Hedge Wizard

The term hedge wizard comes from "hedge witch", a term used in folklore for the cunning folk or local herb-doctors who also use spells and charms to heal the sick.

In fantasy literature, a hedge wizard or hedge magician is generally a wizard of low ability, usually self-taught or with a low education background as opposed to the common examples of being apprenticed to a mentor or studying through a structured educational system. Some fictional backgrounds identify them more with rural than urban backgrounds. In the novels of Mercedes Lackey, the term is derogatory, describing a character as incompetent, uneducated, of lower social standing or of lesser power. It is similar to calling someone a hack writer or a slob but specific to practitioners of magic in these stories.

In role-playing games and video games a hedge wizard is usually a weaker wizard encountered when still at a lower level. With a limited number of spells and lacking in power they are normally easy to defeat.

Fan Works

 * In Drunkard's Walk VIII: Harry Potter and the Man From Otherearth, main character Doug Sangnoir -- a superhero traveling from universe to universe -- characterizes the inhabitants of the Wizarding World as hedge wizards (compared to the Doctor Strange-level super-wizards he's used to from his homeworld), and notes that only Albus Dumbledore is powerful enough to count as a "proper" magic user to him.

Literature

 * In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels, the term 'hedge wizard' is used to describe a wizard who specializes in the magical properties of plants. Although this does fit with the idea of a more rural wizard, given Pratchett's humorous proclivities it is likely here to be a deliberate pun on the word 'hedge'. For example, a character says: "If you invited a hedge wizard to a party he'd spend half the evening talking to your potted plant...and he'd spend the other half listening to it."
 * Mercedes Lackey's world of Vegarth has a ranking system for mages based on a combination of maximum potential power and skill (the one allowing for the other). At the very bottom of the scale are those practitioners who can just barely do magic, and for whom the various formalized schools of magic would be useless overkill.  These are sometimes insultingly referred to hedge witches and hedge wizards.

Tabletop Games

 * In the Ars Magica roleplaying game, a hedge wizard is any mage not of the Order of Hermes, who claims the largest monopoly on power.