Phinium is the maternal grandfather of Hilda and father of Johanna. He is a fairy who first appeared in the tie-in book "Hilda and the Fairy Village" and in Season 3 of the animated series. He is first seen as a silhouette in "Chapter 2: The Fairy Mound" and makes several appearances like this throughout the season before being officially introduced in "Chapter 8: The Fairy Isle".
Appearance[]
Phinium looks like a human man, but with bright cerulean blue hair like his granddaughter Hilda. As a native fairy, he has pointy ears.
Due to his long stay in Fairy Country he looks younger than he actually is, however the exact reason for this varies between the series and the book. In the animated series Astrid explains to Hilda that the island causes people and objects to appear the way the island thinks the viewer wants them to appear, meaning he only looks young to Hilda and Johanna. In the books, it is stated he remained young because time moves differently on Fairy Isle.
Abilities[]
Like all fairies, Phinium can fly.
Biography[]
Animated series[]
As children, Phinium and his sister Astrid would frequently visit the human world. Here they met a human girl named Lydia, and became close friends with her despite the rule that fairies are not allowed to interact with humans. As they grew up, Phinium and Lydia eventually fell in love, married, and had a daughter, Johanna. They moved into the human village of Tofoten together, with Astrid also moving in with them since traveling between the fairy world and human world became more and more difficult. Sadly, disaster struck when Johanna fell gravely ill and the doctor claimed she would not survive. To save their daughter, Phinium and Lydia struck a deal with the Fairy Entity. The entity agreed to cure Johanna if her parents would give Johanna to it on her tenth birthday. Out of options, they agreed.
Sometime later, after Johanna was attacked by the Spider Frog, Phinium and Lydia trapped the beast in a lake using magic charms. They also taught Johann how to ride a Woff.
When Johanna turned ten and it was time for Phinium and Lydia to uphold their end of the bargain, they negotiated a new bargain with the Fairy Entity; they would give themselves to the Entity instead and move to Fairy Isle forever, never to visit the human world again. Again, the Entity agreed. Thus, Phinium and Lydia were forced to leave their daughter behind in the care of her aunt Astrid and moved to Fairy Isle. At their request, Astrid performed a memory spell on Johanna so she would not feel like her parents abandoned her. This also erased Johanna's memories of the more fantastical elements of her youth, like her encounter with the Spider Frog. Phinium and Lydia settled in a replica of their old cabin on Fairy Isle, and through the islands watchtower kept an eye on Johanna and eventually Hilda after her first encounter with a Fairy Mound. When they saw Hilda's father Anders was in danger after he got trapped in the ruins of Fort Ahlberg with an angry troll, they pulled him into Fairy Country to save him.
Hilda first meets her grandparents after she finds out her father is in Fairy Country and uses the Fairy Mound in Tofoten to go there herself. She rescues Anders, only to learn that Johanna also went into the Fairy Mound to look for her. Once in Fairy Country, Johanna reverts back to her ten-year-old self and forgets all about Hilda. She instead thinks she is looking for her own parents. Hilda teams up with the young Johanna, neither of them knowing who the other is, and eventually they find Phinium and Lydia. This restores Johanna back to her adult self. When Astrid also shows up in Fairy Country, they tell Hilda and Johanna the full story and restore Johanna's memories. Together, they spend some time in Fairy Isle, bonding and having a picnic. Unfortunately, Johanna and Hilda being here means the bargain has been broken, and the island will never let them leave.
Phinium and Lydia both try to convince Johanna and Hilda that it is best to submit to the will of the island and the Fairy Entity. Phinium tells Hilda more about the island, like how the island provides the fairies with everything they need. He also assures Hila that in time she will learn to fly, like all fairies.
Johanna is tempted to stay on the island, but Hilda knows the island, beautiful as it may be, is essentially a prison where nothing ever changes. Thus, when Twig leads his herd of Deer-foxes to Fairy Isle to rescue them, Hilda convinces her grandparents to assist them, while Astrid goes to bargain with the Fairy Entity. When Johanna and Hilda try to make their way to the lightbridge of the Deer-foxes, the island fights back, but with help of Phinium, Lydia and the Deer-foxes they are able to escape. Phinium and Lydia stay behind in Fairy Country, since they could never go back anymore. They are last seen using the watchtower to watch Hilda and her friends enjoy the Bird Parade.
Tie-in series[]
"Hilda and the Fairy Village" adapts the events from "Chapter 8: The Fairy Isle", but removes many of the scenes from the animated series. Here, Hilda meets her grandparents when they pick her up from the boat she and Anders were trying to escape in, and bring her to their cabin. Johanna meets up with them there, and Astrid never comes to them as she goes to the Fairy entity straight away. Phinium is last seen in the book when he helps Johanna and Hilda cross a chasm filled with lava, but then gets swatted into a pond by a tentacle that shoots out of the ground. He urges Johanna and Hilda to go on.
Trivia[]
- Like all fairies, Phinium prefers to be barefoot. The only time he is seen wearing shoes is in the flashbacks of his life with Lydia in Tofoten.