The Old Woman
supporting · human · the one who cannot see
Short-sighted, well meaning, and mistaken about almost everything including what kind of bird is in her kitchen.
How we meet them
Taking in a stray she has entirely misidentified, and making plans for it.
Personality
Practical, unbothered and entirely uninterested in detail.
What they want
Eggs.
How they change
She thinks a swan is a fat duck who has lost her way, waits a fortnight for eggs, and never finds out how wrong she was.
How they speak
Cheerful predictions about eggs that never arrive.
How the story treats them
The cat and the hen regard her as part of the world, by which they mean part of their household.
One surprising thing
She is the only human in the story who is kind to him, and she is only kind because she cannot see him properly and thinks he is something else.
If they were real today
She would call you by the wrong name for three years and mean it warmly every time.
Key moments
A fat duck who has lost her way
She takes him in on a complete misunderstanding and announces they will see about eggs in a week or two.
There were no eggs
Three words that do the work of an entire scene, and that quietly seal his welcome in that house.
Who they know
The Ducklingguardian
She takes him in and feeds him, entirely because she has misidentified him.
Characters like The Old Woman
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