The Woodcutter
helper · human
Working forty steps away, and had been listening to a strange conversation for some time before anybody screamed.
What they are like
- Kind
- 8/10
- Brave
- 9/10
- Clever
- 6/10
- Honest
- 9/10
- Curious
- 6/10
- Patient
- 7/10
How we meet them
Not introduced at all until he is needed, and then explained in a single clause: he had been working forty steps away the whole time. The help was always there; Red just did not know it.
Personality
Slow to act and quick when he does. He had been half-listening for a while and could not put his finger on what was wrong, which is exactly Red's problem from the other side.
What they want
Something about that conversation was not right.
How they change
Arrives at the only moment that matters, because he was near enough and had been paying just enough attention.
How they speak
Almost nothing. He is the one character in the story who does something instead of saying something.
How the story treats them
He is usually treated as a plot device. This version gives him the same experience Red has: a feeling that something is off, and no clear reason for it.
One surprising thing
In Perrault's 1697 original he does not exist at all, and the story simply ends badly. The rescue was added by the Brothers Grimm over a century later.
If they were real today
He would be the neighbour who says, afterwards, that he had thought it sounded odd.
Key moments
Forty steps away the whole time
He rounds the corner of the cottage with his axe held out because he has been half-hearing a conversation that did not sound right, and finally something in it broke.
Who they know
Redrescuer
He had been half-listening to a conversation that did not sound right, forty steps away.
Characters like The Woodcutter
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