I’m currently reading Leguin’s Earthsea books, having just finished (what exists of) Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles and it struck me, do wizards and sorcerers always go to school? It seems a fairly standard convention.
Harry Potter goes to wizards school, although it’s not “The University.” In McKillip’s Riddlemaster of Hed series Morgon goes to the University although that’s not where he learns magic, but riddling is the base of his power.
After pondering this, and knowing the Dope would know of exceptions to my rule, I came up with one (I think). Harold, the Incomplete Enchanter was self-taught, if I remember correctly.
In Tolkien, I can’t remember if it’s mentioned where the wizards got their power, but they definitely seem educated. I’ve only read the main four books, so I don’t know if the others go into it.
In Dungeons & Dragons (3rd edition), wizards learn to work arcane magic through intensive study, but sorcerers wield magic as an innate power. A sorcerer’s power grows over time with practice, but whether or not someone is a sorcerer is inborn. Any reasonably bright person can learn wizardry if they have a teacher and apply themselves.
Tolkien’s wizards are more like minor gods and less like educated humans. Gandalf is learned, but he didn’t go to Wizard School.
Merlin did, didn’t he? Wasn’t there mention of his schooling?
I read somewhere that Gandalf and Sauruman were not ordinary mortals who became wizards but were a type of eldritch being descended from the pantheon, or something like that. A mortal would have died in a battle with a balrog, but Gandalf and the balrog were beings of the same order.
From Wiki:
In about T.A. 1100, the Valar sent several Maiar to Middle-earth to help contest the evil of Sauron. They had great skills of hand and mind but were cloaked in the guise of men, seemingly old but of great vigour.[4] Their mission was to guide elves and men by gaining trust and spreading knowledge, not by ruling them with fear and force. They were known as the Istari, or Wizards, and included Gandalf the Grey (Olórin or Mithrandir; later Gandalf the White), Saruman the White (Curumo or Curunír; he later called himself Saruman of Many Colours), Radagast the Brown (Aiwendil), and two Blue Wizards (Alatar and Pallando) who are mentioned in passing but do not appear in Tolkien’s narratives.
In The Once And Future King, Merlin tutors Arthur. Of course Arthur doesn’t become a wizard but it seems to establish a one-to-one tutelage precedent similar to the Luke Skywalker/Yoda relationship.
Yes, Tolkein’s wizards are a kind of demigod, not learned mortals.
Towers tend to be popular forms of magical education facilities. For instance, the Wheel of Time has a White Tower, while Dragonlance has the Towers of High Sorcery.
Does the Force count? Sure, it’s from SF, but it’s a kind of SF wizardry. We see in Star Wars that there have been Jedi Academies where people can get trained to use the Force, but it can also be studied on an apprenticeship basis under an existing Jedi Master (e.g. Luke’s training under Obi-Wan and Yoda). The Dark Side seems to be a pure apprenticeship model - there is no Dark Side School per se that you can matriculate at and get a transcript or degree from.
In The Magiciains, by Les Grossman, there’s a Hogwarts-esque school that all the wizards go to. However, and I’ll spoil this (it’s a fairly minor spoiler, but still) because it’s a rather good book:
There’s a secret underground of magic users who for whatever reason didn’t make the cut or were never invited to try out in the first place. They learn magic through whatever means they can, mostly by skimming through the dregs and scraps that have been overlooked by the magical establishment.
The wizards and witches in the Land of Oz had no formal magical training, as far as I can tell. (But Glinda may have learned her lore from the queen of the fairies.)
Dr. Strange trained with the Ancient One in Marvel’s comics.
Zatanna learned from her dad in DC’s comics.
“Wizard” to me always conjures up (heh) images of studies and books. Obviously that’s all informed by literature, but I imagine that by now wizard = academic is pretty ingrained in fantasy tropes.
Apprenticeships are a common arrangement for wizards, possibly more common than any sort of group education, though schools of various sorts seem to be taking the lead in more recent fantasy. There’s also a gray area when wizards have multiple apprentices and their instruction takes on aspects of classroom education.
[ul]
[li]Skeeve was apprenticed to Garkin, then Aahz. No formal schooling.[/li][li]Harry Dresden attended a regular high school, but his magical training was in the form of a rather brutal apprenticeship, and he later takes on an apprentice of his own (and insists that the apprentice finish high school).[/li][li]The Gray Mouser was a wizard’s apprentice before becoming a thief.[/li][li]Pug, of the relevantly titled Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist, was an apprentice for some time, but actually attained mastery (in, go figure, Magician: Master) by attending a school.[/li][/ul]
Arya Stark in the Black and White temple or whatever it is from A Dance With Dragons–that is an apprenticeship situation and there is definitely some weird magic stuff going on.
Or the tallest/highest buildings around, the University in Riddlemaster is on top of a hill, and in Kingkiller the archives is the largest building around.