Wizardly Women
by morgan on Sep.17, 2009, under Kate Elliott and Ken Scholes
When Lev Grossman visited Babel Clash, we discussed the most powerful wizards in modern fantasy literature. Who would win the great wizard fight?
Looking back at that conversation, the names mentioned included: Gandalf, Quentin Coldwater, Harry Potter, Raistlin Majere, Richard Rahl, Bayaz, Dr. Strange, Doctor Fate, Pug, Belgarath and Rand al’Thor. All guys.
Where are the women? Who is the paragon of magical might among female characters?
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September 17th, 2009 on 4:39 pm
Well, you can at least balance Belgarath with Polgara (and for that matter, Poledra), and Rand with a whole slew of magic-using women, of whom Moiraine isn’t the strongest but fills the Gandalf-role of that story.
Morgan le Fay should head any female-wizard list, though.
From my Forgotten Realms-reading days I seem to remember someone — Midnight? — who ascended to replace the goddess of magic. Also Jaenelle, in Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels trilogy. But no, in general the Powerful Wizard is male; the exceptions I can think of definitely are exceptions.
September 17th, 2009 on 5:29 pm
Katharine Kerr’s Deverry series features several powerful magic using women, like Jill and Dallandra and various apprentices (later dweomer masters).
But I’m not sure they quite fit the the “Powerful Wizard” type of magic user. I see other sorts of magic users in fantasy. Seven Erikson has some female mages in the Malazan series, doesn’t he (bit hazy since I read the first two books a few years ago). My work features female magic users, but they don’t really fit even though they are powerful.
I’ll have to think of more examples; I’m not very good at coming up with names on the fly.
September 17th, 2009 on 9:11 pm
There’s Kahlan from Wizard’s First Rule (I only read the first book, so I don’t know how she progresses in the series). Vin, the main character from Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn. She’s probably my favorite female magic-user.
September 18th, 2009 on 1:43 am
What about Galadriel? OK, she hits a number of female clichés (aka the nurturing mother), but she’s also pretty badass in her own way.
September 18th, 2009 on 6:17 am
Circe from Greek mythology was pretty powerful. Also, Zatanna from DC comics.
September 18th, 2009 on 2:31 pm
Vin in Mistborn is pretty powerful, but I don’t know if I’d describe her as a “wizard.” And the rules of magic are a lot more limited in her world, which may be a disadvantage. Still, she’s a kickass character and a kickass mistborn, I’d stack her up next to any of the others.
September 18th, 2009 on 6:04 pm
Adam, yeah. I guess I’m having trouble defining what a “wizard” is as opposed to some other kind of magic user.
Joe — Circe is an excellent example.
Aliette - Galadriel’s a great example, too. While I have some issues with the filmed version of LotR, I did like how Jackson and Blanchette brought out her scary powerful side.
Some of the others I’m just not familiar with as I haven’t read Goodkind or (yet) Sanderson.
September 19th, 2009 on 1:32 pm
…this is a hard one.
Someone already mentioned Jaenelle from Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy. She’s really the only one I can hands-down promote as the most powerful in the setting of her books, with nobody stronger. She’s *Witch*. I’m sitting here, staring at my bookshelves looking for other stand-out female magic users…and holy moley, I can’t find any, even by otherwise very strong female writers.
Does Anne McCaffrey’s Prime Talents (psychics) from her Tower and Hive series count? The Rowan and Damia are pretty powerful.
Also, does Laurell K. Hamilton’s main characters count? Anita Blake and Merry Gentry? They’re pretty strong, but they’re clueless about their powers. That said, so is Harry Potter and Richard Rahl when they start out, so it’s probably even. The porn and uneven quality of the latest books in either of her series though makes me want to not count them, though.
Huh, it’s disturbing to not be able to finger many that are flat-out powerful, that give you the awe that their male counterparts have…perhaps because most of those I think of have a male who’s more powerful in charge of the organization they belong to? I don’t like to count Terry Goodkind because he flat out said in his world females with magic are less powerful than men. Kahlan is perhaps a powerful Mother Confessor, but that’s because they kill the male confessor babies off because their power is greater, according to the book lore. (Blech.)
Actually, Jim Butcher has a few, although none of them are the main characters. In the Dresden books, his Faerie Queens are some of the most powerful beings in the series. In his Codex Alera books there are some extremely powerful female fury users, although the MOST powerful are all male.
But yeah. Aside from Jaenelle, the ones above all have caveats in my mind somehow. They’re not standing toe-to-toe with Pug, for example.
I don’t like this, and I hope it’s because I’m not reading the right books. We need moar most-powerful-in-the-universe female magic users.
September 19th, 2009 on 3:46 pm
In Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos-series the most powerful person in the world is a woman: Sethra Lavode. Of course, she’s not human but Dragaeran (an elf).