The old generation must teach the next.
One of the oldest and most popular character archetypes, the Wise Woman is commonly found in stories from all over the world.
She is the figure of power, usually presented as an older woman (or at least middle-aged), having managed to amass a lot of experience and knowledge throughout her life. The magic she possesses will be of the folk sort, working with the herbs and the potions, possessing remedies to provide the cures for all ills, wards that bring protection from the evil spirits, talismans to provide enchantments for brave heroes and a couple of nasty curses for the wicked, the arrogant and the foolish. She will often serve as the village healer and have a role in other traditionally feminine responsibilities such as delivering babies.
Nearly always a Solitary Sorceress, whilst she will often presented as being beneficial towards the local society, and commonly respected (as well as potentially feared), she will most likely be an outsider, content to live on her own in her cottage in the middle of the woods. Despite this she will hold herself to a level of pride, her home will always be maintained and her manner proper. She will certainly not suffer any fools lightly, and woe betide those who think they can disrespect or cheat her.
She will likewise often possess a clear link to the local nature and hold a level of respect for the natural order. Whilst not normally one for forceful magic, she will nevertheless always be a force to be reckoned with. Where she exactly stands in the chain of mystical power can vary greatly, but within her niche, she is always the expert.
As mystical practitioners go the Wise Woman is often the midpoint between practical and academic knowledge. She might not have the book training of her more urban counterparts, but if there is anyone who knows the long-buried secrets necessary to proceed then it will be her.
And if there are any heroes in the area seeking assistance on their quest, she will usually be more than happy to provide them with a hot meal, some good advice, and the knowledge that is key to saving the day, with her normally at most asking for nothing more than perhaps some assistance with a few chores in return or maybe the odd Secret Test of Character.
Traditionally this trope was often presented as the Good Counterpart to the Wicked Witch archetype, as well as often a way for the work to get away with having a woman who practices magic without being a Witch. The Wise Woman normally is if not good, at least morally neutral and overall, in favour of whatever benefits the most as a whole. However, there is no rule saying she can’t be evil, though if she is it will at least usually be of the pragmatic sort with a clear eye always on the bigger picture.
Likewise, whether the work (and more importantly herself) considers her a type of Witch or completely distinct from them varies greatly. Traditionally they would make it clear she is not related due to the negative connotations of witchcraft, however, due to the lessening stigma more modern works are less likely to.
Nevertheless, if there is a clear distinction, expect her to be deep in rivalry with them, often being one of the main forces standing against them. However, a tragic downside of this character is they quite often get mistaken for being one by the paranoid and vicious witch hunters. Many a well-meaning Wise Woman has ended up being scapegoated and murdered for just attempting to help.
Often presented as the more down-to-earth counterpart to the more high-class Gentleman Wizard, expect there be a strong rivalry (of varying levels of seriousness) between the two over everything from whose magic is the stronger to what the best sort of drink to have with dinner is. However, you can still generally expect the two to work together in the face of a greater threat.
She may be the crone in The Hecate Sisters, and the Mother Nature in a Mother Nature, Father Science configuration. If she's non-white, she will usually be a (female) Magical Negro with some elements of the Mammy, a Magical Native American, or Magical Asian.
Can tie into The Power of Sisterhood, in which case the Wise Woman will play the matriarchal role, providing help and guidance to other women.
Compare Witch Classic and Wizard Classic, with the Wise Woman commonly existing as something of a midpoint between the two in a narrative role, and the Hedge Mage, a less trained and professional magician who often overlaps with this trope.
Not to be confused with Women Are Wiser.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Frieren: Beyond Journey's End:
- Zigzagged with Frieren herself; she is an elf who is over 1000 years old but has the appearance of a girl in her mid-adolescence. Frieren is typically to be found reading grimoires, and she can hold her own in a combat situation with relative calm. However, she also has a huge degree of Immortal Immaturity, to the constant exasperation of her surrogate daughter and apprentice, Fern, such as pretending she didn't know the spell to levitate Sein out of a muddy bog before he sank or suggesting her group could spend ten years lounging in a village with her Dwarf friend, Old Man Voll.
- Flamme is a human mage who taught magic to Frieren over 1000 years ago. She was an astute judge of character and knew that Frieren would make a mistake in attempting to relate to the people around her and left a note for her a millennium ago about that very situation, telling her of a place where Frieren would be able to meet with and speak to her long passed comrades.
Frieren: A thousand years later and I'm still dancing in my master's palm.
- My Neighbor Totoro: Granny is a Cool Old Lady who lives in the rustic countryside where Satsuki and Mei find themselves. She admits to having seen the soot spirits when she was younger, comforting the girls by saying she believes the spirits are merely curious about them and making sure they're nice people moving in.
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Obaba/Gram is an elderly woman living in the Valley of the Wind. Kind and protective of the children, she can sense when there is something wrong, as she is the first to realize that the wind in the Valley has stopped. She also seems to realize that the Ohmu are enraged, sensing their anger at a distance. She is the first to realize that Nausicaa is a prophesized saviour.
- School Rumble: In the OAV episodes, Itoko and Sasakura are given this role in the Caveman segment, referred to as "The Wise Women", and offer advice that the rest of the tribe follow Harima's suggestion of using the new stone he'd found to make weapons to kill the rampaging mammoth, "Devil Tusk".
- Spirited Away; Zeniba, Yubaba's identical twin sister, is an old woman who has a powerful level of magic that even her sister fears, and provides Chihiro with a protection charm woven from the love of her friends. Unlike most examples, Zeniba, though nicer than her sister, is definitely not soft—upon meeting Chihiro, she immediately threatens to rip the girl's tongue out if she tells Yubaba about her visit, and she actively attempts to kill Haku for stealing a powerful magic charm from her.
Fan Works
- The Unbroken King: Caellin plays this role in Dunwyth — a mysterious and vaguely mystical widow who dwells on the very outskirts of the village and is the only one brave enough to take in an obviously supernatural child (and prevent the more paranoid villagers from killing him just to be on the safe side) who she dubs Artorias. She eventually turns out to be a former Druid known as a Daughter of the Greenwood, who served the Nature Spirits of the world, but was cast out after falling in love with an outsider, who later died leaving her alone until the infant Primarch's arrival.
Films — Animation
- Fire & Ice: Roleil the witch lives in a hut somewhere in the lush jungly wilderness. Her Gentle Giant son Otwa brings her a prize: Princess Teegra of Firekeep. Roleil welcomes Teegra and offers her a beverage, which contains a sedative that puts Teegra to sleep. Roleil then uses her magic to divine that Teegra is most desired by the wicked wizard Nekron, and is aghast at this discovery. Unusual for a witch, Roleil appears to be a pretty woman in her 30s or early 40s with a lithe feminine form and raven hair.
- The Princess and the Frog: Mama Odie is a kooky 200-year-old blind voodoo priestess who lives in the swamp. Tiana and Naveen visit her, hoping she can reverse Dr Facilier's frog spell. She advises them to "dig a little deeper" knowing that the way to reverse the spell is for Naveen to marry Tiana, but that they had to fall in love on their own for that to happen.
Films — Live-Action
- The Wailing: After a lot of debate back and forth, Moo-myung is revealed to be one of these. She is somewhere between an angel, goddess, and witch, but she is a purely benevolent spirit: a kind and beautiful woman who lives in solitude amongst nature (causing her to be mistaken as homeless). She is younger than most other wise women, but she attempts to intervene when the Devil and Il-gwang spread their evil Hate Plague amidst the townspeople. She also succeeds in protecting Hyo-jin...for a while, until Jong-goo loses faith in her, disobeys her teachings, and ultimately causes his and Hyo-jin's deaths.
Literature
- The Beginning After the End:
- Sylvia ultimately turns out to be an unorthodox example. She is a divine dragon who has been living in seclusion in the wilderness of Dicathen for millennia before the Divine Conflict (of which her presumed death played a major role in its formation). She takes in the young Arthur after he gets separated from his family, nurtures him like a doting grandmother, and hones him in mana manipulation. Though her time with him gets cut short by the arrival of an assassin, she sets Arthur down on the path to end the Divine Conflict for good, and her posthumous influence is heavily felt by him
- Rinia Darcassian is an aged elven seer who due to her unique divination magic lives alone in the forests of Elenoir. She acts as an on-and-off mentor to Arthur, Eleanor, and Tessia, and in the case of the former, she provides cryptic prophecies in order to steer him into the best course of action for the future. It turns out that the reason Rinia knows what she knows and why she has been living in hiding is that she is a protégé of the exiled asuran prince Mordain, who taught her the art of divination and the existence of the long-extinct djinn and their knowledge of aether, and said knowledge would have put a target on her back by both sides of the Divine Conflict.
- Discworld: This archetype is generally true of all the older Witches. This may not be down to innate wisdom as such, but more the insatiable curiosity that marks a witch, and the notion that she takes notice of all the little, seemingly insignificant, things going on around her that most people miss or disregard. Witches in Lancre like Granny Weatherwax (who starts the series in her eighties) Nanny Ogg (whose age is undisclosed but thought to be in her eighties) or Eumenides Treason (who is 111) have simply been around for long enough to have accumulated a lifetime's store of knowledge about these things. All the fully trained witches in Lancre are supposed to have their own "territory" where the villagers unofficially support them with food and necessities in exchange for help, which may take the form of most commonly mundane medicine advice, or actual magic.
- The King's Damosel: The Sibyl is an elderly woman who lives as one with nature and worships a mother goddess called the White One, and taught her adoptive son Lucius much the same. Lynette notices that people from villages and farms, mostly women, often visit to consult her for help, and she usually gives them herbs or cordial or salves, always with a blessing.
- The Little Mermaid: The unnamed sea witch who lives alone on the fringe of Merfolk society is a neutral example. She's not evil, just peculiar and versed in magic, which has made her distrusted and a pariah. The little mermaid visits her for counsel on how to see more of the charming human prince. The sea witch answers honestly and offers to grant the mermaid legs that she may live on land, but also demands a large price (the girl's tongue) and warns her that life on land will be horrifically painful.
- Prince Lindworm: Following the King and Queen being unable to conceive children, the Queen consulted a wise crone who told her to consume two onions (or magic roses) but due to the Queen either ignoring her instructions or forgetting to peal one of the onions, her firstborn son was the terrifying Lindworm who refuses to allow his younger brother to marry until they provide him with a wife who will love him, killing those who fail. However, said crone approached the Shepherd's daughter chosen to be his third wife, telling her the secrets of how to tame the Lindworm and allowing her to survive.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Woods-witches are women who heal people with traditional medicine and claim to use spells and charms. Some have claimed to receive prophetic dreams. Most woods-witches encountered in the story are middle-aged or elderly.
- The Ghost of High Heart is an elderly dwarf and woods-witch who delivers prophecies to the Brotherhood Without Banners. Most of the prophecies she gave eventually came true. Decades earlier she delivered a prophecy that the Prince Who Was Promised would be born from the bloodline of Aerys and Rhaella Targaryen. This prompted their father to force them to get married, with massive ramifications for the entire kingdom.
- Subverted. Mother Mole is a wood-witch from Beyond the Wall, so-called because she lives in a burrow beneath a hollow tree. She gives a prophecy to the Free Folk that ships will arrive at Hardhome to sail them away to safety. Thousands take her word as gospel and flock to Hardhome, but others also hear about this prophecy and take advantage of it, such as slavers who turn up and take many of them away only to enslave them and sell them off, leading to a humanitarian crisis that Jon struggles to solve throughout the fifth book.
- Strega Nona: The titular character (whose name roughly translates to "Grandmother Witch" in Italian) is a goodhearted, friendly woman who serves as a healer and general problem solver for her small village. While Strega Nona does possess some genuine magical powers and enchanted artifacts, she uses them sparingly, instead relying on traditional knowledge, herbal concoctions, and practical common sense to solve most of her customers' issues.
- Summer in Orcus: Baba Yaga is usually cast as the Wicked Witch, but here she takes this role instead, sending Summer on her adventure and giving her some good advice as well as a helpful (if snarky) weasel as a familiar. Although she does clearly struggle with her desire to eat Summer, however, she manages to keep it under control.
- Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms: Granny from Beauty and the Werewolf fulfills this role, acting as simply the humble village "herb woman" (the doctor for those who couldn't afford doctors), when in reality she has been a staple of the city for generations, with every citizen knowing about her and even having connections into the King's Court. She carries the role of advisor and confident for all those in need, providing her wisdom to any who would listen or be burdened by troubles.
- The Wheel of Time: Every village in the Two Rivers region has a respected woman called the Wisdom, who assists the villagers through her knowledge of medicine and herbs. Nynaeve is the Wisdom of Emond's Field and is commented on as being extremely young for the position, being only in her mid-twenties at the start of the story. Villages in other parts of the world often have women in similar roles, though going by different titles.
- Wise Child: After her grandmother's death, Wise Child is adopted by the mysterious village healer, Juniper, who teaches her about herbs and folk medicine. Juniper is falsely reputed by the locals as a witch because of her healing abilities and paganism but is, in reality, a Doran (defined as a person who lives in harmony with nature). Juniper likewise has a long-term rivalry with Maeve. She unfortunately ends up being scapegoated for the winter famine, and nearly killed by the angry locals.
Live-Action TV
- As Time Goes By: Invoked. Whilst visiting his father in the Hampshire countryside, whilst discussing the differences between it and London, Lionel sarcastically jokes about how he expects that if he gets sick they would just call up the local witch to look him over. Madge reveals the village used to have a witch, but she went on to get her qualifications from the open university and now works for them.
- Blackadder: Parodied in "Bells" with the Wise Woman, whom Edmund reluctant goes to visit to discuss finding a solution for him falling in love with his manservant (unaware Bob is a woman in disguise). Despite being apparently well-respected inverse (or at least by the likes of Baldrick) she proves to be an incompetent, bombastic, demented old crone who admits to regularly drugging people to sleep with anyone she fancies and whose three solutions for his problem are: 1) Kill Bob. 2) Kill yourself. 3) KILL EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WHOLE WORLD! Edmund is naturally unimpressed.
- Mortal Kombat: Conquest: Omegis is a variation. While she is a reputed and long-lived sorceress who lives as a recluse in the forest, is skilled with potions, and acts as a healer, she lacks the aged appearance of most Wise Women in fiction due to being cursed with immortality by her former mentor Master Cho. Omegis came to hate her inability to age and die, especially because her ex-lover Shang Tsung whom she wanted to be immortal with had abandoned her to be Shao Kahn's servant.
- Penny Dreadful: Joan Clayton, the Cut-Wife of Ballantree Moor, from "The Night Comers" is a gruff and cynical, but still helpful centuries-old Witch who lived in seclusion upon the Devon Moors, with her gaining her title from her offering (amongst other services) to perform abortions for the local girls who got themselves pregnant. Whilst initially reluctant, she agreed to take the young Vanness Ives in and taught her everything she needed to know about arcane lore. She reveals that she was originally part of her sister Evelyn Poole’s Coven before Evelyn was seduced to evil by promises of power and eternal youth. Unfortunately, after rejecting her attempts to seduce her, Evelyn frames Joan for the mysterious deaths of several herds of cattle and ensures the local villagers burn her alive.
Mythology & Folklore
- Irish Mythology: As well as history, and folklore, has the bean feasa (ban fasha), meaning "Woman of Knowledge". They functioned much like the more formally trained druids and druidesses, being healers, herbalists, fortune tellers, and mystics. In myth and folklore, they were often portrayed as witches and sorceresses, though they were more likely to be helpful or benign than the monstrous hags. Also, unlike many examples of this trope, this was not a gender-restricted thing, as men could be a Spear Counterpart called a Fear Feasa (far fasha) or "Man of Knowledge" that functioned the same.
- Slavic Mythology: Whilst more commonly presented as an example of the Wicked Witch, the Baba Yaga has been known to fulfill this role within Russian folklore, with there being multiple stories of the heroes seeking her out for the secret knowledge or power they need to fulfill their quests, for which she is usually willing to provide in exchange for fulfilling her own requests (which can range from simple chores to flat out Impossible Task's). This is usually explained away by their being multiple different Baba Yaga's each of differing moralities, although even in works where she is presented as helpful and wise, there is a strong emphasis on how dangerous she is and how she's not to be underestimated. Some stories even have her going between roles mid-story or resting somewhere in the middle, with her initially desiring to eat or kill the hero only to be won over by their efforts and then agreeing to help, or initially being helpful and then deciding to kill them.
Podcasts
- The Heresies Of Radulf Burntwine: Whilst none have played a role in the narrative yet, Wood Witches are mentioned to be a common part of the world often acting as the village healers and mystics, the titular medic notes that he always ensures to seek them out in his travels (same as he would with official scholars and physicians), as genuine examples often have fascinating medical treatments and potential breakthroughs that he can learn from, and even the frauds often have stumbled upon genuine physiological, medical or even eldritch knowledge that their happy to share for a price.
- Old Gods of Appalachia: This forms a large part of the series lore. Commonly referred to in-universe as "Granny Witches", they are servants of the Green and provide key roles within the Appalachian communities, acting as healers and protectors, as well as often being the front-line combatants against the forces of the Inner Dark. Due to the gift being passed down the bloodline, they are often less solitary than most examples, with how much each individual fits with the archetype varying greatly, with them often being women of multiple different ages, professions, and levels of socialness.
- Shelia Walker, the former matriarch of the prominent Walker family, as well as acting in this habit, was also a brothel madam and prostitute, offering a safe place for women like her to work, with it being understood that anyone who abused her girls would suffer a particularly horrific curse. Her daughter Marcie Walker (who subverts a lot of expectations, with most of her appearances taking place during her early thirties to early forties, as well as being a tall, strong and imposing yet beautiful woman) likewise attempted to carry on her legacy, running her own house Pleasant Evenings, but her attempts were ruined whilst attempting to protect a runaway girl from the Man from the Railroad. Marcie nevertheless carries on fulfilling the role for her local community in Baker's Gap, as well as the reputation of being the best midwife within the state (and is implied to have been granted a level of respect from the public despite her past preventing social acceptance), as does her younger sister Ellie (although Ellie also subverts a lot of expectations being youthful, beautiful, highly social and commonly actively traveling between her home in Tennessee and whereever she is needed).
- Glory Anne Boggs fits the archetype more closely, especially in her later years, with her living as an isolated figure within Boggs Hollow, who commonly used her abilities to assist the locals whilst remaining heavily isolated. Her many horrific experiences turned her from the idealistic girl she once was into a bitter, cynical woman. Known as "the Spine of the Mountain" she was considered the most powerful Green Witch alive of her day. She was formally married to Waylon Boggs, who also possessed his own gifts (coming from a family of necromancers) and was the mother of the Boggs clan. She ended up killing her husband when his own gift for seeing and communicating the spirits proved too much, leading him to descend into alcoholism and cruelty.
- Marigold Underwood, the matriarch of the Underwood clan, is a kindly but strong-willed black woman living in the mountains. Unlike most examples, she was happily married and had a partnership with her husband Doc (who possessed his own mystical gifts) until his demise from natural causes, she is likewise stated to be an influential and well-respected member of the local community, having no interest in living in seclusion.
- Greta Amburgey overall fits the trope the closest, being an isolated older woman and a very powerful witch. Whilst also helping out with the community when called upon, her primary focus was taking in and raising the children afflicted by the Dark or curses (many of whom were either conceived or owed to the Dark forces as part of a deal), in the hopes of giving them as close as possible to a normal life.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer Fantasy: The Wise Women of Kislev, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Russia, serve their communities as healers, advisors, lore keepers, and go-betweens with the spirits of the land. Many have Witchsight, the ability to perceive magic; those with magical gifts of their own are trained further as Hag Witches, though they go by the same titles as non-magical Wise Women.
Video Games
- Crusader Kings II: A couple of event chains might lead you to encounter one, for example, if taking the Hunting Focus and embarking on the Hunt for the mystic white beast you may stumble upon a cottage containing on such an old woman who will offer you a special tonic that may drastically increase your chances (or may make you very sick). In the event that you do, if you have the right stats and you play your cards right, you may be able to persuade them to accompany you back to court, which will provide you with a very advantageous new courtier (usually possessing not just the mystic trait, but high stats) whom you can put to work.
- Dragon Age: Flemeth is introduced in Dragon Age: Origins as an elderly witch and the mother of Morrigan, the first mage to join the party. She lives in a decrepit shack in the middle of a forest called the Korcari Wilds, away from the Chantry and the Templars who view her as an apostate. She also knows quite a bit of magic of all kinds, as well as the darkspawn monsters the player is tasked with destroying. In Dragon Age II, she strikes a bargain with Hawke to get their family safely to Kirkwall in exchange for a delivery. She knows even more magic than she lets on; Morrigan reveals that she taught her how to preserve the soul of an Old God with a Sex Magic ritual, and in Dragon Age: Inquisition she is eventually revealed to have fused with the elven goddess Mythal.
- The Elder Scrolls:
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: Each of the Ashlander tribes has a wise woman who guides their tribe in manners spiritual and magical, while being expert healers, especially in alchemy. While the Ashkhans hold most of the traditional "chieftain" powers over their people, even they'll defer to the wise women when something supernatural is at hand. Nibani Maesa, the wise woman of the Urshilaku tribe, serves as a guide to the Player Character as they begin to fulfill the Nerevarine prophecies.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Each Orc stronghold has a "Wise Woman" who are the oldest members of their respective tribes and acts as the stronghold's healer and midwife, and not incidentally buys and sells alchemical potions and ingredients. The Wise Women are approached by other orcs to learn how to appease and follow the ways of Malacath.
Bolar: "Wise women like myself are mothers of chieftains. We guide the tribe and advise our kin on what is most pleasing to Malacath.
- Final Fantasy XIV: Kan-E Senna is the Elder Seedseer of Gridania, making her its leader in both politics and communion with the elementals, and spirits that inhabit and control the Twelveswood. As a Padjal, she is one of the few people permitted by the elementals to wield white magic, which channels the energy of nature to heal and harm. When Y'shtola is seemingly lost to the Lifestream after using Flow, it's Kan-E's parley with the elementals that allows Y'shtola to be rescued.
- Genshin Impact: The "Adepti" is based on the real-life Taoist "Xian" hermits, i.e. those who have reached a form of enlightenment and mastered "adeptus arts". Of all the adepti characters in the game, Xianyun aka "Cloud Retainer" fits this trope best: she puts her pride in her bright mind and adeptus arts and mechanisms, she lives in seclusion in Mt. Aocang, and her feats include manipulating the weather to "retain" clouds, the rain from which brought back a village from a severe drought. She also has soft spots for certain young women (i.e. in relation to her, who are thousands of years old) whom she took as her apprentices; she effectively looked over them like a mother would.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda I: Wise old women are hidden in secret caves throughout Hyrule. When paid enough rupees, they give crucial hints on how to navigate the Lost Woods and Lost Hills.
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: The chief of Papuchia Village is a mysterious old lady with fortune-telling abilities simply known as "the Wise One". None of her fortunes has failed to come true, and the villagers always go to her for advice on everyday matters... except for that one time she said "Don't go fishing today" and the men of the village got kidnapped by pirates after they disobeyed her.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Residing in the Sealed Grounds is an old, nameless Sheikah woman (only identified in the Nintendo Switch port as "The Old One") who informs Link of the purpose of the area (to keep The Imprisoned at bay), and mentors him — and later Groose — in what needs to be done to keep Zelda safe. The end of the game reveals that she's a significantly older Impa — Zelda's guardian throughout most of the game — who travelled thousands of years back in time to watch over the Sealed Grounds, remaining until her duty to ensure Zelda/Hylia's safety was complete.
- Monkey Island: The Voodoo Lady, is a powerful Voodoo sorceress able to create all manner of mystic trinkets. Acting as Big Good, it's her who sends Guybrush on missions to get needed by him MacGuffins.
- The Secret World: Cucuvea is a truly ancient Solitary Sorceress and shapeshifter who's been using her power and wisdom to aid the village of Harbaburesti for centuries on end, either by advising the heroes that have arisen to defend it or by using her magic to aid them directly. Living in an Arboreal Abode outside the village, she dresses in leaves, drinks tea made from bark is Hopeless with Tech, and is so unbelievably old that she looks more like a Tolkienesque dwarf than a human.
- The Thaumaturge: The Wise Woman of the village in the prologue is aware that the salutor in the village is something supernatural, telling Wiktor about the Bukavac. She also reveals that she was aware of Vasili's abuse of Vesna and had tried to help her by putting a curse on him, as well as that Vesna had killed Vasili and caused the Bukavac to be attracted to the village. If she is brought along to the confrontation with the Bukavac, she shames the villagers who call for Vesna's execution for being a witch after Vesna confesses to killing Vasili, daring them to kill her as well; this leads to the only outcome of the quest that doesn't have Vesna and/or Luka be killed or exiled.
Web Animation
- Fools Gold: Into the Bellowing Wilds: Played with; Elowen, the leader of Stella's Children, while not a solitary figure, is a powerful druid and the eldest of her tribe, with a spirit bond to the giant toad she rides around on. While she gets aggressive when her suspicions are aroused, especially since she like the other Foreclaimers still struggles with empathy, she proves to be a Reasonable Authority Figure and is wise when guiding Sips out of his self-hatred enough to save what's left of his soul.
Web Comics
- Digger: The series features a recurring village herb woman known only as "the Hag", despite only being in her twenties (author bonus material would be revealed it's, in fact, a shortening of her first name Hagitha), who acts as the village healer and regularly shares her advice (and often condemnation) with the characters.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: Valeriana is an elderly Salamander who runs her own stall in the Bizarre Bazaar, she possesses vast mystical powers and great knowledge, including of events she wasn't present to watch. She initially seems antagonistic towards Anne in her attempts to find the Second Temple, only reveal herself as its guardian who was testing Anne's resolve to ensure she was worthy, helping Anne confront several of her own flaws and insecurities in the process. Supplement materials reveal that as a young woman, it was she who created the Calamity Box, believing it would unify the Frogs, Newts, and Toads into one peaceful and prosperous nation, but did not foresee how their greed and ambition would corrupt them into imperialistic conquerors and raiders. Her guilt was so strong that even in death, she could not pass on until the chosen ones could undo the damage.
- Castlevania (2017): The village of Lupu used to have one, but she was not exactly good at her job, having apparently sold dried foot skin as a panacea. She was supplanted by Lisa Țepeș, who was too young for this trope but had actual knowledge of medicine which got her burned for witchcraft after the old wise woman reported her to the church.
- The Legend of Korra:
- Katara has become this by the time this series takes place, being an expert healer and Korra's water-bending teacher, as well as a grandmother. She is the one who gives Korra her blessing to escape the White Lotus, and in Season 4, helps Korra physically recover from the Red Lotus assassination attempt.
- Toph falls under this trope even more as an old woman, as she decided to find enlightenment and live in the swamp. As an earthbending prodigy, she is able to connect to the swamp which has roots stretching all over the world, meaning she can see what's happening everywhere in the world. She helps Korra fully heal from the mercury poisoning and connect to herself again.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Zecora, the Zebra, fills this role after the town is convinced that she's not an "Evil Enchantress" in the events of "Bridle Gossip", often turning to her for wisdom and advice with unusual things, especially anything pertaining to the Everfree Forest, where Zecora lives.
- Over the Garden Wall: Adelaide of the Pasture, "the Good Woman of the Woods" is presented as one by Beatrice, convincing Wilt and Greg that travelling to her secluded Cabin in the woods is their best chance for finding a way home. Subverted, as it turns out Adelaide is really a Wicked Witch who desires to enslave the children and is having Beatrice lure them to her in exchange for providing the method to break her and her families curse of being transformed into Bluebirds.
- The Owl House: Parodied; on paper, Eda the Owl Lady fits this role to a T, as a powerful, middle-aged witch with a strong connection to Wild Magic, who lives away from society while furthermore mentoring the protagonist. However, she quickly diverges from the typical wise woman by also being an eccentric con artist with Brilliant, but Lazy tendencies, who often involves herself in hare-brained schemes and isn't always the greatest teacher.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Madame Razz is this throughout the series. Despite being a bit senile (calling Adora "Mara" despite the two looking nothing alike), she knows more about She-Ra and the native magic of Etheria than anyone else, providing Adora knowledge about the past that even Light Hope couldn't give her.
- Winx Club: In "The Island of Dragons", Bloom goes to Pyros to train because it's impossible for her to earn the Enchantix transformation. After some perils, there she meets Maia, an old sorceress who wields a Magic Staff and is skilled enough to inhabit the dangerous island and survive. She nurses Bloom back to health, offering her a medicinal herb beverage to aid in her recovery. Maia then takes Bloom under her wing and teaches her to focus her magical powers (some of it is accomplished through meditation).
