What do you remember from Willow? When I rewatched that movie last year, I hadn’t seen it since the ’80s. I remembered Willow himself, obviously; I remembered something about wee little troublemakers, and how strong Sorsha seemed to child-me. I remembered Elora Danan and her round little cheeks, and Val Kilmer as Madmartigan.
I did not remember that the powerful character who leads our heroes to the final showdown—who saves the day in so many ways; who forcefully battles the wicked queen—is Raziel, an old woman who spends half the movie in disguise as various animals. How could I have forgotten that? How could I have forgotten that Willow is the one movie from my childhood in which an older woman plays a role like that one? Guide, mentor, powerful magic-wielder: Why are these characters, sans white beard, so hard to find?
In short: Where are my lady Gandalfs?
I want to be clear: “Lady Gandalf” is a fairly reductive shorthand that I’m using because it inexplicably delights me, and because Gandalf was such a pivotal figure in my childhood. I identified with hobbits (Pippin, I’m a Pippin to the core), wanted to be Aragorn or Legolas, and wanted a Gandalf in my life. Flawed, yes, but powerful, wise, able to overcome his own mistakes, understanding when he couldn’t do everything on his own.
What I didn’t realize, for years, was how it feels like it’s always a Gandalf. Or a Merlin, or a Dumbledore, or for that matter a Tony Stark or a Giles. There’s Chade, in Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy; there’s old Ben Kenobi and Yoda; there’s Charles Xavier and Picard. Star Trek also has Janeway, Georgiou, and Seven of Nine, who do create a little bit of balance in space. But they are all somewhat younger, and none of them are allowed to go gray.
In fairy tales, adult women are often to be feared: Vain sorceresses, wicked stepmothers, greedy witches craving children (to eat or to keep in a tower). There are exceptions; in “The Snow Queen,” Gerda encounters several women, and when I read it now, I always imagine that at least some of them are in their 70s. Disney will most certainly teach you to keep away from grown women, let alone old ones. Where are the wise crones? The leaders, the resources, the elders, the mentors? Why do these characters still seem so hard to find?
Older, or at least grown-up, women are finding their place as characters, as protagonists, as vital parts of stories on SFF page and screen, and I am grateful for that. I’m grateful for Chrisjen Avasarala and the way the whole crew of the Rocinante, in the later Expanse books, grow into a specific kind of role (the aging leaders who have really, truly seen it all). Olenna Tyrell is no loving mentor, but I love her conniving ways all the same. The women of S.L. Huang’s Burning Roses will stay with me a long time. And I need to read a Granny Weatherwax novel, clearly.
I can find characters. But I want to find mentors. I’m sure they’re out there (and I certainly hope you’ll tell me where to look), but the fact remains that they’re not known in the same way the men are. I can think only of one who’s growing in visibility: If I keep watching The Wheel of Time, it will be for Moiraine, who does lead her gaggle of younger charges on a quest; it will also be for Siuan Sanche and Liandrin (though even in the first season one can tell she’s a bit, uh, morally dubious). Can the added visibility of a television series raise Moiraine to the level of the famous male magic-wielders and elders of pop culture?
Still, Moiraine is played by a woman in her 40s, which is not old. The same goes for Ahsoka Tano, who has a delightful Gandalf moment in the first season of Ahsoka—falling into the depths, having a mysterious experience, and rising once more, having traded her gray robes for white. We’ve watched her grow over the years; she was once a perky teen and now she’s an experienced adult who struggles with being a mentor (which is understandable, given what happened to her own). Ahsoka has set up both its title character and Hera Syndulla to play mentoring roles to a new generation, and I love that about it. But will they be allowed to age?
Obviously, this isn’t just about women. This question can and should be asked in so many terms: Can we get more queer Gandalfs? Trans Gandalfs? Black Gandalfs? Who lives through whatever came before? Who accumulates knowledge and experience and lives to share it? Whose wisdom matters? Aging mentor roles are about who survives. Who gets to live long enough to share their experience with the next generation—and who is heard when they do?
It’s also about how we view aging in a broader sense: Who stays central, whose contributions are still valued, and who is expected to vanish into the shadows, unseen and unheard. Who automatically gets respect and who is told, narratively and culturally, to sit down, to go home, to stay quiet. Or who is simply never seen in the first place.
Molly Templeton lives and writes in Oregon, and spends as much time as possible in the woods. Sometimes she talks about books on Twitter.
I wonder if there’s a connection to the way many of these mentors are very isolated figures – either living by themselves somewhere desolate until an appropriate student comes along (like Kenobi or Yoda) or wandering across the earth without putting down roots (like Gandalf.) Are your female mentors more likely to be tied into a community?
Moirane is a fairly young Aes Sedai, too. She might seem old and wise compared to the mostly kids from the Two Rivers but she’s pretty feral by Tower standards.
I have no good examples of mentors to add since I’ve not been reading books with mentors in them. I mean, techincally Torin Kerr being a gunnery sergeant/strike team leader is a mentor but not a Gandalf.
Some years back, I wrote a story for a fantasy anthology about a late-middle-aged magic user who feels that her role as a wife, mother, and adventurer is over, and this last adventures proves her wrong. My weeping editor called me to thank me because older women in most fiction aren’t allowed adventures or a family or a happy ending.
@3 Which reminds me of Lady Ista. She’s make an excellent Gandalf except she’s too busy being a main character.
The only Lady Gandalf that came to mind immediately was Polgara the Sorceress from the Belgariad series.
@5
And she’s often overshadowed by her (visibly aged) father, Belgarath.
One of my World of Warcraft characters is an elder female paladin. My head canon for her is that she had a family (children and grandchildren), watched them all die at the hands of the Horde/Scourge, and took up arms to protect others who were vulnerable. She is a mentor and guide to others as they seek to find their place as heroes in Azeroth and desires to leave the world a better place for those who come after her.
Maybe Perspicacia Tick or Eumenides Treason from the Tiffany Aching novels? A bit of reach maybe
Jane Lindskold’s Over Where series, beginning with Library of the Sapphire Wind, has three older female mentors. They are at their library book club meeting when they are pulled through a portal into another world. It gradually becomes clear that they are not a misfunction of the magic of the three questing youngsters who called them. To everyone’s surprise, they are indeed the mentors who are needed.
Mercedes Lackey has a couple of candidates: Aunt (and Herald-Mage) Savil in her early trilogy about Vanyel is one. In By the Sword, Tarma and Kethry are mentors to Kerowyn, and Kerowyn eventually turns into a mentor character herself in the late-continuity Valdemar novels.
L. J. Smith, best known for her teen horror novels including the Vampire Diaries series, gives us Morgana Shee in her fantasies Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor – particularly the latter, in which she formally takes on one of the young protagonists as a sorceress’ apprentice (and yes, though it’s not initially obvious, it turns out that she is in fact who you may think she is given the name).
And then of course there’s the Luidaeg in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye novels, who is very much the cranky Gandalf to Toby herself.
What 5 and 10 said re Polgara and the Luidaeg.
I would put forward Sethra Lavode from the Vlad Taltos books (the Parfi books as well). At 20,000 or so years old, she certainly qualifies for the topic.
I’m grateful for this article since I’ve pondered the question myself lately. I definitely want to feature elderly queer female mentors as part of my fiction. I’ve been thinking about how to approach mentor characters in general.
I love Eda Clawthorne in The Owl House but was disappointed she lost her mentor role by the end of the first season (and that she’s not as old as she looks and sounds.
Galadriel very nearly qualifies, to my mind. Nearly. Anyway she is one of my all-time favorite characters, and she definitely provides some guidance…
Would some of Pat Wrede’s characters qualify? I’d have to go re-read some books, but some of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and at least one Lyra novel (either Caught in Crystal or The Raven Ring, IIRC) have older female mentor-ish characters.
#14: I was thinking about that myself – Morwen from the Enchanted Forest books is definitely worth looking at, and I’m also put in mind of The Seven Towers. Both Vandaris and Amberglas in that one merit consideration (the latter may appear absent-minded, but it’s usually to suspiciously useful effect).
ETA: If we shift over to SF from fantasy, there are also some wonderfully dangerous female mentors in both the Heris Serrano series and the “Vatta’s War” books. Mind, Elizabeth Moon is arguably writing from direct experience of *being* That Sort Of Mentor….
Martha MacNamara in R. A. MacAvoy’s Tea With The Black Dragon becomes a mentor to the title character. Lessa is this to the younger characters in the later Pern books
Juliet Marillier writes a lot of fantasy set in the ancient Irish mileau and she has a lot of wise-women characters (although fae women are still something to be wary of, haha. Well, some of them at least – but that’s par for the course with the fae! They are very much perilous in her tales, even when they aren’t direct antagonists…) and centering on female spirituality (and while she definitely focuses mostly on the ‘old ways’, there’s a reference in one of the books I’m reading about how in the Christian motherhouses the women there are the ones who hold authority/wisdom and lead).
The Blackthorn & Grim series is one of my all time favorites, with the main character being a great example of an older woman protagonist. The entire Sevenwaters cycle is great too. I’m just finishing up the Warrior Bards trilogy, and Blackthorn (the main character of the previously mentioned series) has actually moved on to the ‘mentor’ role in that one :)
Sharon Shinn writes a lot of really good female-centric works although I’m not sure if any of the characters I am thinking of count as ‘mentors’ as they are generally the main characters :) But I loved the Elemental Blessings series.
Not a book, but She-ra’s Shadow Weaver qualifies for me!
The dust-wife in T. Kingfisher’s Nettle and Bone.
@14 & 15: I don’t think Morwen qualifies. She’s described as unusually young for a witch. Her relationship with Cimorene seems to be one of an older peer, rather than a mentor.
@2: While Moiraine might be a bit young to count, I think Cadsuane definitely has the requisite age and experience.
Would Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and/or Mrs.Whatsit from A Wrinkle in Time qualify?
Sephrania (sp?). She is the sorceress in David Eddings’ Elenium trilogy (the first Sparhawk series).
Tenar, perhaps, in Tehanu and the later Earthsea novels? I seem to remember Le Guin in one of her literar essays specifically addressing the issue of wise older women and their role in fantasy but it was a long time since I read it and I can’t lay my hand on the source for the moment.
Granny Weatherwax.
@23: You’re probably thinking of Le Guin’s 1976 essay “The Space Crone,” which is included in the collection Dancing on the Edge of the World (that’s where I read it, many years ago).
In double-checking my recollection, I discovered that there is a new posthumous collection of Le Guin’s essays on feminism and women’s issue, entitled Space Crone; judging from the title, it should contain that essay too.
@23: Tenar in the later books does perhaps become something of a mentor figure, although not a Lady Gandalf as such.
@19 I came here to say the same, the dust-wife in Nettle and Bone (a fantastic book, which actually just won the Hugo yesterday).
@3 What is the title of that anthology? I wants it. I do!
In SF, there’s Cordelia Vorkosigan (in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga). She gets her own stories, and then she gets to mentor and raise the next generation. Cordelia and Aral are the kind of parents and mentors I aspire to be.
I’d also suggest Dr. Mensah in the Murderbot Diaries. She’s not young, and she’s leading expedition from a place of deep experience and expertise. And once the craziness with Murderbot kicks off, she slots right into the mentor role.
Morgaine in the series by the same name immediately came to mind, another powerful female character by CJ Cherryh.
And Elene Quen of Downbelow Station should get some notice as well. Mallory of the same universe definitely has her gray moments, but I always liked her, somehow.
And Ari Emory (the second) of Cyteen? Definitely a powerful female.
Jenny Waynest in Barbara Hambly’s Dragonsbane is a middle-aged mom and mentor figure to the young women in the book, as well as being the protagonist.
…come to think of it, there are some older female and NB characters (Including one cosmically old one in the Gandalf/Galadriel mode) in my own Lotus Kingdoms books, all of whom serve as mentors in one way or another.
Yes to Esme Weatherwax, Aunt Savil, Martha Macnamara and double plus good for the Ludaig. All wondrous, amazing women. I want to include Nanny Gytha Ogg, to whom even Weatherwax defers in matters of the heart.
Having recently rewatched Netflix’s Witcher series I feel that Yennifer’s mentor Tissaia maybe counts? She does after all train all the new girls. Although she is outranked, or out powered by a number of men on the political arena; in the magic department she holds her own.
I also want to argue that The Fool (in all their forms) in Robin Hobb’s prolific world is a more feminine mentor; but I think that might just be because I’m a woman and most see the Fool as themselves (from what I’ve heard from others). I also adored Ship of Magic the most and so the femininity portrayed there might be leading me to put the fool in more of a feminine than masculine role. (I have not read the latest trilogy in this world so maybe the Fool is changed again…)
Esme Weatherwax. Gytha Ogg.
T. Kingfisher has a good variety of older female magicians as well.
@24 , and briefly the article, mentions Granny Weatherwax, and that’s who my mind went to immediately. Now, I haven’t read the Tiffany Aching books yet, which are the only Discworld books I haven’t read, but I gather she’s definitely a mentor to Tiffany. There was one book earlier, Equal Rites, which is more about the Wizards than the Witches, where she is a mentor for Eskarina Smith, a young girl given Wizard’s powers when there was a hard gender line between Witch and Wizard.
I have read the entire “main” sequence of Witches novels in the Discworld series, though, and she and Nanny Ogg both act as mentors to Magrat Garlick, Agnes Nitt. Nanny’s mentorship is somewhat less cryptic and more practical, but just as important. The only problem is that Weatherwax and Ogg both are main characters in those books. They are more responsible for the ‘doing’ than just setting up and preparing the actually ‘do-er’ for success. Imagine if Gandalf walked Frodo up to the top of Mount Doom and said “Now toss the damn thing in already so we can go home”.
I also thought Polgara, but yeah, that series is filled with Mentor characters, and most of them are male.
I think Ochobu Dodeka, the Raka mage in Tamora Pierce’s Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen, is a good candidate.
This is a great thread.
I would suggest the Juniper series of novels by Monica Furlong; Vasha from “The Future Second by Second” by Meridel Newton; and of course Moonwise by Greer Gilman.
Marley Jacobs from Harry Connolly’s A Key, an Egg, An Unfortunate Remark is both old and also a rare example of a fantasy protagonist who tries to resolve problems without violence.
Frieren, protagonist of Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe’s Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is centuries old. Not notably old for an elf but because elves are rare, she spends her time with humans and dwarves. Being so long lived, she has no sense of urgency. It’s only after she wanders away from her human friends for a short half century that she suddenly realizes she squandered the years she could have spend with her friends. Then she wanders off for another twenty years because old habits die hard.
Someday I would love to see the “Lady Gandalfs” — older, powerful women — not being the villains in these stories. And especially not being the villains because they’re jealous of the female protagonists’ beauty, youth, etc. It’s like watching an esteemed female doctor or lawyer being jealous of the local high school’s homecoming queen…ridiculous.
If we’re not talking only about Fantasy, Lady Alys in the Vorkosigan1 books leaps to mind.
And in Bujold’s Wide Green World series, there a number of female leaders in various capacities who are mentors.
Ferius Parfax in the Spellslinger series is my dream mentor.
@29 I think Dr. Mensah is a great suggestion. I picture her as late-40s to 50s.
Tanyth Fairport in Nathan Lowell’s series of novels about her is the protagonist but acts as mentor to other characters in this way. Recommended, not least because a series of novels with a menopausal woman as the protagonist is unusual, and it’s about self realisation and ordinary people rather than nobles and saving the world.
How about Aughra in The Dark Crystal?
And Susan Calvin in the I, Robot stories?
I suggest reading The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler to know why there are very few Lady Gandalfs.
Abigail Pent in the Locked Tomb trilogy, or at least in Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth.
The older lady Moclan (whose name I cannot remember alas) on The Orville is certainly a leader and mentor to the female Moclans, and a famous novelist, too.
There’s Mrs. Zimmerman in John Bellairs’ Lewis Barnavelt series–she definitely checks all the boxes. :-) So might Minerva McGonigle in the Harry Potter stories. I admit, examples aren’t easy to come up with.
A huge YES to Mrs. Zimmerman!! She was always my favorite character in the Barnavelt books, and seeing her played onscreen by Cate Blanchett–not quite the age of a Gandalf, but still in her 50’s–as well as, coincidentally enough, having played Galadriel to perfection, was also the best thing about the screen adaptation.
Also have to agree with Sephrenia, Polgara, and Eda.
@@@@@ 37 Stephen Gould: Speaking of Tamora Pierce, I would nominate Rosethorn and Lark from her Circle Opens books, which take place before the ones you mention.
I would like to add Morgan LeFey from Mary Pope Osborn’s, Magic Treehouse series. She provides mentorship, direction, and rescue to the children. Plus, she often provides insight and perspective to the adventurers as they journey.
While all of these suggestions are very worthwhile & I agree with many of them, unfortunately they are not in the same league as Gandalf & Merlin (Though Minerva McGonagal is probably the closest). To level up it will need a major media event to punt someone to this level.
Seconding the works of Lois McMaster Bujold, where Cordelia Vorkosigan plays that role of mentor both to Emperor Gregor and to her son Mark. I’d also say Ilisidi plays that Gandalf role in CJ Cherryh’s Foreigner series, sometimes teacher, sometimes goad, sometimes trickster, sometimes the big guns you bring in when all else has failed. But I agree 100%, we need more of them, and we need them not to be cast as the villains!
What about the ancient one in Dr. Strange? Is she too young? Other than that, man, it’s a tough one.
Glad to see that Tor.com fixed it so non-members can comment again! This was what I tried to post earlier:
Thanks for all the recommendations from folks who’ve commented so far! Here are mine:
Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, literally the most epic woman in science fiction, a journalist who never backs down from what’s right, and acts as mentor and leader to her team of teenage paranormal investigators.
Ivy Morris from The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville is the heroine’s grandmother who had adventures in the unicorn world when she was younger and acts as a mentor to Cara during parts of the series.
Mrs. Dewey from The Books of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West acts a mentor to Olive and Rutherford as they deal with less friendly witches on Linden Street.
Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter will always be the teacher I wish I could have at a magic school.
I’m not sure how old Miss Peregrine is in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, but when you’re a time-manipulating bird-shapeshifter, the rules are a little different.
The captain of the flying pirate ship in the movie Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki (whom the other pirates call “Mom” and she always says “Call me Captain!”) isn’t entirely good or evil, but she’s pretty cool and sort of a mentor at one point. (Also, if you get tired of how Disney treats adult women, check out the Miyazaki movies. They all feature older women who are wise, powerful, dangerous, witty, magical, or some combination thereof.)
Polly’s grandmother in Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones possesses no magical abilities, but is not someone to be trifled with.
The librarian Mrs. Phelps demonstrates no magic, but helps Matilda find good books and get her own library card in Matilda by Roald Dahl.
I’m not sure if Agnes Nutter counts as a mentor to her descendant Anathema Device in Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, given that she died centuries before, but being dead doesn’t stop her from providing advice.
The Forsythia Club members pass on wisdom from beyond the grave (both metaphorically in the form of journals and literally as ghosts) to the main characters in the Last Binding books by Freya Marske.
I know Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery is literature not speculative fiction, but I still wanted a special call-out to Marilla Cuthbert.
Grace Cahill, the main characters’ grandmother from the 39 Clues books– not fantasy or science fiction, but full of action, mystery, and betrayal.
Then there are cool grandmothers who might not qualify as mentors but are still worth mentioning: Hannah’s grandmother who leads the coven in These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling, Steph’s grandmother who hijacks a car and navigates an exciting car chase in Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer, Grandma Sorenson who runs a secret magical preserve in the Fablehaven books by Brandon Mull, and the grandmother in Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager.
I certainly hope there will be more.
13) called it.
Come on, 11 paragraphs about Tolkien’s trilogy and no mention of Galadriel? Who arguably has more in common with Gandalf as a character on the protagonists’ “side” than anyone else.
And if one is willing to include the Book of Lost Tales (published 1983) one has Luthien/Tinuviel.
I would say Himeno from Chainsaw Man (anime, haven’t read the manga) but she isn’t exactly old in that sense ( she also dies halfway through the series)
Oh!!! Cardo Nabo from The Witch From Mercury would probably count. But she’s killed in the prolouge episode
Meghan of the Beasts from Kate Forsyth’s Witches of Eileanan series definitely meets the criteria of old, powerful magic wielder, and mentor.
It is Sci Fi, but Ofelia in Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population is wise, old, and the hero of the book.
My choice would be the Earth Wife in the Chronicles of the Kencyrath by P C Hodgell. She is mainly on the side of the world they inhabit, but provides valuable insight and help to Jame, the main protagonist as she make it through a world which is foreign to the Kencyrath, a race which is not native to this world.
@39
Frieren would probably qualifiy, but she doesn’t look old to me, which I think is part of the problem In addition to mentors, I think what Molly is getting at in the article is that there are no examples of ladies who just look old. Wrinkles, dying eyes and all. A lot of female immortals in fiction (I think) have that problem: she looks impossibly young for someone so strong, but she was bitten at a young age by a vamp so of course, she’s stuck like that!!! It’s frustrating.
“It’s not that Esme really holds with that minotaurin’,” said Nanny Ogg. “Too formal and all. But she likes to keep an eye in.”
Tiffany considered for a moment.
“Sometimes it’s even her own.”