Wood Man

General
**Gallery**

* Animated series
* Graphic Novels

***Wood Man*** is a recurring character in the Hilda television series, graphic novels and Hilda Tie-In Series. He was one of Hilda and Johanna's neighbors before they moved to Trolberg.

## Appearance

The Wood Man is a humanoid creature about Hilda's size. As his name implies, he is made out of wood. He also has a little leaf on the top of his head.

His head floats slightly above his body. He does not have a neck. It is never revealed in the graphic novels or the animated series how his head stays in place. On Luke Pearson's DeviantArt account however, there is a Hilda comic titled "The Wood Man's Head", in which Wood Man claims his head stays in place as long as he focuses on it to some extent. He loses his head when Hilda tests this theory by tickling him. "Chapter 7: The Beast of Cauldron Island" reveals his head can indeed be detached from his body. If this happens, he still feels what happens to his body, even if it is far away from him.

His face never changes expression, and his mouth never moves if he speaks.

## Personality

Woodman is an indifferent character. He tends to barge into houses without permission. In chapters 1 and 2, he is shown barging into Hilda's House to give her wood and read one of his books. He only stays long enough to warm himself by the fire, and leaves the moment anyone tries to strike up a conversation with him. Why he insists on coming to Hilda's house is unknown, since he has a house of his own.

Although never hostile, he isn't above using people to get his way. This is seen prominently in Chapter 11: The House in the Woods, where he bets Hilda in a card game with a Forest Giant without her knowing, and deliberately loses her to him, knowing the giant would take her to his lair, thus putting Hilda in a position to help retrieve some other objects the Wood Man lost to the giant in previous games (and even some objects that were never his, like a crown).

He is quite relaxed and easily satisfied. When he, Hilda, Alfur, Twig and the Great Raven got trapped in The House in the Woods, he was the only one who didn't mind and tried to make the best of the situation, though this may also be because he was the only one who did not have any responsibilities or family.

Still, he does show on occasion that he cares about the people around him. He brought Hilda and Johanna firewood for their new home in Trolberg when the two were forced to move there, and at the end of Episode 11, he cheered up Hilda by reminding her that despite her living in the city, the wilderness would always be part of her.

His favorite drink is dirt tea. He likes to listen to music on records, or play it himself on a guitar. He also has a lot of books, but only informational ones. He's not the type for folk tales and other stories.

## Relationships

He is friends with Hilda, who doesn't seem to mind him coming over. He brings wood to Hilda and her mother. Although Johanna doesn't trust him, she tolerates him around.

In "The House in the Woods", the The House he and Hilda were trapped in contained a portrait of a female wood person. It is unknown what his relationship to her is, but she is apparently important to him considering the same house also had portraits of people important to Hilda.

## Biography

### Animated series

Wood Man first appears in *Chapter 1*, in which he stops by at Hilda's house one evening to read his book about Giants of Old by the fire. Johanna is clearly not happy with him. He leaves again after a mysterious eviction note is delivered to the house.

In *Chapter 2*, he visits Hilda's house again. By this time, Hilda has seen the giant Jorgen and wants to know if Wood Man knows who he is. She follows Wood Man home, and convinces him to let her read his book about the Giants of Old. It is thus she learns Jorgen's name and history. At the end of the episode, Wood Man shows up to say goodbye to Hilda and Johanna, as they are forced to move to Trolberg due to their house being destroyed.

He is not seen again till *Chapter 11*, in which Hilda runs into him after she gets lost in the wilderness. Wood Man agrees to help her get back to Trolberg, but still taunts her for having become a city girl. He first deliberately loses her in a game of Elf Poker to a Forest Giant in hopes that Hilda can thus help him get back some of his stuff he lost to the giant in previous games. The plan fails when the giant catches them 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 magic house, and get trapped inside. Wood Man makes a few escapes attempts along with Hilda, but when it's clear they can't leave he easily accepts his fate. After Alfur, Twig and The Great Raven also get trapped in the house, Wood Man agrees to Hilda's plan to overload the house with objects, and thus force it to let them go. This plan finally works and all five friends end up in Hilda's house in Trolberg.

Wood Man's last appearance in season 1 is at the end of *Chapter 13*, where he encounters Tontu and Jellybean at the ruins of Hilda's house. He tells Tontu how the house was crushed by Jorgen.

In *Chapter 2: The Draugen*, Hilda encounters Wood Man in the Salty Maiden, where he has just won a boat and a large sum of cash in a game of Sea Bones. The sailors he was playing with don't take kindly to him leaving the game after a big win, and Wood Man's obnoxious remarks, and kick both him and Hilda out of the Salty Maiden. Wood Man reveals his plans to go out to sea and find the Draugen. Hilda comes along since she believes Wood Man wants to help the Draugen reunite with their loved ones on land, but it turns out Wood Man just wanted to steal a magic, coral sextant from them for his home. They are nearly killed so they can be shanghaied into the Draugen crew, but are able to escape by challenging the Draugen to a race back to Trolberg. Once in Trolberg, Hilda is able to unite the Draugen with the Ghosts of their families, and they disappear. Wood Man then leaves with the sextant, leaving Hilda to deal with the aftermath of their adventure.

In *Chapter 7: The Beast of Cauldron Island*, his new boat is wrecked by the Kraken, and in the attack his head is seperated from his body. It washes ashore in Trolberg, where Hilda finds it. 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 175 years. At the end of the episode, his body is returned to him by one of the Kraken's children after Hilda and Frida directed the Kraken to a ship graveyard she can use to feed her children. Wood Man's arms are visibly damaged due to the young Kraken partly eating him, but he doesn't seem to mind or even notice, though he did feel it happening and described it as being tickled. By the time he appears again in *Chapter 9: The Deerfox*, his arms have fully healed. In this episode, Hilda and Johanna visit him in his home to ask about Twig, who has gone missing, but Wood Man has no useful information for them.

In *Chapter 3: The Giantslayer*, Hilda meets Wood Man in the Forest of Nott when she goes looking for the legendary Faratok tree to gather new wood to repair the charm her great-aunt Astrid gave her. Wood Man tells Hilda he is the caretaker of these woods, and is currently closing up the holes in the Faratok Tree to keep out the Giant squirrels. When Twig chases one of these squirrels into the tree, Hilda follows him and accidentally takes Wood Man's hammer along. Thus, Wood Man sees himself forced to follow her. All three are send back into the distant past by the tree, to the time of the Giants. After Wood Man tells Hilda that the Faratok Tree sends you to a different timeline and there will thus be no consequences if she makes any changes here (unlike her time travel adventure in "Chapter 8: The Fifty Year Night"), Hilda decides to try and help the Giants, since one of them, Drib, has been taken captive by Halvor and his villagers. Wood Man immediately regrets sharing this information. He goes with Hilda when she sneaks into the village to free the captured giant, but is caught in the act by a woman who mistakes him for a demon and alerts the other villages. Wood Man is captured and put on the stakes to be burned. The stakes catch fire during a fight between Hilda and Halvor, but Wood Man is saved after Halvor realizes his errors, frees Drib, and Drib uses his snow to put out the flames. He and Hilda then hurry back to the present, as the Faratok Tree has also caught fire and is about to burn down. Once back in the present, Wood Man consoles Hilda, who failed to keep the giants from leaving the Earth, and points out that the giants will remember her kindness. So she made a change after all. The Faratok Tree is destroyed, but Wood Man plans to plant a new one closer to his home.

In "Chapter 8: The Fairy Isle", Wood Man has two cameos'. He is seen playing cards with some humans when Hilda uses the Watchtower on Fairy Isle. At the end of the episode he is briefly seen as he is chopping wood outside his house, and watches the Great Raven pass by. He remarks it's about time. The scene also shows he indeed has planted a new Faratok Tree next to his house.

### Graphic novels

The Wood Man's role in the graphic novels is identical to the animated series for the episodes adapted from the two novels he appeared in. He did however have a slightly larger role in "Hildafolk" than he does in the animated adaptation of this story; he helps Hilda and Twig get back home after they get lost in the woods when running away from a troll, and he is the one who figures out why the troll follows Hilda to her house (he needs her help to get rid of the bell Hilda tied to his nose). He also doesn't show up to say goodbye to Hilda and Johanna when they are forced to move.

The events of the other Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3 episodes he appears in never happen in the graphic novels.

### Novelization

The Hilda Tie-In Series adapts all Season 1 episodes the Wood Man appears in. Chapters 1 and 2 are adapted into "Hilda and the Hidden People". Wood Man's role in this book is identical to the episodes. Chapters 11 and 13 are adapted into "Hilda and the Nowhere Space", but the book only adapts the plot of Wood Man losing Hilda to the Forest Giant so she can help him get his stuff back. The adventure with the House in the Woods does not happen, and Wood Man does not meet Tontu and Jellybean.

For Season 2, Chapters 2 and 7 are adapted into "Hilda and the Ghost Ship". Like in the series, Wood Man wins a sailboat, which is named Nautilus in this story, and uses it to find the Draugen so he can steal a sextant from them. After he and Hilda beat the Draugen ship in the race however, the Draugen retreat back to sea and don't follow them onto land. The adventure with the Kraken happens later on the same day. The main story from "Chapter 9: The Deerfox" is not adapted into the novels, only the flashbacks.

For Season 3, Chapter 3 is adapted into the story "Hilda and the Faratok Tree". Wood Man's role here is largely the same as in the animated series. However, here Hilda was not looking for the Faratok Tree but rather for materials to make a rope, and thus stumbles on the tree and Wood Man entirely by accident.

## Appearances

**Graphic novels**

* Hildafolk
* Hilda and the Midnight Giant

**Novelization**

* Hilda and the Hidden People
* Hilda and the Nowhere Space
* Hilda and the Ghost Ship
* Hilda and the Faratok Tree

## Behind the Scenes

### Voice

Wood Man is voiced by Ako Mitchell in both the animated series and the audiobook versions of the Hilda Tie-In Series.

### Design

Some early sketches for the character found in "Hildafolk" show that Luke Pearson originally envisioned Wood Man as looking more like a wooden puppet or an elf-like creature wearing a pointy hat.

When Wood Man was adapted into the animated series, an early idea was to have the wood on top of his torso, where his neck should be, be of a lighter color, thus makig it look like as if a part of him had been sawn off there. Luke Pearson objected this idea because he thought it made Wood Man look like he was a man made creature rather than a natural elemental spirit of the forest.

## Trivia

* In Chapter 11: The House in the Woods, Wood Man is seen playing Elf Poker with the Elves and a Forest Giant. It can thus be assumed he must have filed out the paperwork and is thus able to see the Elves.
* He is able to speak the language of Water Spirits.

## References

1. ↑ The Wood Man's Head
2. ↑ Luke Pearson at Pictoplasma Berlin 2019 20:02

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