| “ | "But I'm not scared now, especially not scared of YOU. What's scary about a sad bunch of creeps, just sittin' around, being nasty about people behind their backs!?!" | ” |
―David | ||
David is one of Hilda's human friends.
In the graphic novels, he was only a minor character, but the animated series turns him into one of the main characters along with Hilda, Frida, and Alfur. He is easily scared and part of the Sparrow Scouts.
Appearance[]
David is a young boy of about Hilda's age (they are in the same class), who is a bit taller than Hilda. He has short brown hair and black dot eyes.
In Season 1 and 2 He usually wears an orange shirt, black shorts, white socks, and gray shoes. He can also be seen in his Sparrow Scouts uniform. In the graphic novels, he can be seen wearing a black shirt.
Per Season 3, his default attire consists of black shorts, and a blue shirt with short sleeves worn over a white shirt with long sleeves, black sneakers with white soles, and off-white socks. He now also has a deeper voice and is now notably taller than his two friends.
Personality[]
In the graphic novels, not much is revealed about David's personality, other than the fact that bugs are somehow attracted to him, and as such there is always one on him somewhere.
In the animated series, he gets a more developed personality that also carries over into the Hilda Tie-In Series. Here, David tends to be quickly scared and easily distracted, as well as a bit clumsy. It often takes his friends' encouragement to get him over his fears.
He has very little time for selfishness, laziness, and cruelty, especially after hanging around with Hilda and gaining more confidence in himself. In chapter 12, he managed to stand up to the Marra.
David has at least one talent, that being he's a great singer. For this reason he has tried several times to audition for the Warblers, the choir of the Sparrow Scouts. His clumsiness and bad luck, however, kept him from passing the auditions, until Hilda helped him out with Tide Mice.
David is one of the characters in the animated series with the biggest character development. As his character at the end of Season 2 and the movie is almost completely different from how he was and behaved in Season 1. One of the things that has notably changed is him not being that easily scared of things anymore. He also defends and stands up for himself more and his friends, and isn't that reluctant to adventures.
In Season 3, being now older than he was in the previous two seasons, David has become more easygoing and confident, though his original personality occasionally resurfaces when he is faced with a scary situation. He's also shown to be a bit more athletic now with him initiating a game of football with Frida while in Tofoten.
Likes and fears[]
David likes the following things:
- He likes to collect and study rocks and has build a big collection over the years as can be seen in his bedroom.
- He likes to sing and is pretty good at it as is shown in Chapter 8: The Tide Mice. His favorite type of music to listen to is Lite Rock.
- He has a lot of liking for different sweets and candy. He is seen eating different types of candy in the series throughout scenes, wants to use his share of the tips from the broth sell to buy himself more sweets (to the point he even shows a rare, short sight of greediness) and when not having nightmares, he has literal sweet dreams about candy. His most favorite snack are Jorts.
- He likes to read comics. He has many comics laying on big piles in his room, as shown on the floor in his room in Chapter 5: The Troll Rock
- In Hilda's World: A Guide to Trolberg, the Wilderness and Beyond, it is revealed his favorite color is orange.
His many fears and phobias is given over the course of the franchise. The fears and phobias on this list are either mentioned or seen in the animated series or in the Hilda Tie-In Series. Some are mentioned in both, while others are only seen and/or mentioned in one of the two. In the Graphic novels there are no mentions or sightings of any of his fears or phobias as this was not part of his character there.
- Heights (until the end of Season 2)
- Insects (until the end of Season 2)
- Being all alone
- Leather belts
- Trolls (until the end of chapter 13 and the movie)
- Death
- Rats (and in particular the Rat King)
- Ghosts (until Season 2, Chapter 9)
- Jumping over narrow chasms (until the end of season 2)
- Dark Places
- Birds of prey
- Salt Lions
- Darkness
- Spooky Forests
- The graveyard
- Scary stories
- Witches
- Wandering outside the town wall
- Hilda's ideas (according to him in Hilda Creatures)
- Difficult conversations
- Sharing his feelings
- The Kraken(as shown in the movie)
- Nutcrackers
It should be noted that David appears to have overcome several of his fears in the movie and Season 3, including heights, insects, trolls, and jumping over narrow chasms. He easily jumps over a small chasm in the woff nest in Chapter 1: The Train to Tofoten, rides woffs high above the clouds with Hilda and Frida, and allows dragonflies to land on him on their way to the Woff cave.
Relationships[]
In the graphic novels, David is only seen interacting with either Hilda or Frida a few times. Nothing is revealed about his home situation. The only time ever that he is seen with both of his friends, is early in Hilda and the Stone Forest .
In the animated series, he lives with his parents, and is an only child.
David has been friends with Frida since before the start of the series. The two of them have been with the Sparrow Scouts for at least a year by the time Hilda moved to Trolberg, as seen in a flashback in chapter 8. Before Hilda came to Trolberg, they already stayed with each other during lunchtime, and recess in school.
After Hilda joined the Sparrow Scouts, David quickly became friends with her too, and stayed friends with her after their friendship with Frida got strained. While he is not always excited about the adventures that Hilda keeps dragging him into, he nevertheless considers her a close friend.
In the novelization, David's parents are mentioned but play no role in any of the stories.
In the books, David befriends Hilda when they are assigned to the same group for a school project. He is already friends with Frida at this point.Biography[]
Pre-series[]
David a year prior to season 1, nervous for a Warblers audition.
Not much is known about David's life from prior to him meeting Hilda, except that a year before the start of the series, he unsuccessfully tried to audition for the Warblers (the Sparrow Scouts choir). He never made it onto the stage since right as he cleared the stairs, he knocked over a bunch of stuff that led to the curtains getting torn down. It is also revealed in "Chapter 13: The Stone Forest" that the first badge he ever earned was for first aid.
Season 1[]
David first met Hilda during school recess when she and Johanna made a day trip to Trolberg making him the first person she met in Trolberg., Their meeting was cut short when recess was over. He properly met her when Hilda joined the Sparrow Scouts, and was subsequently chosen by Frida along with him for their beautification project in Trollberg Park. During this project, the three friends accidentally dug up some sleeping Vittra, mistaking them for weed, and had to rescue them from getting ground into mulch.
David also found a strange rock that he took home for his collection, unaware that it was actually a petrified Troll-child. This got him and his friends in serious trouble when he brought his rock collection, and thus the Troll, to Parent's Night at school. Fortunately, Hilda was able to reunite the young troll with its mother and convince Mrs. Hallgrim to stay quiet about the incident, thus saving David from having to serve 50 or even 100 years in prison for bringing a troll rock into the city.
In Chapter 6: The Nightmare Spirit, David became the victim of a Marra, who loved him because he was an easy prey due to his many fears. When David found out a Marra was causing his nightmares and sharing them with her friends, he believed he should at least get royalties for this. Hilda came to his aid and switched places with him for one night to confront the Marra. She convinced the Marra to take her as a victim, believing she could handle it. When the Marra found something to scare Hilda anyway, David got second thoughts and offered to take the Marra back. Fortunately, this made her lose interest in him since willing victims were no fun.
In Chapter 7: The Lost Clan, David revealed to his friends he knew the location of a rare plant called the Blue Nettle, which they could use to earn their botany badge. Unfortunately, the plant was in the middle of the village of the Bragga Family of Elves (which David didn't know since he couldn't see them; he thought the voices he heard belonged to ghosts). The elves attacked and took David captive. Hilda and Frida brought Alfur to the village to try and end an old conflict between his family and the Bragga, only to learn the Bragga had sworn off all forms of paperwork. Frida then offered to find a solution that could benefit everybody. Bartell, the leader of the Bragga, agreed but insisted that David would remain with them as a hostage to ensure the girls would come back. David didn't mind since he already suspected the girls would get involved in something dangerous. He and Bartell actually went along pretty well, especially since neither of them had any experience with hostage situations and thus didn't really know how to act. Bartell even tied David's hair into three small tails to get rid of any bugs. Eventually, Hilda, Frida, and Alfur managed to get the contract destroyed by a Lindworm, thus ending the Bragga's exile, and David was set free.
In Chapter 8: The Tide Mice, David tried to audition for the Warblers again, and again it failed due to bad luck (a bug flew into his mouth). His luck finally changes when Hilda used an enchantment to give him a tide mouse. Thanks to the mouse, he passed the auditions and became the star of the choir. Sadly, Hilda realized afterward that the tide mouse would eventually steal David's soul, so she was forced to dispose of it again.
In Chapter 9: The Ghost, he and Hilda discovered Frida's secret; she is not as perfect and neat as she appears. Her bedroom was always tidy because a ghost, Craigie Williams, cleaned it for her. When he stopped doing so since his, and Frida's, favorite book went missing, Frida's room quickly became a pigpen. This shattered Frida's confidence and led to several fights between Frida and David when he mocked her for thinking rooms clean themselves. Determined to help her friend, Hilda roped David into tracking down Craigie Williams, who suspected his sister Engilbjort had taken the book. The three kids fought her for it, but lost (David was the first to go down). Hilda eventually resorted to other means to get the book back, only to discover it was the wrong one. Disappointed, Frida quit the election campaign. David and Hilda tried again to lift her spirits, but the girl angrily lashed out at them. This proved the final straw and both left embittered, their friendship with Frida severely strained.
In Chapter 10: The Storm, David accompanied Hilda and the Great Raven to the Trolberg Weather Station during a severe snowstorm. Here they met Victoria Van Gale. The kids discovered Victoria had managed to make a weather machine, and had accidentally lured dozens of Weather Spirits to Trolberg, which were causing the storm with their arguments. David and the Raven didn't trust Victoria from the start (unlike Hilda, who idolized her), and their suspicions were proven correct when David discovered Victoria had captured a baby Weather Spirit. As Hilda freed the baby, the Raven carried David back to Trolberg.
In Chapter 12: The Nisse, the Sparrow Scouts yearly camping trip was approaching, so David and Hilda tried to reconcile with Frida, who hadn't come to any Sparrow Scout meetings since their argument. They found she had made a new friend, Kelly, whom neither David nor Hilda trusted. Frida declined hanging out with Hilda and David, which clearly saddened David.
During the camp, Hilda introduced David to the Nisse Tontu, whom she had met and tried to help find a new home earlier, and who was now staying in the Huldrawood. The two kids promised to bring him some snacks later that night. But when trying to find Tontu in the dark, the two instead found the Marra again, and discovered Kelly and Frida were with them. Seeing Frida participate in the Marra's nighttime ritual angered David, and he refused to try and help her. The Marra discovered them due to David panicking (he thought he saw the infamous Black Hound that had been stalking Trolberg for some time now). The Marra that had tormented him earlier and Kelly taunted David how Frida would become one of them. This finally made the otherwise scared boy to angrily snapped at them, and in a rare moment of bravery he stood up to them, calling Frida out on her choice to hang out with the Marra, and declaring he was no longer scared of them.
That exact moment, the Black Hound showed up for real and drove the Marra off. Kelly tried to sacrifice Frida as a distraction for the beast, but Hilda and David saved her, thus restoring their friendship. Frida apologized to David for how she acted, and helped him pack up when Raven Leader decided to end the camp early due to the threat of the Black Hound.
Along with Frida, David tried to help Hilda earn at least one badge before the ceremony, but this plan failed since Hilda was too occupied with finding Tontu. During the badge ceremony, the Black Hound showed up again and caused panic at Scout Hall, until Tontu and Hilda lured the beast away.
David was last seen at the end of chapter 13, when he and Frida visit Hilda.
Season 2[]
David has a small role in "Chapter 1: The Troll Circle" when Erik Ahlberg and Gerda Gustav come to pick up Hilda to go on patrol with them. David remarks that he is glad he doesn't have to ride the Safety Patrol's airship.
David becomes fearless.
His first mayor role this season is in "Chapter 4: The Eternal Warriors". During a camping trip in the Forest of Nott, he, Frida and Hilda go to see the Screaming Stones, but David's many fears slow them down and they have to camp on a hill nearby that night. Feeling he is a burden to his friends, David wanders off on his own, falls off the hill, and is found by Torgund, leader of two rivaling viking clans. He is offered the chance to help Torgund's clan steal the Medallion of Sigurd from the Knudsen clan. The medallion can render anyone who touches it fearless. David agrees. His fears make him not much of a help on the battlefield (it takes him too long to relay an order from Torgund to his men for example), but Torgunds clan emerges victorious and David is allowed to share the medallion. The medallion works and David instantly becomes fearless. His new personality, however, leaves Frida and Hilda quite uncomfortable. When they reach the Screaming Stones, they see how a creature named Sigurd revives the fallen Knudsen clan. David warns Torgund and joins them in another fight, but his fearlessness also made him reckless, and despite Hilda's pleas to stay out of this, he is killed. Fortunately for him, Hilda is able to convince Sigurd to revive him. This undoes the effects of the medallion, and David becomes his old self again, but Hilda and Frida assure him that is just fine for them.
In "Chapter 5: The Windmill", David and his friends run into Victoria van Gale again, who took up residence in the windmill on the edge of Trolberg. She claims to have reformed, but David is skeptical. They help her patch up the windmill, and in return she gives them each a gift. In David’s case, a jar or multipurpose grease. Just when David begins to believe Victoria has changed, he finds some documents that detail her plan to tear open a breach to Nowhere Space. In order to get to Hilda’s house and warn her, David uses the multipurpose grease to bribe the Nisse in his home to give him a ride through Nowhere Space. The two friends arrive just in time to rescue Frida (who had been captured by Victoria) and stop the machine. The adventure ends with Victoria being send to an unknown location.
In "Chapter 6: The Old Bells of Trolberg", David participates in Hilda’s plan to disable the new mechanical bell ringers that Erik Ahlberg installed in all the bell towers around Trolberg. He stands guard outside and keeps an eye on the battle between the Bragga Family and the safety Patrol officers guarding the Central Bell Tower.
In "Chapter 7: The Beast of Cauldron Island", a Kraken begins to attack ships in the harbor, and the Lindworm is blamed for it. While Frida and Hilda, with the help of a water spirit investigate the matter, David and Alfur travel to Cauldron Island to warn the Lindworm. When the Lindworm refuses to leave her island without a battle first, Alfur and David come with the plan to ask the Lost Clan to stage a mock battle with her so she can leave afterwards. The plan goes south however when the Lost Clan insist on on a real fight and attack the Lindworm. Alfur is quick to let David have the credit for the plan. When Cauldron Island is revealed to be a gigantic Kraken, the Lindworm evacuates along with Alfur, David, and the Lost Clan.
David has a small role in "Chapter 9: The Deerfox", where he, Hilda, and Frida try to reclaim the shoes that a ghost stole from him. They eventually succeed with help of Twig, but by that time David’s parents have already bought him new shoes.
In "Chapter 10: The Yule Lads", David, Hilda, and Frida sell broth for the Sparrow Scouts during the Trolberg Winter Festival, and meet the Yule Lads. When they find out the Yule Lads abduct naughty people to feed them to Gryla, Hilda and friends convince them to give Gryla the broth instead. Gryla accepts the offer, and the Yule Lads release all the people they caught. During the festival, David sacrifices his tips from the broth sale to buy Hilda the snow globe that Hilda wanted to give to Johanna.
In "Chapter 11: The Jorts Incident", the Tide Mice cause trouble again when they attach themselves to Gil Jones, a delivery man of Jorts, and rapidly multiply. David, Hilda, Frida, and Kaisa manage to capture them all, though David has the most trouble with the mice.
In "Chapter 13: The Stone Forest", Frida has started practicing invisibility spells with help of Alfur, David, and Hilda. When Hilda volunteers to get Frida some dust from the castle ruins for her next spell, but never comes back (she and her mother accidentally got send to the Stone Forest), Alfur, Frida, and David go to Hilda’s house. They find the place deserted. Frida and David set out to find Hilda, much to David's dismay as he wanted to stay with Alfur, but soon get lost themselves. They are found by Erik Ahlberg and Gerda Gustav of the safety patrol. Frida accidentally startles a group of Woff when she notices a rare white one among them, who collide with the zeppelin and cause it to crash. With no way to return to Trolberg before nightfall, the group spends the night in the woods. When a group of Trolls find them, Erik uses his bell, which enrages the Trolls into attacking him. Frida tries to make Erik invisible as protection, but instead ends up turning him into a bug. Gerda puts him in a jar until Frida can turn him back to normal. The following day, the group manages to build an emergency blimp, and picks up Hilda and Johanna. Back in Trolberg, Gerda takes Frida and David to Safety Patrol HQ so Frida can work undisturbed. She manages to make Erik human again. Erik doesn’t seem to have noticed a thing about being a bug, and immediately goes back to his usual, egocentric self by trying to rope David and Frida into giving a press statement about how he single-handedly saved them. Gerda, who has enough of Erik’s attitude by now, quickly escorts the 2 kids out of the room, ignoring Ahlberg’s rant, and takes them home.
Movie[]
In the movie, David is first seen in his house where he and his parents are watching television. It's the day after he returned home from the events of The Stone Forest. Erik Ahlberg is seen on the television and is adored by his parents. They talk about how worried they were when their son didn't return home two nights earlier and tell him how grateful they are that Ahlberg was with David in the forest to protect him from the trolls, unaware of the true events. David gets annoyed at his parents for adoring Ahlberg, thinking that he needed Erik to survive and that trolls are dangerous. He decides to leave the house and to go to school so he won't have to watch "trash TV" with his parents or have to hear them talking about Ahlberg all the time, even tough his parents have arranged a free day from school for him so he can recover from the events. This behaviour concerns his mother deeply and she decides to join the safety patrol.
At school he changes into his school uniform and meets Frida. After he asks if she has seen Hilda, they go to their class, where the Safety Patrol shows the class a video about the dangers of Trolls. Due to their experiences in "Chapter 13", the two know Trolls are not as bad as people claim, and try to convince their classmates about this. Some actually listen and together they form a protest group to demonstrate against Erik Ahlberg's anti-troll policies, but David bails out when he learns his mom has joined the safety patrol as a volunteer bell ringer. He finds this difficult and it lead to him ignoring his parents, finding it difficult to start the conversation about why he dislikes the safety patrol.
David saves Frida.
Not soon after, he and Frida learn from Tontu that Hilda has become the victim of a changeling spell, much to David's shock and try to figure out a way to restore her to normal. They ask Kaisa for help, but she claims witch magic cannot undo Troll Magic. The two try it anyway, but like Kaisa predicted, the spell fails. They also help Tontu to look after the now human Baba for a while. They offer their help to Johanna to search for Hilda and Johanna, looking for help, agrees to this at first. But when he and Frida are driving with Johanna, she suddenly drops David and Frida off at David's house because she changed her mind during the car drive, considering it too dangerous for them. Feeling left out, the two decide to leave the city and try to talk to the Trolls. That night, David will distract his mom in the bell tower so Frida can sneak out of the city. Around that time, Trundle and his followers launch their attack and wreck the bell towers with rocks.
While he appears happy when he gets his mother attention from the tower, the atmosphere between the two grows sour real quick when David becomes grumpy and angered when he is left alone with his mother on top of the tower. His mother desperately tries to find out what is wrong with him and urges to talk to her about what is bothering him. When he looks away from her, it hurts her and she tries to explain that she is doing it for him. This causes David to get really angry and finally start to talk. But before he can finish his words and why he doesn't like what she does and why he disagrees with the safety patrol, the trolls under comment of Trundle appear. He and his mother are shocked to see that the Trundle destroys the two towers on the left and right side of them. Knowing the tower they are in shall be next, they quickly try to escape. When they run from the stairs, David sees Frida being chased by one of the trolls and decides to go back up to ring the bell, while his mother opens the gate, allowing Frida to enter the city.
David manages to ring the bell in the tower to safe Frida from the troll that was chasing her, but this angers the trolls and Trundle fires the rock to the tower David is in. David freezes from fear, knowing he can't escape in time, but the rock is being stopped by Trundle's brother. David looks on while Trundle's brother fights with the other trolls instead of escaping. When Trundle's brother is being overtaken, a new rock is being thrown in his direction and David quickly runs downstairs to escape the tower, which he does just in time. When he gets out he stops to catch his breath, but while he is doing that, the tower gets destroyed. He freezes again in fear as the bell of the tower and the walls of the tower are falling down right towards the place he is standing. He is quickly rescued by his mother who jumps towards him and gets him out of the place just in time before he could be crushed.
Before he can thank her, the trolls attack the wall between the recent destroyed towers. His mother protects him and Frida from the crumbling wall. When Hilda gets back and tries to stop the trolls from further destroying the town and to stop the safety patrol, Frida goes after her. David wants to join, but his mother tries to stop him. He tells her he needs to do this and help his friend. His mother finds this difficult, but eventually understands and let's him go so he can rejoin Frida and Hilda. He is reunited with her and they are present when Trundle is killed by the Safety Patrol. Hilda convinces the humans not to fight back since that would provoke Amma into destroying the city.
After Erik Ahlberg decides to hold fire and stop the war, David is seen reunited with Hilda, Twig, Alfur, Frida, and Johanna. His mother walks towards him, not knowing what to say or do as she and David didn't get the change to speak to each other to make things right between the two. Seeing his fears of trolls being gone and try to save people, instead of hiding or being scared, is something she didn't notice and feels guilty about. David sees this and runs towers her and hugs her, as a way to apologize for his behaviour and to let her know he understood her finally and forgives her. It's much to her surprise at fist, but she quickly returns the hug, letting him know everything is alright. They hold hands together and silently walk with Hilda and the trolls to the city center. His mother his holding on to him when Frida and Hilda are connecting with Amma underground and watch in amusement as the flowers on the trolls grow.
He is last seen with both his parents a year later after the events, watching the parade in the crowd as the trolls enter the city for the first time. As he is looking happy and watching the parade, his mother looks proudly at him.
Season 3[]
At the start of the season, David and Frida accompany Hilda and Johanna on a trip to Tofoten to visit Hilda's great-aunt Astrid. While David and Frida enjoy their stay, Hilda quickly gets bored with Tofoten, until she learns about the Fairies. Convinced that there are real fairies in Tofoten, she leads David and Frida in a search for them. Ultimately, Hilda is proven right as she finds an actual Fairy Mound and takes David and Frida to see it, but things take a turn for the worse when the three friends all end up in the borderlands of Fairy Country while investigating the mound. They are rescued by Astrid and Johanna, and following the experience Johanna takes the kids back to Trolberg.
In "Chapter 4: The Laughing Merman", David learns he and his friends have build up a bad reputation among the Sparrow Scouts for always getting into weird adventures. When a new girl, Louise, is assigned to their group for a rafting expedition, they try their best not to let anything weird happen. But after David loses the map of the river (or so it seems; in reality Louise hid it), they end up on a wrong river arm and meet the merman Eugene, who tricks them into coming to his cave to be his captive audience forever. Thanks to Louise, David and friends are able to beat Eugene's challenge to win their freedom, and Louise reveals she actually wanted to see one of their adventures. She is welcomed into the group, but does not hang out with them again after this episode.
In "Chapter 5: The Job", David meets Hilda's father, Anders, for the first time when he returns to Trolberg and takes Hilda, Frida, and David out for lunch in The Salty Maiden. David is surprised to see Anders, as Hilda never mentioned him and David assumed Anders died years ago. David does not go with Hilda and Anders when they are given a job by The Polecat to pick up a package for him at the castle ruins. When later that day Johanna calls David to ask where Hilda is, he tells her where they went.
In "Chapter 7: Strange Frequencies", Frida ropes David into helping her set up a townhall meeting for all the Nisse in Trolberg so they can talk things over and stop stealing from each other. They also try to get Hilda on board, but she is occupied by a new mystery; her radio is picking up strange signals that she believes are a coded message from her father (who disappeared without a trace in "Chapter 5: The Job"). David and Frida are skeptical. The townhall meeting turns into a disaster, but with Hilda's help David and Frida set up an alternative; a lending library for all the Nisse. Hilda is ultimately proven right about the radio when the kids pick up a broadcast from Anders and Victoria van Gale. The message implies the two are in serious trouble. David is surprised to hear from Victoria again considering she was last seen vanishing into a void, which he hoped would be forever. Thanks to some research from Alfur, the kids deduce the radio transmissions are coming from the Fairy Mound in Tofoten.
David pulls Hilda out of the Fairy Mound.
In "Chapter 8: The Fairy Isle", David, Frida, and Hilda secretly go back to Tofoten so Hilda can find her father. As Hilda enters the Fairy Mound, David and Frida stand guard outside to dig her out. However, David takes no chances and secures himself to a tree stump with a rope. As they wait for a sign from Hilda, Johanna shows up at the Fairy Mound. David and Frida try to stop her from entering, but fail. When Hilda signals her friends to dig her out, the Fairy Mound resists their attempts to dig into it. Frida thus uses her magic to open a portal in the Fairy Mound, and David enters to help pull Hilda, Twig, and Anders out. He succeeds, but when Hilda learns her mother also went into the Fairy Mound, she goes back in. When Frida can no longer keep the portal open and passes out, the Fairy Mound crumbles, trapping Hilda and Johanna inside. David and Anders take the unconscious Frida to Astrid. Astrid gives David instructions on how to help Frida, then leaves to follow Hilda and Johanna into fairy country. After Frida has recovered, she and David spend some time looking for Twig, which Frida believes can help. Helped by Frida's magic, Twig is able to summon the Deer-Fox Herd to get Hilda and Johanna back from Fairy Country. David and Frida do not participate in this rescue mission themselves but stay in Tofoten until Hilda safely returns.
David is last seen at the next Bird Parade. He hands some jorts to Kaisa, but then has his own Jorts stolen by the marra that tormented him back in season 1. In his last scene he is sitting with his friends on a wall, watching the parade.
In the graphic novels, David is a supporting character in "Hilda and the Black Hound". First, he is seen complaining to Raven Leader that Hilda is having a bit too much fun pretending to be injured for their First Aid training. Later in the story, he encounters Hilda while she is searching for Tontu, and reminds her the badge ceremony is only a week away. David himself is at that moment working hard on his Animal Friend badge, for which he has to locate insects in the area. Hilda points out there is already an insect on him. He is last seen during the badge ceremony, where he gets his badges just before Jellybean enters the building.
David has two cameo appearances at the start of "Hilda and the Stone Forest", during the compilation of Hilda's various adventures. He is also mentioned when Hilda lies to Johanna about having spend the entire day at his house.
The Hilda Tie-In Series adapts Chapters 1 - 7 and 10 - 13 of Season 1, all episodes of Season 2 except for 11, 12, and the main story of 9, and all episodes of Season 3. In these books David's role is largely identical to the animated series, except the adventures happen in a different order. Mayor differences include:
- The adventure with the Tide Mice and the Warblers never happens
- The roles of David and Johanna are switched in Hilda and the Black Hound. In the book it's him who warns Hilda about Nisse's and to stay away from them, while he is out shopping with Hilda, preparing for the Sparrow Scout camping trip. In the series Johanna is shopping with Hilda and uses David's dialogue from the book.
- Instead of the adventure with the ghosts, it's the adventure with the Bragga Family and the Lindworm that causes a rift in the friendship between David, Hilda, and Frida, and while in the animated series David sided with Hilda, he sides with Frida here. They make up when he and Hilda apologize to each other when he asks her for her help to hunt down the Baby troll in the school.
- In this story it's because of Hilda's pressuring David and Frida of finding the Blue Nettle that he ends up being a hostage by the Bragga family and what eventually leads to their rift, because he's unhappy and traumatized from the situation. In the series however it's David himself who knows where the plant grows and decides to show Hilda and Frida where to find it, meaning Hilda wasn't responsible for what happened as in this case his own actions lead to him being kidnapped. In the series he was also more relaxed eventually after a time after being kidnapped because (in contrast to the book) he befriends his kidnappers and doesn't really understand the situation he's in. Also he sees it as a benefit that he has to stay and not has to go on a scary adventure with Hilda and Frida.
- David plays an active role in rescuing The Great Raven from Trevor, while in the animated series he was not friends with Hilda yet at that point and didn't have any role at all.
- In Hilda and the Nowhere Space it's David who warns Hilda against talking to homeless Nisse. In the animated series however it's Johanna who warns Hilda. David's dialogue from the book is pretty much the same dialogue that Joanna uses in the episode.
- David does not participate in the adventure with the Kraken, due to him helping Victoria van Gale at the windmill.
- In the adventure at Victoria van Gale's windmill, David is the one that gets captured and Frida fights Victoria Van Gale's nisse.
- In this adventure he stays behind at Victoria's windmill while Hilda and Frida have their adventure with the Kraken. When he discovers Victoria's plans, he is being captured and tied up by Victoria's Nisse. It's eventually Alfur who finds him there and warns Hilda and Frida about his situation.
- The adventure with the Viking Clans happens while Hilda, Frida, and David secretly go camping to collect dust from the ruins of Fort Ahlberg for Frida's witch studies, rather than during a Sparrow Scout camp.
- In the novelization the adventure in the stone forest takes place a day after the eternal warriors. In the book it's mentioned that when David offers a troll his bag of Jorts in the stone forest it's because he still has some influence of Sigurd's medallion in him left, meaning that his fearlessness wasn’t all lost after he got revived. In the series however the effect of the medallion was completely gone and reversed after David's death and reviving and it's not mentioned or seen that he still has some of it's power in him. Because of the larger time lap between the events in the animated series, it means that in the episode when he is in the stone forest, he lost his fears due to character development and him growing more confident in himself and less scared of things.
- In the same book he is visited by Alfur who wakes him up to share his concerns when Hilda and Johanna are missing. In the series, he and Alfur are with Frida and they find out together when to go back to Hilda's house.
- David overall seems more short tempered and outspoken in the novelization then in the series. He scolds his marra, Victoria van Gale, Hilda, and Johanna for example.
- In the books, David is the one who first discovers the radio messages from Victoria van Gale and Anders when his pocket radio picks them up during the trip to Tofoten.
- In the book, David plays no active role in the rescue mission at the Fairy Mound. Instead of a rope, he secures himself to the tree stump with a leather belt that leaves him with no room to move. When he tries to get to Frida, he trips and falls flat on his face.
Quotes[]
| “ |
Aw cruddlesticks! |
” |
| —exclamation used by David whenever something scares him or he realizes he's in trouble., | ||
Appearances[]
Graphic novels
Animated series
| Season 1 | ||||||||||||
| Hilda Opening Sequence: | Appears | |||||||||||
| 1. "The Hidden People": | Absent | 2. "The Midnight Giant": | Debut | |||||||||
| 3. "The Bird Parade": | Appears | 4. "The Sparrow Scouts": | Appears | |||||||||
| 5. "The Troll Rock": | Appears | 6. "The Nightmare Spirit": | Appears | |||||||||
| 7. "The Lost Clan": | Appears | 8. "The Tide Mice": | Appears | |||||||||
| 9. "The Ghost": | Appears | 10. "The Storm": | Appears | |||||||||
| 11. "The House in the Woods": | Pictured & Mentioned | 12. "The Nisse": | Appears | |||||||||
| 13. "The Black Hound": | Appears | |||||||||||
| Season 2 | ||||||||||||
| Hilda Opening Sequence: | Appears | |||||||||||
| 1. Chapter 1: The Troll Circle: | Appears | 2. Chapter 2: The Draugen: | Absent | |||||||||
| 3. Chapter 3: The Witch: | Mentioned | 4. Chapter 4: The Eternal Warriors: | Appears | |||||||||
| 5. Chapter 5: The Windmill: | Appears | 6. Chapter 6: The Old Bells of Trolberg: | Appears | |||||||||
| 7. Chapter 7: The Beast of Cauldron Island: | Appears | 8. Chapter 8: The Fifty Year Night: | Absent | |||||||||
| 9. Chapter 9: The Deerfox: | Appears | 10. Chapter 10: The Yule Lads: | Appears | |||||||||
| 11. Chapter 11: The Jorts Incident: | Appears | 12. Chapter 12: The Replacement: | Imagined | |||||||||
| 13. Chapter 13: The Stone Forest: | Appears | |||||||||||
| Season 3 | ||||||||||||
| Hilda Opening Sequence: | Appears | |||||||||||
| 1. Chapter 1: The Train to Tofoten: | Appears | 2. Chapter 2: The Fairy Mound | Appears | |||||||||
| 3. Chapter 3: The Giantslayer: | Absent | 4. Chapter 4: The Laughing Merman | Appears | |||||||||
| 5. Chapter 5: The Job: | Appears | 6. Chapter 6: The Forgotten Lake: | Absent | |||||||||
| 7. Chapter 7: Strange Frequencies: | Appears | 8. Chapter 8: The Fairy Isle: | Appears | |||||||||
Novelization
David appears in all books of the Hilda Tie-In Series except "Hilda and the Hidden People".
Behind the Scenes[]
Voice[]
David is voiced by Oliver Nelson, while his singing voice in the season 1 episode The Tide Mice was provided by Ilan Galkoff. Because of Nelson's age, and hitting puberty, David's voice notably changed between season 1 and season 2. Especially in the later episodes of season 2 and in the movie, David's voice has changed to be a bit deeper. According to Nelson self, he had to change his voice back during the dubbing of the movie to make it sound more like it used to do. In may 2022 he could confirm on Discord that he was still doing David's voice in season 3 after questions were asked if he was being replaced.
In the the audiobook version of the Hilda Tie-In Series, David's voice is done by Arthur Smith Galiano.
Design[]
Top: the real David. Bottom: How David's design was translated to the animated David.
The reason David was designed with black dot eyes instead of eyes like the other characters is because Luke Pearson based him on a stuffed toy he owns that is also named David, and which he considers his assistant. When trying to come up with extra kid characters for Hilda's school and the Sparrow Scouts, he decided to give the real life David a role in the stories, and modeled the character David after the toy. When the graphic novels were adapted into the animated series and it became clear that David would get a significantly larger role there, it was considered to redesign David with eyes like the other characters, but Luke Pearson ultimately decided to stay true to the real David and keep the black dot eyes.[1]
Trivia[]
- David is one of only a very few human characters with black bead eyes. Others are his mother, the girl in Trevor's group of friends, Gil Jones and Baba in her human form and some minor background characters as the farmer and one of the players at The Salty Maiden.
- David has two stuffed animals he sleeps with: a bear named Warren and a giraffe named Bertrand.
- David is shown not to be very sports-oriented or having a liking for it. When he is seen running he often tires out quickly and has to drink water or rest to get his condition back. He doesn't have a sports badge like Frida (missing and not to know how to wrestle) and stands in the corner rather then participating in sports. He also doesn't seem to have a favorite sport overall. The only sport item he owns is a baseball bat, that is stuffed in a corner of his room, indicating he doesn't use it.
- David is probably ambidextrous, as he can be seen drawing and writing with both his left and right hand in the animated series.
- David is supposed to be a little bit taller then Hilda and shorter then Frida. However in some scenes in seasons 1 and 2 he is shown to be of the same height as Hilda or even shorter then her. In Season 3, he is notably taller than both girls.
- During the last scene of the movie, the troll parade takes place for the first time, a year after the events. Frida, and especially Hilda, are shown to be taller. David however is shown to be of the same height as he always has been. This is probably a animation error.
- On the 4th of January 2022, director Andy Coyle confirmed on Twitter that Hilda was indeed a year older at the end of the movie and therefore taller then she was in season 2[2]. Part of a new design set for season 3. He said: It's a show about growing up, so it'd feel kind of weird if the characters remained static and frozen in time. This resulted in David too getting a new design and outfit in Season 3.
- During the last scene of the movie, the troll parade takes place for the first time, a year after the events. Frida, and especially Hilda, are shown to be taller. David however is shown to be of the same height as he always has been. This is probably a animation error.
- David surprisingly doesn't have a fear of stage fright or the bit violent game; sting ball.
- Although he has mentioned, and it is seen in chapter 6 of season 1 and chapters 1, 4 and 5, that he is scared of heights and tries to avoid it, in chapter 10 of season 1 (when flying on the back of the great raven), chapter 10 of season 2 (when he climbs the Sonstansil Tree, even higher then Hilda and Frida) and in the movie (where he stands up top in one of the bell towers), he shows no signs or discomfort of heights.
- David was the first human Hilda met and spoke to on her first visit to Trolberg in Chapter 2: The Midnight Giant when she walks in the school play yard. He was therefore also the first of Hilda's human friends and the first resident of Trolberg to appear in the series.
- David has earned three badges in the animated series during the first season in Chapter 13: The Black Hound. He earned badges for fundraising, cycling and being a friend to insects. He failed in getting the following badges: Friend of the Park badge (because he, Hilda and Frida where to busy saving the Vittra, who also undid a lot of their work), The Botany badge (because he got kidnapped by the Bragga family, Hilda and Frida had to give their collected plants away to get him free) and the camping badge (because the Black Hound was spotted and the camp had to close early, meaning no one got that badge). According to him he earned more badges, but at the badge ceremony he got several for the same three categories. His sash shows that he earned more badges in the past. Most of them are unknown. It's only known that one of them is for first-aid as that was his fist earned badge. He mentions in Chapter 9: The Ghost that he doesn't have any sports badges like Frida has.
- During "Chapter 4: The Eternal Warriors", David is decapitated twice, once by a viking from The Knudsen Clan with an unknown weapon, the other time by Sigurd with a sword. Both times, he is revived by Sigurd’s potion.
- David doesn't appear in ''Chapter 8: The Fifty Year Night'' but in the original writing concept he would appear in the episode as an adult of 26 years. Hilda would travel 15 years in to the future. She would found David, who would be scared like he had seen a ghost (because Hilda would be missing for 15 years at that point), and he would, after a emotional reunion, tell her what had happened in the 15 years she missed and would try to help her getting back to the present. The writers scrapped that idea in favor of the story of Peter and Tildy.
- "Chapter 11: The Jorts Incident" reveals that David is a fast counter, as he was able to count all the Tide Mice at Jorts HQ in a matter of seconds.
- David didn't appear in the comic Hilda and the Mountain King so his side plot about the conflict with his mother was specially written for the movie. Because of the length of the movie, this is something that is cut short and explains why he and his mother never got more time to explain their differences and looks on things.
- In the same movie it's shown that David's character development from season 2 has being settled as he is shown to be more self-assured, brave and willing to stand up against his parents and the safety patrol (participating in the protest). He is no longer the quickly scared character from season 1.
- In the credits from Hilda and the Mountain King (movie) it's shown that he and Frida visit the mountain to visit the trolls, meaning his fear of them is really gone as his fear of going to the wilderness.
- Because of David's voice-actor hitting puberty during the making of the Mountain King movie, David's voice notably changed between season 2 and the movie. In some scenes in the movie, his voice sounds deeper and/or even different. This is a thing that has been going on for a while, David's voice in season 2 was already a pitch deeper than in the previous season (1), and was a pitch deeper again in the film than the two seasons. The most notable change in his voice however came in Season 3.
- While in the last scene of Hilda and the Mountain King (movie) (that is taking place a year after the main events) both Hilda and Frida appear taller (most notably and clearly seen Hilda), David however looks the same height as usual, even more shorter then usual because he doesn't stand in front of the crowd, or it could be an animation error. Season 3 remedies this by giving David a new, older looking design.
- David replaced the role of the Keeper of the Bell in the movie. According to director Andy Coyle, the Bellkeeper was intended to appear in the movie. He would be the one training David's mother in the tower. He also would be the one ringing the bell and fleeing from the tower when the rock was being threw at it. He was cut from the film, because the animation team thought it was too much to bring the voice actor back for a few sentences and since his role in the previous season was too small to include him. For his scenes in the tower and it's destruction he was replaced by David.
- There is a character design drawing for season 3 that depicts David as a frog, implying he will be turned into one during the season. This ultimately didn't happen.
.jpg "Hilda, David and Frida Designs (Season 3).jpg (969 KB)")