Frieren: Who Is Old Man Voll & How Old Is He?

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has perfectly combined Japanese fiction’s artistry with Western fiction’s tropes to create a wonderful fantasy work that is extremely popular worldwide, and for a good reason. While the protagonists are the story’s focus, in this article, we will discuss another character whose role is that of a secondary character, but who left a significant impact due to his heartwarming story. The character we are going to talk about is Old Man Voll, an old Dwarf protecting his village, whom Frieren has known since her first adventure. In this article, you’re going to find out everything you need about Voll.

Old Man Voll is an old Dwarf protecting his village

While traveling through the Klar Region, Frieren tells the group that she wants to visit an old friend in a nearby village. The old friend in question is Old Man Voll, a nearly 400-year-old Dwarf who sits on a rock in front of the village’s entrance and looks more like a statue than a living being.

It turns out that Frieren had met Old Man Voll during her travels with Himmel 80 years prior and that the two of them became friends. Frieren wanted to reminisce about the past with Voll, as he was one of the few characters who could talk about the past with her since most of the others had already died. Frieren and her party stayed in the village for a week, and the Elf talked to Voll about the past, the present, and the future. Some segments will be analyzed below, so this is only a rough outline of what happened in the village.

After the designated time passed, Frieren and her party were about to the village, and Voll told her that he was happy to have been able to talk to her now that his life was coming to an end, but Frieren simply told him that he had told her the exact same thing when they first talked, 80 years prior. Now, let us talk about some other aspects of Voll’s story.

How old is Old Man Voll?

His exact age was not been confirmed, but we do know that the general lifespan of Dwarves in Frieren is around 300 years; still, it has been confirmed that Old Man Voll is much older than that and that he is close to 400 years of age, which means that he is older than the average Dwarf. But no, his precise age has not been specified; we only know that he is close to 400 years of age.

Who was Voll’s wife? Why couldn’t he remember what she looked like?

One important part of Voll’s story was actually the story of his wife. We find out that she is a human, not a Dwarf, and that the two of them met almost by chance but that they loved each other very much and very sincerely. Of course, being a human, Voll’s wife had a regular human lifespan, so she died a long time ago, and Voll has been preserving her memory, as well as protecting the village, because of his love for her.

But, while the story itself is truly wholesome, Voll is also sad because, at his age, he is now unable to remember what his wife looked like. He had not forgotten her, and the series even showed her (her face covered, though), but he could not remember her face, gaze, or voice, which saddened him. Although he did remain in the village, the fact that he could not remember the woman he loved made him sad. But, after talking to Frieren and reminiscing the past, he told her – as they were leaving – that he had a dream about his wife the night before, visibly happy, implying that he managed to remember the appearance of the woman he still loved.

Why does Old Man Voll pretend to be senile?

As we’ve said above, Old Man Voll pretends to be a harmless, senile old man. He fooled both Stark and Sein when they first arrived, pretending to be lost in space and not even remembering Frieren; a villager later confirmed that everyone there thought that Voll was just a senile old grandpa since he never really talked with anyone until Frieren arrived. And sure, he is not as sharp as he was a couple of centuries ago (he admitted to not being able to remember his late wife’s appearance), but he is far from being senile and is extremely lucid. Frieren saw through that immediately and told him to cut the act, later explaining that it was all just Voll’s “cowardly” tactic, which he uses to confuse his opponents into letting their guard down.

Why did Voll beat up Stark?

When they first arrived in Voll’s village, Frieren talked to the old man and asked him whether he was looking for young warriors to train with, pointing to Stark. Since Old Man Voll had been pretending to be senile at the time, Stark was not convinced that Voll could help him, as he did not see how a senile old grandpa could help him become stronger.

Voll then quickly used his broadsword and knocked Stark down to the ground, commenting how most deaths on the battlefield happen because of imprudence and that even the strongest warrior will die if he lets down his defenses. Stark cannot even stand up after this attack, to which Frieren tells him to stay with Voll and train with him.

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