Frieren: Who Is the Stubborn Old Woman? Meet the Character Who Helped Sein!

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 did leave a significant mark on the series. Namely, the character we are going to talk about is known as the Stubborn Old Woman, and she played a significant role in Sein’s story, so we are going to tell you all you need to know about her in the series.

The Stubborn Old Woman was… well… a very stubborn old woman

At this point in the story, Old Man Voll’s village is being left behind as Frieren and her group continue on their journey. They locate a little settlement in the north, and Sein, who is with them because he is looking for Gorilla, decides to stop and ask around. He finds a local man who tells him that although he knows Gorilla, Sein should go question the Stubborn Old Woman for further details because Gorilla spent a lot of time with her. The Stubborn Old Woman lives alone in a hut on a small plateau in the village; her house was relatively easy to find, and the local main said that she might know where Gorilla headed after leaving the village, as the two were close. (By the way, Gorilla had defeated a monster that was attacking the village while he was there.)

So, who is the Stubborn Old Woman? Well, for starters, that is not her name. But, since her real name was never revealed, we have to use this descriptive name in her case; this is not often seen in Frieren, but there are some characters, mostly secondary ones, whose names have never been revealed. What can we say about her? Well, she is old, she is small, she has blue eyes and she herself calls herself a stubborn old woman; this was quite a shock for Stark when he first heard her call herself that.

Not much was revealed about her story, but she immediately confirmed that she had information about Gorilla, which implies that the story that the local man told them was true. And while she was willing to help them, she did not want to do it for free because… well… she was a stubborn old woman. Before giving up the information, she wanted Sein and the others to do some errands for her.

She ultimately kept her word and provided Sein with the information he was looking for

And that is what happened. Sein asked her what they needed to do, and this is the list of chores she had them do:

1. They were to deliver a message of unknown content to Nagel the Blacksmith, the blacksmith of a nearby village;
2. Pluck apples from the trees in what we assume is her or the village’s garden;
3. Collecting a seemingly rare yellow flower from a cliff;
4. Collecting treasure from a chest in a dungeon;
5. Stealing two large eggs from a giant chicken-like monster;
6. Defeating a two-headed monster with the head of a lion and an antelope;
7. Polishing the heroes’ statue in the canyon.

Before the final task was given to them, the party commented how the old lady really was stubborn since she wouldn’t open up to them even after doing six tasks for her. Frieren said that Heiter and Himmel would have been able to get the woman to open up easily, to which Fern added that their party only has socially awkward members who couldn’t really help with that. Then, the old woman gave them a bucket of water and took them to the final task.

She revealed along the way that the statue depicted two heroes who saved the world a long time ago; no one knew their names anymore, but the village has been taking care of the statue for eons. It was a statue of a priest (whom Frieren would identify as Kraft) and a warrior, and everyone commented how it reminded them a bit of Sein and Gorilla. Also, the Stubborn Old Woman identified Sein as Goatee Priest (a nickname he got from Heiter even before he had any facial hair), confirming that Gorilla had told her about him when he was there.

Sein then remembered how he and Gorilla went to that same statue once before, with Heiter, and because the state of the warrior had a goatee, they decided to nickname Sein Goatee Priest, although the latter was still a kid back then. Once they were done polishing it, the woman complimented them and told them that she had Gorilla do it as well but that he never did as good of a job as the four of them. Shen then told Sein that Gorilla talked a lot about him, and as they were leaving the village, she revealed to him that his friend had gone towards Tür, which means that Sein would probably have to part ways with his friends very soon. And this is the story of the Stubborn Old Lady.

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