Witch of Ten Alders

The Witch of Ten Alders, the maternal aunt of the boy who would become Ged, is the first person to recognize and cultivate the extraordinary magical power latent in him. Living in the isolated mountain village of Ten Alders on Gont, she is a figure of ambiguous morality and limited knowledge, whose initial instruction, while crucial, also exposes the dangers of a craft unmoored from the deeper wisdom of Equilibrium. Her role is that of a catalyst: she awakens the power but cannot guide its true development, a task that falls to the mage Ogion.

Identity and Introduction

The witch is Ged's maternal aunt, his mother's sister, who lives alone in a low, windowless hut fragrant with drying herbs. She had done what was needful for the infant Duny (Ged's childhood name) after his mother died, but once he could look after himself, she paid him no more heed. Her initial indifference to him changes abruptly when, at age seven, the untaught boy accidentally uses a rhyme he overheard her chanting to a goat, successfully commanding the entire herd to follow him. Recognizing that he had spellbound the goats without any knowledge of the words' meaning or power, she sees in him "the makings of power" and begins to view him with a new, covetous eye.

Teaching and the Nature of Her Magic

The witch's magic is that of a village sorceress, a blend of genuine craft and ignorant superstition. She knows nothing of the Balance and the Pattern that a true wizard serves, and her lore is a mixture of useful spells and "mere rubbish and humbug." She is better at causing sickness than curing it, and she brews love-potions and uglier brews to serve men's jealousy and hate, though she keeps these practices from her young prentice. Her teaching is pragmatic and focused on power: she speaks of the glory, riches, and power over men that a sorcerer can gain, inflaming the boy's ambition. She teaches him herbals, healing, the crafts of finding, binding, mending, unsealing, and revealing, as well as words of the True Speech and the chanter's tales. Her initial test of his strength is a binding spell meant to control his speech and bind him to her service, but the boy laughs even as the spell holds him, a sign of his formidable innate power that both frightens and impresses her.

Key Actions and Influence on Ged

The witch's most significant act is giving Ged his first formal instruction in magic. She teaches him the true name of the falcon, which he uses to call the birds down from the sky, a feat that fills him with a hunger for more power. It is from her that he learns the Opening spell, which he later attempts to use at the door of the School for Wizards on Roke, though it proves insufficient against the greater magic there. She also gives him an alder-stick becharmed for him when he leaves with Ogion, a token of his first, crude magical implements. Her influence is deeply embedded in his early development; even years later, as he lies recovering from his encounter with the shadow, he remembers the witch's dark, fragrant hut where the air was heavy with smoke and wreathing spells, a foundational memory of his magical origins.

Limitations and Narrative Significance

The witch's limitations are as important as her teachings. When Ged lies "dark and dumb" after overexerting himself in the fog-weaving that saved the village from the Kargish raiders, she can only say, "He has overspent his power," but has no art to help him. Her magic is insufficient for the crises that Ged's greater power creates. She represents the first, necessary but incomplete stage of magical education—the raw, undisciplined, and morally ambiguous craft of the village. Her role is to awaken the power, but the true mastery, the understanding of balance and consequence, must come from a mage like Ogion. In the narrative, she is a figure of the beginning, the source of Ged's initial abilities and his first, flawed understanding of what it means to be powerful. Her magic, with its focus on personal gain and immediate results, stands in stark contrast to the philosophy of Equilibrium that Ged must eventually learn, and her failure to heal him after his great feat underscores the need for a deeper, more responsible kind of wizardry.