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Wizards are most commonly found in works of fantasy, such as mythology, legends, folklore, fantasy-themed works of fiction, and role-playing games. In modern fantasy, a wizard is generally seen as a practitioner of magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources, rather than the sleight-of-hand magic used by most popular magicians.

Nature of wizards

In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the wizards are not human, and no purely human character has power to work magic. Although this is seldom followed by other fantasists, many others have also made magic the exclusive ability of wizards; other characters, no matter how learned, can not cast spells.

Wizardary can be inherited, or can be a random ability appearing in some children.

Wise Old Man

The wise old man (or "Senex") is an archetype as described by Carl Jung. It is also a classic literary figure, and may be seen as a stock character.

This kind of character is typically represented as a kind and wise, older father-type figure who uses personal knowledge of people and the world to help tell stories and offer guidance that, in a mystical way, may impress upon his audience a sense of who they are and who they might become.

The wise old man is often seen to be in some way "foreign", that is, from a different culture, nation, or occasionally, even a different time, from those he advises.

Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends

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• Merlin - the famous wizard from Arthurian legends and their modern retellings.
• The wizard in the fairy tale of The Wizard King.
• The Telchines - four wizards of ancient Greek myths.
• Väinämöinen - the grand wizard of Kalevala
• Fairy tales about good and bad wizards are collected in A Book of Wizards, by Ruth Manning-Sanders

Wizards in works of fiction

• The eponymous character of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a stage magician pretending to be a genuine wizard; in the 1939 movie version the wizard was also a fake. However, in later Oz stories, he studies magic with Glinda and becomes a genuine wizard.
• Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, Alatar and Pallando - from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - are called Wizards, but are really supernatural beings called Maia. In Middle-earth, "wizard" is a term applied only to the five members of the Order of the Istari. While other practitioners of magic exist in Middle-earth (both good and evil), they are never referred to as wizards.
• Ogion and Ged (Sparrowhawk) from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea book series, the most well-known of which is A Wizard of Earthsea, first published in 1968.
• In the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, wizards are numerous, and can normally be found in the Unseen University. One of the predominant wizards in the series is Rincewind, although he only uses magic on extremely rare occasions.
• All male magic-users from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and its sequels are called wizards. (Note that female practitioners of magic are called witches.)
• Diane Duane describes wizards as emissaries of "the One" (see God), who take an oath to use powers beyond the comprehension of a non-wizard in the service of life, to keep entropy, personified as a Lone Power, under control and therefore delay the demise of the universe. They are said to still exist in the present day, but due to negative public perception, work undercover. See also: Young Wizards

Novels based on Dungeons & Dragons

The role-playing game (see below) has several settings in which novels have been written.

• Greyhawk
• Forgotten Realms
• Dragonlance

Wizards in Role Playing

Dungeons & Dragons

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the wizard is one of the base character classes. A wizard is an arcane magic user, and weak in mêlée combat. Wizards spend several years studying magic.

The magic system--where wizards memorize spells which they then forget when they cast them--was heavily influenced by the The Dying Earth stories and novels of Jack Vance.

• Fictional wizards
• Fantasy tropes