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Willow Ufgood is the main protagonist of the film of the same name, its novelized sequel series, the Chronicles of the Shadow War, and the 2022 Disney+ Willow television series. He is portrayed by actor Warwick Davis.

Character History[]

Early Life[]

Willow is a Nelwyn, born to the simple farming family of Schnorr Ufgood and Trada. He was named for a fallen willow tree near the River Freen.[3]

Willow showed magical talents as an infant, and the High Aldwin declared that he was special upon his birth. Willow's father however insisted that his son would follow the simple life of a farmer. However, during a festival, little Willow was impressed by displays of magic and stagecraft from the traveling entertainer Pesto the Magnificent. He decided to study magical trickery and even pestered High Aldwin to take him as an apprentice, but he was reticent to take on a new learner. Willow practiced only festival stagecraft but was ambitious of someday becoming a sorcerer.[3]

Trada died when Willow was six. After Schnorr died, Willow's sister Soreen moved to another village.[3]

Later Years - Saving Elora Danan[]

Willow married Kiaya Ufgood and raised his two young children, Ranon and Mims. One of his problems was the surly Prefect Burglekutt, who kept Willow toiling in the fields to pay his taxes, and threatened to send him to the mines should his upkeep ever fall short. Soon afterwards, Elora Danan was rescued from the River Freen by his children.[3]

During the Planting Festival of the year 1342, Willow was one of the hopefuls that the High Aldwin would choose as his next apprentice. He asked his initiates to identify which finger held the power to control the world. Willow felt like pointing his own finger, but not trusting his intuition, he chose one of the Aldwin's outstretched digits.[2]

Afterwards, the village was raided by Death Dogs. The villagers were angry for the one who caused the disaster. Willow wanted to keep the baby secret, but then it was decided that he should take the child to the Daikini crossroads and be given to a Daikini human. Meegosh would accompany him.[2]

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Willow with Elora Danan.

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Willow with a fairy.

The trek was lengthy, until they met a captive swordsman, Madmartigan, to whom he gave the baby, only to find it a short while later captured by mischievous Brownies. They led Willow to Cherlindrea of the Fairy Forest, who explained the child's fate, the future empress of Tir Asleen and vanquisher of the evil Queen Bavmorda whose forces were conquering all lands. The fairy tasked Willow to take Elora to the sorceress Fin Raziel, held captive on an isolated island. She would lead them to Tir Asleen, where a great army awaited to repulse Bavmorda's forces.[2]

Willow soon crossed roads with Madmartigan, who joined him in his quest. Eventually they found Fin Raziel shifted in animal form by a spell, and Willow failed to dispel. Upon finding Tir Asleen, they discovered that it was cursed, and no army waited to repulse Bavmorda's forces. Tir Asleen was invaded and absconded with the baby.[2]

The survivors of Galladoorn, recently decimated by Kael's army, arrived in time to join the team. They took the fight to Bavmorda's castle keep at Nockmaar. As the battle raged Willow restored Raziel and entered Bavmorda's citadel. The two sorceresses engaged in a magic battle while Willow rescued baby Elora Danan from the sacrificial altar. Using a simple trick, Willow made it seem as if he had teleported Elora to safety. Bavmorda lost control of her roiling spells, and was consumed by her dark powers.[2]

With Bavmorda eliminated, the dark pall she cast over the world vanished. Raziel restored Tir Asleen, and Elora Danan was delivered to foster parents. Raziel gave Willow her book of magic, and Willow returned to the Nelwyn Village.[2]

Later Years - After the fall of Nockmaar[]

In The Gales, a group, including Kit, Jade, Boorman, Graydon, and Dove (Elora), travel to Nelwyn to find Willow. Willow sees the mark inside of Dove's right elbow, which indicates that she is in fact Elora Danan. He tells her it's good to see her because she's their last hope to defeat the evil that is coming.

In The High Aldwin, the name which Willow is also known by, Willow introduces Elora to his village. He explains that she is going to be their savior and he does a magic test to see how much magic she has, which is none. Willow eventually agrees to go with Elora and the others on their quest to save Airk on the condition that Elora train with him. He wants to teach her magic so she can defeat the evil forces.

Willow and the group travel on, eventually to Nockmaar Castle. Willow advises them not to but they want shelter so he tells them they can go but to avoid the High Tower. Willow sets out to cure Graydon after he was infected by The Lich. He gathers ingredients and performs a spell to try and save Graydon.[4]

Willow and the group continue on, encountering different groups of people and obstacles along their way. Eventually they all make it to the Shattered Sea, which they cross and reach a cliff. Willow wants to turn around but Elora and Kit decide to jump off the cliff to continue on.

Willow and the rest of the group realize they can't leave Elora and Kit so they jump too. They find Elora, Airk, and Kit and help them fight off The Crone. They successfully defeat The Crone but realize a bigger war with the Wyrm awaits them.

In the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, a year after the fall of Bavmorda, as Willow fell asleep, distraught over not being able to attend a party for Elora, he dreams that night of riding on the back of Calan Dineer a great dragon, who drops him off at Tir Asleen. After bantering with Madmartigan and Sorsha, during which Sorsha bestows upon him a new name, "Thorn Drumheller" and continues on to see Elora and give her a gift that he has created: a teddy bear with crystal eyes that Willow says will protect her when he is not there to do so. Leaving the sleeping child with her gift, he converses with the two brownies, Rool and Franjean, and leaves.

He wakes up the next morning to find two Brownies sitting at the end of his bed and that a horrific Cataclysm has wiped out 12 areas in the world, including Tir Asleen. Places of Power suddenly erupted in terrible blasts, leaving only rubble behind, the Scars.

Willow first visits the Scar that once was Tir Asleen. Devastated, Willow shed his past, adopted the name Thorn Drumheller and spent the next dozen years wandering the Mother World, searching for answers behind the Cataclysm. Early in his travels he brought the boy Faron to the world. With the brownies and a pair of eagles, Bastian and Anele he met along the way, he mastered sorcery and achieved many abilities. But still he was unable to discern more about what caused the Cataclysm.

While investigating the final Scar that once was a peak of the continental barrier, he fought a pack of death dogs trailing the Daikini warrior Geryn Havilhand. Thorn saves him, and the two travel to see the Ascension of Elora Danan, at the far land of Angwyn, where Elora ruled as a Sacred Princess but try as they might, chaos ensues.

An intense Shadow War rages, spearheaded by the evil Mohdri and his dread Black Rose commando assassins to capture Elora and Thorn. They start a perilous journey to a land undisturbed since the dawn of time that will end at the unbreachable citadel of the dragon, where a chilling betrayal changed the fate of Elora, Thorn, and the Thirteen Realms forever.

Elora Danan slew the dragons that were the embodiment of the soul of Creation to save the dragons from the Deceiver, who would have used them to rule the Realms. To protect the eggs, Elora spellbinds herself to Thorn and Khory Bannefin, the long-dead woman warrior whose body is inhabited by a demon's offspring. It is a dire spell that ensures none of them will betray their cause...even at the cost of their lives. And if one of them dies, the magic of the eggs is lost forever.

Pursued through a land of shadow predators by the dreaded Black Rose, Elora and her allies went to the free city-state of Sandeni. There they met the brownies Franjean and Rool, the eagles Anele and Bastian, and the young warrior-scribe Luc-Jon. But Sandeni is besieged by mighty armies fueled by the Deceiver's sorcery, warrior wizards, and engines of evil magic.

With defeat all but certain, Elora convinced the Sandeni people to continue the fight. What she doesn't tell them is that the greatest enemy lies within her. For the Deceiver is her own dark twin from a potential future of unimaginable evil...an evil that lies dormant in Elora's soul. And the only way Elora can stop the future is to befriend an enemy whose insatiable appetite for destruction could destroy all of Creation.

During his wanderings, Thorn became lean and tough. His chest grew broad with powerful arms and shoulders, matching someone's three times his size. He dressed like a wanderer, with habits of every continent he'd visited.

His skin was tightened, and his highlighted chin and jaw, made him appear twice his age. His hair grew long in the fashion of a Daikini warrior and from mahogany with red highlights it became auburn. He also grew a silver beard which he braided like High Aldwyn's. Under his wild brows, his eyes turned from hazel to green and blue mixed with gray.

Personality and traits[]

Willow is a kind, gentle man who wishes to defeat the dark magic. He is honorable, trustworthy and a born leader, as he leads the group to defeat The Crone. Willow is also protective of his close friends and Elora Danan.

Powers and abilities[]


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Behind the scenes[]

In Willow, Willow Ufgood was played by Warwick Davis. His stunt double and stand-in in the TV series is his son, Harrison Davis.

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

Non-Canon Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

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