Heidi
Barbel
Dete's village friend
A talkative woman from Dörfli who climbs the mountain with Dete in the opening scenes. She tells the reader about Alm-Uncle.
Barbel is a friend of Aunt Dete's from Dörfli, curious and chatty, and a bit doubtful of the Alm-Uncle. She walks up the steep path with Dete and Heidi on a hot day and asks where Dete is taking the child.
Through her questions we learn what the village says about Alm-Uncle: that he speaks to no one, lives like a hermit and has a terrible temper. She is a typical village neighbor, quick with questions and slow to forgive.
“It is a long, steep climb in this blazing sun, Dete! Where are you taking the child?”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Barbel appears only in the opening chapter. She hears that Dete has a new post in Frankfurt and is leaving Heidi with the Alm-Uncle, and she is shocked.
She is the voice of the village's gossip, setting up the story's first mystery and the reconciliation between the village and Alm-Uncle at the end. She is gone from the story after that, but what she says about the Alm-Uncle hangs over the rest.
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