Tiffany Aching
| Tiffany Aching | |
 | |
| Name | Tiffany Aching |
| Race | Human |
| Age | 9 in The Wee Free Men 11 in A Hat Full of Sky 12 & 13 in Wintersmith 15 in I Shall Wear Midnight 16, 17 or 18 in The Shepherd's Crown (born around 1979 UC) |
| Occupation | Former Milkmaid, now Witch |
| Physical appearance | Short, slim, brown-haired, wears big boots. Almost never wears black (except for the hat) preferring blue or green. Has a silver necklace of the Horse (later a golden hare necklace). |
| Residence | Home Farm, The Chalk |
| Death | |
| Parents | Joe Aching (father) Mrs. Aching (mother) |
| Relatives | Sarah Aching (Grandmother) Six older sisters including Hannah and Fastidia younger brother Wentworth Aunt Hetty |
| Children | |
| Marital Status | single |
| Appearances | |
| Books | The Wee Free Men A Hat Full of Sky Wintersmith I Shall Wear Midnight The Shepherd's Crown Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch |
| Cameos | |
Tiffany Aching is a young witch apprentice. She appears in the Young Adult Tiffany Series, which cover several years of her life growing up in a rural area of the Discworld.
Biography
Tiffany Aching grew up in a sheep-grazing region known as The Chalk, rimwards of the Ramtops on the hubward margin of the Sto Plains. She has one little brother (Wentworth) and six older sisters, including Hannah and Fastidia. She is an expert at cheese-making, to the point of making it sentient.
Tiffany's talent was discovered at age 9, by itinerant witch and teacher Miss Tick; This surprised her, as everyone knows that good witches cannot grow on chalk. She is seen as a "gel".
Her first inclination of her unique abilities came as she experienced a susurration when creatures were passing from Fairyland into her own.
Since she fought off the Queen of the Elves with an iron frying pan to save her little brother, and the baron's son, the Nac Mac Feegle (who helped her on her quest, and who made her a temporary Kelda) have watched her and helped her through danger, as was presented in her eleventh spring and thirteenth winter, in the form of a hiver and the Wintersmith.
She lives, as aforementioned, on the Chalk, but in the second novel she studies in mountains close to Lancre with Miss Level. By the third, she has spent time with two other mentors before moving to live with Miss Treason. After Miss Treason's death, Annagramma Hawkin takes her cottage, and Tiffany cleans up the mess Annagramma leaves behind.
When Tiffany foolishly joined in with the Dark Morris dance (which turns autumn into winter), she learned that the supposedly empty spot belonged to Summer. This resulted in a lovestruck Wintersmith and a very angry Summer, who believed that Tiffany was trying to take her place.
In I Shall Wear Midnight, after helping the old Baron to a peaceful death, she learned that she had attracted the attentions of the Cunning Man. By the end of the tale she had assured her own stead, married Roland (...to someone else), opened a school, made peace between the Chalk-folk and the Feegles, conversed with a legendary female wizard, and spoken to herself from the future.
In The Shepherd's Crown, Tiffany inherits Granny Weatherwax’s belongings and steading. She struggles to take care of the people of both the Chalk and Bad Ass, as well as becoming the new “head witch”. She takes on an apprentice, and must deal with another invasion of Elves, under a new leader. Afterwards she gives up Granny’s steading to concentrate on being the witch of the Chalk.
After settling back into her life as witch of the Chalk, Tiffany completed the manuscript for a book she had been working on throughout her time learning to be a witch, with helpful input from Granny, Nanny, Ms Tick and other witches (and less helpful input from Rob Anybody and the Feegles). Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch was published by Goatberger Publishers in Ankh-Morpork.
Characteristics
Tiffany is mature for her age. She is serious and literal like Granny Weatherwax, but unlike Granny she is still learning fast (Granny's learned a lot but she'd say she's learning faster). She has second and third thoughts, and occasionally fourth thoughts. Her connection with the Chalk is important to her, which makes it very strong - the connection saved Tiffany from the Hiver, helping her to expel it from herself when it had consumed every other victim it took.
Relationships
The most important person in her life was her late grandmother Granny Aching (who referred to her as "Jiggit").
Tiffany cares for her family deeply: while she may find her brother irritating, she saves him from the Queen of the Elves. She also grows closer to her father as the books go on, feeling she can always be honest with him.
Tiffany is officially single, and believes this how a Witch should stay. She had a romantic connection with Roland once, which leads to some rare (internal) immaturity when he finds himself a fiancée. She also had a brief relationship with the Wintersmith. In I Shall Wear Midnight, Tiffany became interested in medical student and former guard Preston, who gifted her the golden hare necklace.
In a professional capacity, she forms working relationships and tentative friendships with Annagramma Hawkin and Petulia Gristle. She marvels at Nanny Ogg too.
Tiffany has a strong (if a bit prickly) mentor-apprentice relationship with Granny Weatherwax, which grew to a level of importance rivalling her own granny's. Aside from being allowed to call her Granny (she's 'Mistress Weatherwax' to everyone else), Tiffany gifted her a white kitten later called You - as in, "Here, You!" or "Stop that, You!" Granny Weatherwax appears to be impressed with Tiffany, which is an extraordinarily difficult thing to achieve.
Annotations
- Tiffany is 9 years old in The Wee Free Men, and around two years elapse between subsequent novels. She is stated to be 16 in I Shall Wear Midnight.
- All Tiffany's adventures seem to have a connection to winter. In The Wee Free Men, Fairyland and the parts of the Chalk that get taken over by the Fairy Queen are covered with snow. In A Hat Full of Sky, the creature that takes over Tiffany is called a hiver (hiver being the French word for winter). In Wintersmith, the Wintersmith that brings winter to the land falls in love with Tiffany.
- Tiffany has a silver necklace of the Horse, a gift from Roland. At the end of I Shall Wear Midnight she receives a golden necklace of a hare from Preston, completing the Sun-Moon symbology.
