Nanny Ogg
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| Characters from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series | |
| Character details | |
| Full name: | Gytha Ogg |
| Description: | A witch who revels in her role as "mother" |
| Associations: | Granny Weatherwax, Magrat Garlick, Agnes Nitt, Jason Ogg, Shawn Ogg |
| Location: | Lancre |
| Story appearances | |
| First seen: | Wyrd Sisters |
| Also in: | Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum, The Sea and Little Fishes Thief of Time Wee Free Men |
| Other details | |
| Notes: | Owner of Greebo |
Gytha Ogg (usually called Nanny Ogg) is a character from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. She is a witch and member of the Lancre coven.
The character of Nanny Ogg is based on the Mother stereotype of the Triple Goddess myth. She's had several husbands and has been married to three of them. She has fifteen children and innumerable grandchildren and great-grandchildren but that's incidental; what makes her the Mother is her mentality. People go to Granny Weatherwax for help when they have no choice, but they go to Nanny for advice all the time. Granny is respected, but Nanny is actually liked.
Nanny Ogg has a talent for getting along with people and fitting in. As described in Maskerade, people, after knowing her for fifteen minutes, feel like they have known her all of their lives. Granny Weatherwax knows about this ability, and recognizes its use, and wonders sometimes if it would have been worth acquiring it.
She's a lot wiser than Esme (Weatherwax) in some ways, and certainly wise enough not to show it. Gytha Ogg is seen as "one of the people" in a way that Esme isn't. While Granny thinks there's no point in competing if you aren't going to win, Nanny reckons the sympathy you get for being a good runner-up is much better. Granny comes across as judgemental, whereas Nanny has a mind so broad she could tie it under her chin. She appears to be kinder than Granny, but is equally prepared to make tough decisions if necessary.
In the Discworld amongst the duties of a witch are midwifery and laying out the dead. If possible, people call Nanny for the former and Granny for the latter. In effect Nanny and Granny make a perfect team with Granny doing what needs to be done and Nanny bandaging the wounded.
She has an ambiguous relationship with Count Casanunda, whom she met in Genua. Nanny Ogg is also the muse and center of Leonard of Quirm's master piece, the Mona Ogg : her teeth follow you around the room, they say.
Nanny has also written several books, including The Joye of Snacks, Mother Ogg's Tales For Tiny Folk and Nanny Ogg's Cookbook . The first two were withdrawn following the publisher realising what they were really about; the third survived with heavy editing.
In The Art of Discworld, Pratchett says, "I've always suspected that Nanny is, deep down, the most powerful of the witches and part of her charm lies in the way she prevents people from finding this out." In his short story The Sea and the Little Fishes Nanny Ogg also identifies herself, and the Ogg family as a whole, as having immense natural magical talent, but as less willing to work it as hard as Weatherwaxes do.
It should also be noted that Nanny really likes to eat and drink. When she's drunk she has a tendency to sing very "special" songs, the most popular being "The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All" or simply "The Hedgehog Song" (never really unveiled by the author beyond a few lines, but many readers have written their own versions [link]). A close runner up for the most popular Nanny Ogg song is "A Wizard's Staff has a Knob on the End".
Nanny Ogg's bath night, as described in the novel "Lords and Ladies", is an event feared by the entire population of Lancre, chiefly because she sings any and all of the above songs, accompanied by banjo, whilst bathing, and the tin bath amplifies her already overpowering vocal presence such that the audience is not so much "captive" as "hunted down".
| The Discworld | |
|---|---|
| Characters: | Albert - Angua - Carrot Ironfoundersson - Cohen the Barbarian - Fred Colon - Death - Detritus - Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler - Gaspode - Greebo - Igor - Bloody Stupid Johnson - Leonard of Quirm - The Librarian - Lu-Tze - The Luggage - Mort - C.W.St J. Nobbs - Susan Sto Helit - Rincewind - Twoflower - Havelock Vetinari - Samuel Vimes - The Witches - Ysabell - Discworld gods - more... |
| Locations: | Ankh-Morpork - Agatean Empire - Borogravia - Death's Domain - Dungeon Dimensions - Ephebe - Genua - Klatch - Lancre - Muntab - Quirm - Sto Lat - Überwald - Unseen University - XXXX - more... |
| Other: | Calendar - City Watch - Clacks - Guilds - Magic - Post Office - Stealth Chess - Minor Discworld concepts |
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