on a particular day, he soon left not long after when a mysterious eviction note from Elves is delivered to them.
The Wood Man visited Hilda's house once again. By then, she'd already met with a Giant named Jorgen and was demanded to know if he knew anything about him. As Hilda followed the Wood Man all the way to his house in the forest, and eventually she convinced him to let her look through his book entitled “The Giants of Old” where she learned all she need to about Jorgen plus his history. After their home was completely destroyed, the Wood Man showed up to say goodbye to Hilda, Twig and Johanna, as they are moved to Trolberg.
Surprisingly, Hilda soon ran into him again when she got lost in the woodlands. The Wood Man agreed to help her get back home in Trolberg, but still taunted her for having become a city girl. He consciously lost her on purpose in a game of poker with some Elves to a Forest Giant in hopes that Hilda could help him get back some of his stuff he lost in previous games. This plan however, failed when the Forest Giant catches them both in the act. They manage to escape from him, but in the process Wood Man gets lost as well and can thus no longer help Hilda. They eventually stumble upon a sentient house, which was into the middle of nowhere and got themselves trapped inside. The Wood Man makes a few escapes attempts along with Hilda, but when it's clear they can't leave he easily accepted his own fate. After Alfur, Twig and the Great Raven came searching for Hilda before they too get trapped in the house, the Wood Man agrees to Hilda's plan to overcharge the house with numerous thoughts, and thus force it towards letting them go free. Following this plan, all five friends end up in Hilda's house in Trolberg.
He would later confront Jellybean and his owner at whatever remained of Hilda's old home in the wilderness; where he told them both about how it all happened.
Sometime later, the Wood Man returned to Trolberg while at the Salty Maiden, where he has just won himself a boat and a large sum of cash in a game called Sea Bones. Although all the other sailors he had been playing against didn’t take kindly to him leaving the game after a big win, and the Wood Man's obnoxious remarks. Therefore, got both himself and Hilda kicked out of the Salty Maiden. The Wood Man revealed his plans to go out to sea and search for the Draugen. Hilda likewise tagged along as she believed the Wood Man was willing to help the Draugen reunite with their loved ones on land, however, it turned out he just wanted to steal a magic, coral sextant from them for his own home. While they were both nearly killed and shanghaied into the Draugen’s crew, but luckily are enable to escape by challenging the Draugen to a race back to Trolberg. Once in back in the city, Hilda soon reunited them with their departed family members at St. Guglows Cemetery and disappeared into the graves. The Wood Man by then, had had vanished.
His new boat is wrecked by an awoken mother Kraken and as result, his own head was separated from his body. He washed ashore in Trolberg, where Hilda found him. He spends the rest of the episode being carried around by Hilda and Frida as they try to find out what is attacking the ships. When the monster reveals itself, Wood Man identifies it as a Kraken, and informs them the beast should have been asleep for at least another hundred years. When his body is ultimately returned to him by one of the baby Krakens after Hilda and Frida managed directed the Kraken to a shipwreck graveyard so the mother may feed her children in peace. The Wood Man's arms were slightly damaged upon getting eaten however, he doesn't seem to mind or notice. Moreover, when Hilda and Johanna searched Twig, who went missing. Both of his arms were completely healed which suggest his species can regenerate themselves.
When Hilda broke her charm she got from her great-aunt, Astrid and was in needed to make another which required a fragment of wood from the Faratok Tree, the Wood Man followed her and Twig into a double timeline; manifesting the medieval period when the Giants had still roamed the lands. He was later mistaken by the villagers for a demon and Halvor threatened to burn him at the stake, but he soon got rescued by Hilda. However, the Faratok Tree caught fire and was destroyed. Luckily, they were able making back through just barely and the Wood Man would plant a new tree near his own home.
Personality[]
The Wood Man's inexpressive face conceals an ambivalent and somewhat enigmatic personality. He enters houses uninvited, seems to have no qualms about stealing (at least from the Forest Giant), responds rudely, and acts with indifference even when someone is being nice to him.
On the other hand, he does bring firewood, as if to "pay" the house owners for his unexpected visits, and is considerate enough to offer some of his tea when someone visits him (though what he calls tea appears to be just mud). Despite his moral ambiguity, he has never displayed actual hostility, and seems to be pretty harmless himself. He has even helped Hilda on occasions, and it's been implied that he does respect her and consider her a friend, even though he rarely demonstrates it.
When Hilda and the Wood Man were trapped in the mysterious wish-granting house, the Wood Man demonstrated both his love of luxury by wishing for a lot of frivolous and extravagant things (such as a diamond monocle); and his blasé and happy-go-lucky attitude, as he didn't seem to care about the prospect of staying there forever, as long as the place was comfortable and pleasant enough.
Although he seems to enjoy comfort, the Wood Man is not picky about places to sleep, and will simply lay down on the forest floor to rest. A literate creature, the Wood Man is fond of reading, and is quite knowledgeable about history and mythology. He also enjoys music and playing cards with Elves and other wood denizens, such as the Forest Giant.
Appearances[]
- Hildafolk (2010)
- Hilda and the Midnight Giant (2011)
- Hilda and the Bird Parade (2012) (Mentioned in flashback)
- Hilda and the Stone Forest (2016) (Mentioned only)
- Hilda (2018-2023)
Notes[]
- The Wood Man is the only one of his species ever seen, but it is implied that there are others like him. The wish-granting house displayed portraits of Hilda's friends and relatives along with Wood Man's, which included a portrait of a female member of his race, as well as a common tree log, furniture, and other images.
- In Hilda's Book of Beast and Spirits, the Wood Man's species is identified as "Wood Folk".