Tiffany Aching

Tiffany Aching

Description	A young witch in training
Associations	The Nac Mac Feegle, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, other witches
Location	The Chalk, Lancre
First seen	The Wee Free Men
Also in	A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight
Notes	Granddaughter of Granny Aching

Tiffany Aching is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's satirical Discworld series of fantasy novels.

Tiffany is a trainee witch whose growth into her job forms one of the many arcs in the Discworld series. She is the main character in The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and I Shall Wear Midnight.^[1] Tiffany grows up over the course of the series, from nine years old in The Wee Free Men to nearly sixteen in I Shall Wear Midnight.

Character history

A young witch (not yet 16 in I Shall Wear Midnight), Tiffany hails from the Chalk, a region of Downland Rimward of the Ramtops. Her grandmother, Sarah Aching, was a shepherd, and by Ramtop standards was also a witch, although witchcraft was frowned upon on the Chalk until Tiffany openly practiced it. Granny Aching was a friend of the Chalk's Clan of Nac Mac Feegles, (an army of tiny, blue, rowdy, drunken and vaguely Scottish 'pictsies') and they have befriended Tiffany as the new "hag o' the hills". As Tiffany was their Kelda (Queen) for a short time, the Nac Mac Feegle see her as their responsibility, and there is no time in Tiffany's life since then when they have not (in)discreetly watched her.

Tiffany begins her witching career at nine, upon being scouted out by the "witch finder" Miss Tick. She leads the Feegles on a journey into Fairyland to rescue Wentworth, her sticky toddler brother, as well as Roland, the young son of the local Baron, from the Queen of the Elves. For this she earns the respect of Granny Weatherwax, a not insignificant achievement in itself. Although at the time she is too young to be a witch, Granny gives her an imaginary invisible hat to boost her confidence. Such is the power of belief on the Disc that it actually keeps off the rain. Two years later she travels to Lancre to be formally apprenticed to the witch Miss Level. During her time with Miss Level, her body becomes vulnerable to infestation by a "hiver," (a gestalt entity of minds from the dawn of time) which uses her power to harm and cause chaos. She eventually manages to overcome the hiver by giving it what it truly wants: the ability to die.

At the age of thirteen, while studying under Miss Treason, Tiffany accidentally attracts the romantic interests of the Wintersmith while playing the role of the Summer Lady at the Autumn Morris Dance (the so-called Dark Morris). She is at first ambivalent towards the Wintersmith, unnerved by the attention, but also somewhat flattered that she has caught the eye of a godlike being. The wintersmith continues its advances, even attempting to create a human body out of snow and miscellaneous elements by using a recipe from a children's song.

Tiffany, after some advice from Nanny Ogg about the power a young woman has over a suitor, manages to control the Wintersmith for a time, however, eventually he gains the upper hand and brings a record-breaking snow and cold to the Chalk in what should be early spring, threatening the new lambs. She later melts him using a trick taught by Granny Weatherwax, fulfilling her temporary role as the Summer Lady and allowing the real one, brought from the Underworld by Roland, to resume her role. After Miss Treason's death, she is briefly apprenticed to Nanny Ogg before returning to the Chalk and taking up the job of witch to the Chalk.

Powers and abilities

As a witch, Tiffany possesses First Sight, the ability to see 'what is really there' (as opposed to Second sight, which shows people what they think ought to be there). She also possesses Second Thoughts, which are defined as 'the thoughts you think about the way you think'. Whilst other witches are said to have this trait as well, Tiffany also recognizes some of her thoughts as Third Thoughts, (the thoughts you think about the way you think about the way you think,) and Fourth Thoughts, (the thoughts you think about the way you think about the way you think about the way you think.) All these thoughts sometimes cause Tiffany to walk into doorframes.

Like her grandmother, she appears to have a symbiotic, spiritual link with the hilllands on which she lives, and as such has shown herself to be strongly protective of the region and all its inhabitants. On several occasions, Tiffany has induced in herself a state of total mental clarity, becoming completely aware of every sensation, life-form and object around her, including the land itself. It is also hinted at that the Chalk itself can 'Borrow' the witch it 'Chose', having once temporarily spoken through Tiffany, telling her childhood friend, Roland, that she would marry him, (and later performing an ancient marriage ceremony on Roland and his fiancé, Letitia.)

Tiffany has shown skill in many of the same areas of magic as Granny Weatherwax (though generally to a lesser degree): she has prodigiously mastered the art of Borrowing, (the art of stepping outside one's ownself,) though Tiffany didn't recognise it at the time, and merely used it as a means of viewing herself when without a mirror. The resulting vacancy of her body was what attracted the hiver to possess her. In Wintersmith, she demonstrates a high level of skill in the art of magical self-concealment, and also learns how to absorb heat from any available source, (including the sun,) and channel it out into the world, without being touched by it herself. She generally precedes the use of the latter art with a sort of mantra, in which she states that she willingly chooses to undertake the dangerous action, and is prepared to accept full responsibility for all its consequences. Also like Granny, she has great difficulty in constructing the magical devices known as 'shambles', though unlike Granny, she later overcomes this obstacle. Tiffany has also demonstrated an affinity for using fire, which she considers a friend, (most Witches do not consider fire to have good associations for them in view of its past history.)

In I Shall Wear Midnight it is revealed that in the future, Tiffany is able to exert a limited influences over events throughout the time-line with the help of Eskarina Smith, the main character of Equal Rites.

Tiffany is very skilled at making cheese; and owns one particular Blue Lancre, named Horace, which habitually eats mice. She has read the entire dictionary, although she sometimes has difficulty with pronunciation. Tiffany also has an innate talent with languages, a side effect of the encounter with the Hiver. The occupation of her mind by the creature that collected minds has left her with shadows of those memories, including a deceased, didactic wizard named Sensibility Bustle, who translates any foreign word inside her head upon hearing or seeing it.

At the climax of events in I Shall Wear Midnight, it is revealed that Tiffany, as the Witch of the Chalk, also has powers and authority not unlike a Justice of the peace; she is able to perform binding marriage ceremonies, and judge and deal-out punishment(s) onto the deserving.

Relationships

Tiffany is the sixth of the Aching children, and the second youngest, the youngest child being her only brother, Wentworth. Both her parents are alive, but she attracts little attention around the house, because she does her job well, which means nobody ever has to come and fuss over her, which in turn means nobody ever pays a lot of attention to her. While she doesn't particularly like her brother, she sets out to rescue him because he is her brother.

She is friends with several of the Nac Mac Feegle, including Rob Anybody (originally, but accidentally, her betrothed), William the Gonnagle, Hamish, and Not-as-big-as-Medium-sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock Jock.

While training in Lancre, she attended a coven of young witches 'led' by Annagramma Hawkin. Tiffany and fellow coven members Lucy Warbeck and Petulia Gristle eventually acquit themselves well as witches; Annagramma, however, finds that her training, under the tutelage of Letice Earwig, had not been enough to prepare her for the reality of witching life, and her onetime coven subordinates agree to help her get on her feet.

Roland comes to have great affection for Tiffany and takes the role of the mythic hero, attempting to rescue her from the Underworld^[2] and from the romantic attentions of the Wintersmith. Tiffany herself denies having any affection for Roland, but there are many signs that she does have feelings for him, even though she does not admit it until pressured to by Nanny Ogg.

During the fourth book, I Shall Wear Midnight, it is revealed near the end that she has entered into a romantic relationship with an intelligent young guard, named Preston, who aspires to study medicine at the Lady Sybil Free Hospital down in the city of Ankh-Morpork, under Dr. John Lawn, and further wishes to start a medical practice of his own up in the Chalk.

References

1. ^ Amazon Listing - "I Shall Wear Midnight"
2. ^ "A Hat Full of Sky", by Terry Pratchett