As a general rule, magic is treated as a rather scholarly pursuit. Its use typically revolves around a great deal of abstruse knowledge and practice, which in turn implies a lot of study under an expert source. A wizard is thus to magic basically what a scientist is to science, a learned and wise expert in the field.
To everything, of course, there are exceptions. A hedge mage — or hedge wizard, hedge witch, or whatever else a work may use — is a magic-user unconnected to whatever formal structure of learning may be in place in a given setting. They never enrolled at the Wizarding School, apprenticed with the Mages' Guild, studied under the watchful eye of an elder sage or shaman, or did whatever else serves to formally pass down skill and authority. Their knowledge and practice is mostly or entirely self-taught. They might sometimes learn their skills from others like themselves or exchange insights and information, but there is no extensive or formal means of education and knowledge exchange. They typically tend to live fairly out of the way as a result, often serving as a mixture of village medics, spiritual advisors, and magical troubleshooters for rural or small-town communities.
As a result of their self-directed and isolated learning, hedge mages' actual knowledge tends to be a spotty mixture of minor spellcraft, herb lore, commonsense remedies, and the odd spiritual insight. The magic that they do have is usually also rougher, less refined, and less powerful than that of a formally-taught wizard. Often, this ends up being mixed with a varying dose of misconceptions, superstition, and true and proper bunk and nonsense. In extreme cases, they may be outright in danger of wandering into the use of Dark Magic, often without realizing that they are.
The relations between hedge mages and formally trained ones are usually strained. "Formal" wizards tend to look down on "amateurs" as quacks, snake-oil salesmen, and half-taught fools — essentially the magical equivalent of pseudoscience peddlers. In turn, hedge mages tend to view scholarly mages with a mixture of envy for their greater knowledge and power and resentment for their overbearing attitudes.
Subtrope of Unequal Rites, which covers general cases of rivalry and bad blood between different "types", schools, and traditions of magic-users, and Incompletely Trained. This often overlaps with Wandering Wizard, as traveling mages often lack the stability to obtain formal training, and tend to work as minor spellcasters and apothecaries for hire.
Compare Blue-Collar Warlock, which discusses "working-class" wizards in a general sense regardless of how they were or were not trained, an Inept Mage, where the character may have received schooling or training but lack any real finesse or skill. Compare Back-Alley Doctor. Not to be confused with Hedge Maze.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Doctor Strange: Discussed in Strange (2022). The Blasphemy Cartel has used its Post-Modern Magik and magitek weaponry to terrorize the magical denizens of New York. They also bring anti-magic measures against any wizards they encounter. However, when they run afoul of Clea, the current Sorcerer Supreme, she disparages the Cartel's measures as only being useful against "hedge witches and gutter mages". She then proclaims that she's neither of those things and No Sells their Depleted Phlebotinum Shells before massacring the Cartel with her superior power and expertise. The Cartel itself consists of the former members of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s defunct magical division, W.A.N.D., but doesn't seem to have many members capable of using grand displays of magic aside from having magical weapons at its disposal. Besides its Evil Plan to infuse thousands or even millions of dead souls into the bodies of dead superheroes as vessels for the Trinity of Ashes, none of the Cartel's members can pose a threat to Clea or the Harvestman individually.
Fan Works
- The Chaotic Masters: With Uncle refusing to teach her chi magic on the grounds that he feels she's not worthy of it, Jade decides to spite him by teaching herself Meridian-style magic, using the Palisman she bonded with at Roulette's auction and a book on the subject gifted to her by Miss Dorado afterwards.
Literature
- The 1934 story "The Charnel God" by Clark Ashton Smith contains an Older Than Television reference: the antagonist is described as "no common hedge-wizard", but a veteran Evil Sorcerer and Necromancer of great power.
- Discworld: The village witches of Lancre with their practical magic, common sense and “Headology” are much more effective than the eccentric university-trained wizards of Ankh-Morpork.
- The Magicians (2016): Hedge Witches, or Hedge for short, are Magicians who practice Hedge magic, a self-taught form of magic instead of formal education at a Magical School. This is done by using information from the internet and public sources. The spells aren't strong or crafted well, which can result in them being dangerous, which is why Hedges have safe houses to share their knowledge with each other.
- The Name of the Wind: Ben the Arcanist speaks disparagingly of "traveling arcanists" who haven't graduated Wizarding School but sell their haphazard medical and magical skills from caravans. At best, their talents are limited; at worst, they're con artists.
- Otherverse: Many practitioners Awaken by coming across a copy of Essentials and undergoing the Awakening ritual. Since the information in Essentials is mostly basic, independently Awakened practitioners have little in the way of formal training and everything they learn tends to be through trial and error or via deals with established practitioners or Others if someone doesn't take them on as a mentor or they enroll at a Wizarding School.
- Paranoid Mage: Callum Wells regularly bemoans the fact that he hasn't had any of the basic education that most mages have. However, since that education involves a mandatory draft with a 33% casualty rate — and most of the deaths are among those who don't join an established House or guild — he chooses to flee and live undercover, picking up scraps of magical knowledge where he can find them, and practising his own techniques. As a result, when he does clash with other mages, his abilities are quite lopsided; he can surprise them with things they didn't think were possible, like firing guns through portals for instant headshots, but he would be quickly overwhelmed in a straight fight, as he lacks shields and is slow, unskilled and weak at forming regular magical constructs.
- Rivers of London: Zig-zagged.
- The term "Hedge Wizard" or "Hedge Witch" is used throughout the series to refer to practitioners who did not receive any official education from the Folly. As the nature of magic requires training to ensure they don't accidentally kill themselves, generally this means their skills were passed down the family line and often incomplete or only able to perform simplistic magic. This means they are often treated with at best suspicion if not flat-out contempt by members of the Folly.
- However, the term can also refer to officially sanctioned and trained practitioners who either retired or were based out in the country (with Nightingale referring to several country gentlemen who treated the Folly more akin to their city club), who were expected to be key figures in the local community maintain relationships with the nature spirits and other mystical creatures of their chosen home (and whom said nature spirits often treated with light-hearted contempt). Peter remarks that even in British magic's golden day Hedge Wizards were the most common type of practitioner in Britain, to the point he's surprised they never turned up in any of Agatha Christie's novels.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Hedge wizards are herb doctors who live in the countryside and help the smallfolk with whatever healing, spells, and charms they can perform, although given the low-magic nature of the setting, they are unlikely to use actual magic. They tend to be popular among the common folk due to being more accessible and affordable than the more scholarly Maesters. The term "hedge mage" comes from the fact that many of them are quite poor and are stereotyped as sleeping in hedges ("hedge knight" is a similar in-universe term for Knight Errants).
- Mona from A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is one of several minor magical talents in her city; her magic in particular deals with baking and is pretty much entirely self-taught. She has to take time at points to experiment with her magic to figure out how to make use of it in situations more strenuous than working in a bakery (such as being pursued by a Serial Killer, or dealing with an invading army of barbarians).
- Wiz Biz: Moira is referred to as a hedge witch, and is depicted as a village magician and herbalist who can provide a variety of basic potions, cures, and wards that are of use to her rural community, but cannot match the immense power of the Mighty, the truly adept and powerful wizards.
- World of the Five Gods: The Penric stories use the terms "hedge shaman" for shamans not part of the Royal Order of shamans and "hedge sorcerer" for sorcerers not trained by and belonging to the Temple. Hedge shamans are often tolerated by the local Temple authorities. Hedge sorcerers, on the other hand, are hunted down as being dangerous to both others and themselves, either to bring them under the auspices of the Temple or to destroy their demons and thus make them ex-sorcerers.
Tabletop Games
- Ars Magica: "Hedge magic" is a pejorative term the Order of Hermes uses for other magical practices, particularly those it can dismiss as limited, weak, disorganized, primitive, or otherwise inferior to Hermetic magic theory. Nonetheless, several Hedge traditions have joined the Order — which suits its goal of monopolizing magic in Europe just fine.
- Cypher System: In the basic system Adepts and characters with the "Mystical" descriptor get an ability called "hedge magic" which allows them to perform minor magical effects by spending one Intellect pool.
- The Dark Eye: People born with the talent for magic but who never receive proper training either at a formal mage academy or in one of the other established magical traditions tend to become this kind of spellcaster. While their spell selection and growth potential are severely limited (typically they never learn more than 2-3 spells), they do have the ability to boost their mundane skills with magic (something formally trained spellcasters generally can't do). One mage academy in particular is notable for deliberately seeking out and training such individuals, as with proper education they can be extremely capable alchemists (alchemy is a mundane skill but benefits greatly from also having magical talent).
- The Dresden Files: Discussed. The Character Narrators use "focused practitioner" instead of the older terms "hedge mage" and "kitchen witch" for those who lack a wizard's versatile magic and formal training — both because the latter are pejoratives and because focused practitioners can actually be much stronger than wizards in their area of expertise.
- Forgotten Realms: Hedge-wizard — or hedge-witch, hedge-priest, and hedge-row sage — is a term used to refer to self-taught spellcasters who can use simple cantrips, make potions, or scribe basic scrolls, but lack the power and knowledge of wizards and priests with more formal educations. They can reach decent social status in rural communities, where their grab-bag of simple magic and contact with other hedge-wizards allows them to deal with a lot of the issues that a village community might have, but more urban spellcasters usually see them as simple country bumpkins.
- Mage: The Ascension: Hollow Ones and Orphans are mages that have rejected the rigid order of the Traditions, Crafts, and Technocracy to work magic their own way, the difference between the two being that the Hollow Ones are still a loose coalition while "Orphan" is a catch-all term for all "free range" mages whether they're affiliated with the Hollow Ones or not. While the term "hedge wizard" does exist in the setting, it refers to something entirely different: sorcerers who work magic via tried-and-true paths of mysticism rather than altering reality like mages, but might still be part of the larger groups.
- Pathfinder: One of the pre-gen characters is a human wizard called Ezren, who spent most of his life living off of the profits of his family's spice-trading business until his father was accused of heresy and his family's name was disgraced. He devoted his life to researching his family's history and the law, in the hopes of restoring his father's honor, only to discover indisputable proof of his guilt instead, which he turned over to the church in disgust before leaving his family home forever. At the age of 42, he decided to apply his newly-honed research skills to pursue a fresh start as a scholar and mage but found that few wizards or magical institutions wanted to take on an apprentice as old as him, so his magic has been mostly self-taught.
- Warhammer Fantasy: The Silver Wheel are an informal order of hedge mages, wise women, and other low-skilled practitioners who live in rural areas or wander around the Empire, exchanging recipes and charms when they meet. Unfortunately (and unbeknownst to many of them), they're actually dedicated to Tzeentch, and their ultimate purpose is to increase the grip of Chaos on the Empire by subtly introducing dark magic to their spells, adding warpstone to potions, etc.
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: "Hedge witches" and "hedge wizards" are what the more scholarly and organized magisters of the Colleges of Magic term the loose collection of self-taught wise women, healers, herbalists, and magical dabblers who service the Empire's rural communities — the hedge wizards themselves prefer more grandiose titles like Healer or Wisdom that don't really reflect their actual skill. As a rule, hedge wizardry does include some legitimate magical knowledge, and its practitioners do provide useful services to their communities in the form of whatever collection of cures, exorcisms, and minor spellcraft they have knowledge of, but their practice also tends to be spotty and flawed and is prone to inviting Chaotic corruption due to lacking the organization, training, and discipline of the more formalized Colleges.
Video Games
- Diablo: Spellcasters who conform to the rules and limits of the mage clans are given the title "Sorcerer" or "Mage". The title of "Wizard" is instead associated with renegade spellcasters who either have innate magical power that they can command without instruction or who view the training offered by mage clans and magical academies to be stifling and limiting. They can become every bit as capable of magic as mages and sorcerers with enough experience, but tend to be treated with even more fear than other spellcasters by Sanctuary's populace and have a (not undeserved) reputation for being power-hungry and arrogant, disregarding safety and being willing to delve into magic such as time manipulation that other spellcasters balk at. In a wizard's mind, comparing them to other spellcasters is like comparing a lion to a kitten.
- Dragon Age: While they exist, most Hedge Mages, labeled Apostates, don't last long as they have two major threats to constantly worry about. The first threat is the Templar Order, who are tasked with hunting down any and all mages not a part of the Circle of Magi. The second threat are Demons (or curious Spirits) near constantly trying to either make a deal with them or possess their bodies (usually both). As such, without the proper training to keep the demons at bay, or the (relative) safety of the Circle keeping the literal Knight Templars from killing them on the spot, Hedge Mages don't live long. What makes this even more tragic is that the fear of the Templars is what has mages accept a demon's aid, while the acceptance of demonic power is what further justifies the Templars' actions, making this a Vicious Cycle. However, there are notable exceptions.
- Dragon Age: Origins: Flemeth is an ancient Apostate witch who most of the populace believe, and hope, to be a myth. However many, many, characters throughout history can confirm that she in fact real. Even high members of the Chantry, Templar Order, and Seekers of Truth know she's real. For centuries they've tried, and failed, to end her life. Not even the Player Character could do it. As it turns out, she's less witch and more what remains of an ancient Elven goddess. Which explains her knowledge and power.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition: Solas. Solas is a hermit who prefers traveling and dream walking and admits to having no formal education from either the Circle or the Dalish Elves, making his skills and knowledge entirely self-taught. The Iron Bull can make a remark about how even the most skilled self-taught warriors have some flaw in their fighting style, but he can't see any in Solas'. That's because, like Flemeth, he's also a Elven god. Unlike Flemeth, he isn't a fragment bonded to a human, but the full genuine article.
- Most magical backgrounds in Dungeon Crawl start you with a focused selection of low- to mid-level spells in a particular school as well as a dollop of skill in that school (and maybe a bit in a supplementary school, like Conjurations for Fire Elementalists). Hedge Wizards, meanwhile, start out with a grab bag of spells from multiple schools, a bit of skill in a few of those schools (with their highest being the generalist Spellcasting skill, which primarily governs MP and spell slots), and even a bit of a strength bonus. All this means that they start with multiple tools to handle things at their disposal (with their extra strength making it easier to pick up physical combat if necessary) and have considerable flexibility when adapting to what they find in the Dungeon, but they run the risk of being spread too thin to use the more powerful spells that a more focused mage could use to overcome dangerous encounters. Focused mage backgrounds, meanwhile, get stronger tools from the start and more skill and intelligence to put towards using them, but are generally heavily disadvantaged against foes resistant to their magic (an Alchemist's poisonous spells will do very little against the undead).
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- Sylphie Webb is a young conjurer in Gridania who refuses to listen to guildmaster E-Sumi Yan, eschewing the idea of drawing on the power of nature to fuel her healing abilities. While her natural talent makes her effective for a time, she eventually runs herself ragged and temporarily loses her ability to heal after trying and failing to cast Raise. This is because of her stubborn adherence to the memory of her late mother, who also felt that tapping into nature would hurt it, ignoring the warnings of more experienced healers like E-Sumi.
- Waldeve is the leader of a cult who wishes the learn the secrets of ancient Mhach and become an avatar of destruction as a black mage. He uses the Book of Thal to try and teach himself and his cultists, known as the Defiant, black magic above the warnings of Lalai and the Warrior of Light. This gets many of the members of the cult killed, as they incinerate themselves from the inside out trying to channel so much aether to cast black magic without proper instruction.
Webcomics
- Aurora (2019): Alinua spent her childhood in a small rural town and her adolescence in self-imposed isolation for fear of losing control of her volatile magic, so she never had access to formal training. She and Erin, an aristocratic Science Wizard who received the most elite magical education available, are occasionally bewildered
by each other's approaches to magic.
- El Goonish Shive: A systemic problem is Pandora granting magic to as many people as she can, then leaving them without much, if any, instruction. The people she empowers typically have no guidance on how to use magic, or even of whom they could turn to to teach them, and so have to figure it out themselves. Some of them don't even know they were given magic spells:
- Luke's friend group suddenly discovers that they were granted magic, and as they have no connections to the established magic community they have to figure out how their spells work through experimentation.
- Rhoda and Catalina are two of many magic users in the setting. Everything they know is almost entirely self-taught from experimentation because they don't know who they can ask for help. Despite this, Rhoda manages to become one of the more powerful magic users around.
- Love Me To Death: Victor grew up as the only necromancer he knew in San Guadario, a city where the most widespread religion is dedicated to the murder of necromancers. Everything he knows about his Blood Magic is self-taught through trial and error. While he manages to get a lot of mileage out of this, it's clear that he doesn't know more complex spells until he and Mercedes find a book written in the necromantic runes that she can read to him. This also means that he doesn't know the full risks of overusing his magic. He nearly kills himself via Rapid Aging while trying to get Enrique and Mercedes to safety near the end of the first season.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Katara starts out the series as a self-taught waterbender due to being the last remaining one in the Southern Water Tribe, meaning there was no one available to teach her. Part of her starting motivation is her desire to find an experienced waterbending teacher, and it isn't until the Gaang manages to make it to the Northern Water Tribe that she is able to get formal training and is declared a proper master at the end of the first season.
- The Owl House: Wild witches are those who broke out of the Coven system, and use unrestricted self-taught magic. Despite this, they don't seem any weaker than witches within Covens; Eda is often referred to as the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles and she can easily defeat her formally-trained sister Lilith, despite Eda being a Wizarding School dropout. However, Eda might not be the best example as not only is she naturally talented, she always was the most hardworking of the two.
