When did wizards start living in towers?

[Huw]

One of the classic fantasy cliches is the wizard in his tower. Does anyone know when this convention started? It's certainly pre-Tolkien. The earliest I've found is Enid Blyton's Wishing Chair in 1937.

 

[Eosin the Red]

Just a guess, but I'd say that it is a throw back to the various solitary religious ascetics and hermits rumored to be holy/wise/magical/touched by the gods. This includes the wandering druid, wise women, and early Christian saints who healed the sick ect...

 

[Wombat]

Many, many medieval stories (12th century onwards, at least) tell of wizards living in solitary towers.

By the time you hit the 15th century, it was pretty much a given, along with the beard.

The pointy hat came just a little bit later as de rigeur.

 

[Huw]

Many, many medieval stories (12th century onwards, at least) tell of wizards living in solitary towers.

Can you give me any examples? In most fairy tales wizards live in castles - towers being used as prisons.

 

[Michael Dean]

Well, there's Rapunzel from Grimm faerie tales with the enchantress in the tower.

 

[Tonguez]

1. Grimms weren't Medieval
2. Rapunzel was imprisoned in the Tower, its not stated whether the the witch lived there too.

However it is stated that Sleeping Beauty found her grandmother spinning in a tower (and subsequently pricked her finger on the spindle) and Rampulstilskin did his trick in a tower too


At a guess I'd say it goes back to the Magi and their use of towers as observatories

There is also the symbolism of the Wise Man on the Mountain (and the Priest on the Mound/Pyramid/Altar)

 

[Huw]

At a guess I'd say it goes back to the Magi and their use of towers as observatories

I'm sure the magi are the main inspiration, but I still can't find a pre-20th century story featuring a wizard in a tower. "Ivory towers" are probably another inspiration, but they've always been metaphorical, not literal.

BTW, in which version of Rumpelstiltskin does he have a tower?

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

At a guess I'd say it goes back to the Magi and their use of towers as observatories

Just from my brief research on the internet, I would probably support this theory. Magi comes from the word “magus” which is Old Persian for the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism – it is also were we get the word “mage.” Apparently, there is a story that Marco Polo brought back about the Magi using a tower in Saveh, Persia. It was filled with “strange instruments, mysterious charts and glowing flasks of potions.” According to the story, these were the same Magi (wise men) who followed a strange star and brought gifts to the baby Jesus.

Mostly, it appears that the Zoroastrian Magi used towers, called “Towers of Silence”, for exposure of the dead. However, there is Baku’s Maiden Tower in Azerbaijan (dated to about 7-6 BC). Its use remains a mystery. Some say it was used as a Zoroastrian Tower of Silence, while others theorize that it may have been used as an observatory. One hypothesis says that the seven floors of the Tower (excluding ground floor) symbolized seven main deities. Persian fire-worshippers burnt fires in their honor in niches inside the tower.

 

[Tonguez]

BTW, in which version of Rumpelstiltskin does he have a tower?

iirc the millers daughter was put in a tower room filled with straw

also although Rumpelstiltskin didn't live in a tower as such, he did have a little house upon a mountain (which symbolic might be the samething)

 

[Huw]

iirc the millers daughter was put in a tower room filled with straw

...by the king, who wants her to spin it into gold. Rumpelstiltskin then comes to make his bargain.

Apparently, there is a story that Marco Polo brought back about the Magi using a tower in Saveh, Persia. It was filled with “strange instruments, mysterious charts and glowing flasks of potions.” According to the story, these were the same Magi (wise men) who followed a strange star and brought gifts to the baby Jesus.

Thanks - that's enough to search on! Courtesy of Project Gutenberg:

In Persia is the city of SABA, from which the Three Magi set out when they went to worship Jesus Christ; and in this city they are buried, in three very large and beautiful monuments, side by side. And above them there is a square building, carefully kept......Such then was the story told by the people of that Castle to Messer Marco Polo; they declared to him for a truth that such was their history, and that one of the three kings was of the city called SABA, and the second of AVA, and the third of that very Castle where they still worship fire, with the people of all the country round about.

That's pretty close, considering that the "Castle" certainly is a Zoroastrian fire tower. Now, why did it take another 600 years for the cliche to get established