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.

Comic Books

 * In the Forgotten Realms comic book published by DC Comics between 1989 and 1991 (a tie-in with the Forgotten Realms D&D setting), "hedge wizard" is used as an unabashedly insulting term: in one issue, a Halruuan wizard captain says something along the lines of "What, do you think I am some unschooled hedge-wizard from the north?" when his ability is challenged.

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.
 * In George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, Westerosi hedge wizards are herbal doctors and traditional healers who may also know a smattering of actual healing spells and charms, although this is not actually required. A Westerosi hedge wizard may be a traveling healer, or may be settled down to serve a particular village or region.
 * The hermit Galapas in Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, the first book in her five-volume series of Arthurian novels. He could do only minor magicks himself, but mentored the young Merlin and taught him how to use his psychic gifts as well as more mundane abilities.
 * Interestingly, it's been argued that a hedge wizard is what the hobbits of Hobbiton thought Gandalf was in The Lord of the Rings -- a good-natured borderline-charlatan who basically made and sold fireworks as his sole magical talent, and wasn't averse to kicking back for a little local gossip and a good smoke.
 * Glavus Rho and other spellcasters from Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser stories are referred to as "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.
 * Hedge wizards appear in several Dungeons & Dragons products:
 * In the Forgotten Realms setting, a hedge wizard is a self-taught magic user who typically is limited to casting cantrips, scribing simple scrolls and making basic potions. They frequently also possess related mundane skills such as sleight of hand, herbalism and basic first aid/medicine.  Annoyingly, "hedge wizard" is also used in the setting to describe a more properly trained (and often quite powerful) wizard who simply has chosen not to adventure or who has retired from a life of adventure.  Complicating matters were so-called hedge wizards who aren't even magic-users, but who simply own a useful magic item or who are actually clerics.
 * The Adept NPC class from 3.5e as well as d20 is basically a hedge wizard with a different name. They're a mix of wizard and cleric limited to fifth-level spells, whose class skills include Craft, Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge (all), Profession, Spellcraft, and Survival.
 * In Warhammer Fantasy, "hedge wizard" is a generic term for a spellcaster outside the formal Imperial magic system, usually from a rural background, who knows only a small amount of basic magic. They tend to make their livings as village healers, and due to the threat of witch hunters often claim to be herbalists or apothecaries instead of spellcasters.
 * Magic: The Gathering has more than its share. Various expansion sets include cards such as the Duergar Hedge-Mage, the Hag Hedge-Mage, and the Selkie Hedge-Mage -- all of which have two "if you own two of Land X, you can do Y" abilities.
 * In 1997, White Wolf Games released a Mage: The Ascension supplement entitled Sorcerer: The Hedge Wizard's Handbook for the Old World of Darkness. It laid out rules for lesser Sorcerers than the Mages of MtAs. The key difference is that hedge magic, being within Consensus, does not suffer Paradox even when doing things that would be vulgar if done by an Awakened, but is locked into much more limited and strictly-defined "Paths" as opposed to the broad Reality Warping "Spheres" used by Mages. The Technocratic Union's equivalents are called Extraordinary Citizens.

Video Games

 * In The Elder Scrolls Online, mages identified explicitly as "hedge wizards" are found as one of the possible combatants in "Magical Impasse" encounters out in the wilderness. According to The Hedge Wizard's Claw Cap collectible, an Epic-level reward fund in Storm Atronach Crates based off these NPCs, they are "folk mages who cast minor spells for farmers and peasants".

Web Original
"Hedge wizardry is the name used to describe the ancient style of magical arts that was in use long before the rise of magical institutes and institutionalised magic. Some of these wizards roamed the Disc in search of power, others did the same striving to achieve a greater understanding of nature. Although rare these days, some of them still exist."
 * The Discworld MUD has hedge wizard NPCs. According to in-game text,

Real Life

 * A self-described "lay philosopher, metaphysician, [and] neopagan theologist" going by the name Alraune has a blog called "Hedge Wizardry". on Blogspot.com. In a column published in November 2011, Alraune explores who and what hedge wizards were in real-world history, and how the term applies in modern Neo-Paganism.