This is the second book of Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series. Tiffany is a young witch living on “the Chalk,” a land full of sheep and the fairies known as the Nac Mac Feegle (NMF), or Wee Free Men. In book one, 9-year-old Tiffany teamed up with the NMF to save her brother and the world from the queen of the fairies. Her witchly abilities were evident to other witches like Miss Tick and Mistress Weatherwax, who gifted Tiffany a hat. A witch’s hat is an important thing, and receiving one from Mistress Weatherwax herself is a great honor. Tiffany’s hat is invisible but as we learn at the beginning of A Hat Full of Sky, Tiffany has the ability to step outside herself and see herself in her hat. This ability to engage in self reflection is an important theme in the novel as is learning what it really means to be a witch. As usual, Pratchett does a marvelous job of giving his readers important life and death lessons with kindness and humor.
Two years have passed since Tiffany went to the land of the fairies and used her righteous anger to defeat the Queen and save the Chalk. Miss Tick has arrived in the Chalk to take Tiffany away to become an apprentice to another witch, Miss Level. The NMF, who see Tiffany as their “big wee hag” and the heir to Granny Aching, are always watching over Tiffany, and as she departs the Chalk, they sense something evil is following her — a “hiver.” A hiver is a demon but it is not alive; it has no brain or body but it knows what it is to fear and to crave. It is a parasite that seeks out hosts that have power, distorting the host’s mind and holding on to all of its memories forever. The hiver cannot be killed or die. It is a formidable and terrifying foe. Miss Tick and Miss Level can sense that something bad is out there, but their attempts to “read” the situation (using a device called a shamble) come to naught. While Tiffany begins her apprenticeship to Miss Level, the NMF race to catch up to Tiffany and alert her to the danger that is looking for her.
Tiffany’s apprenticeship begins on a low note as far as she is concerned. Miss Level, who possesses some rather strange abilities, doesn’t seem like much of a witch to Tiffany. She looks ordinary and doesn’t use a wand; she does fly on a broom, which gives Tiffany motion sickness. Miss Level spends her days tending to the poor people of her community, something that Tiffany finds puzzling and annoying. Many of the folks can’t afford to pay for help, which Miss Level seems completely unbothered by, and they just seem rather stupid and unappreciative to Tiffany, who would rather not have to deal with them. Miss Level is quite different from the witch known as Mrs. Earwig, wholooks the part of a witch, dressed in fine witch clothing and wearing plenty of jewelry. Mrs. Earwig and her protege Annagramma are disdainful of witches like Miss Level and seem very caught up in their own image and importance.
Of course, the lesson here is that it is not how one looks that matters but what one does. A witch should not be preoccupied with “toys”; as Miss Level tells Tiffany, “…witchcraft is mostly about doing quite ordinary things.” A witch’s job is to help those around her, because her magic is her knowledge. And as far as gratitude and payment, a real witch is not concerned with such things. Most people try to show their gratitude eventually in whatever way they can, and Miss Level ends up with more than she needs. And so she “stores” her largesse in other people; in other words, she gives away what she has to others in need. Tiffany has a hard time accepting Miss Level’s wisdom and finds herself annoyed and sometimes resentful of the people they serve even though she knows this is wrong.
I hate to be spoilery but the hiver does take control of Tiffany in a moment of weakness, and the “dark side” of Tiffany gets full reign: to tell off the people she dislikes, to take the things she wants, to cause fear among those who stand in her way. Yet, there is a part of Tiffany that fights back, that tries to throw off the hiver and that will need the help of the NMF to do so. I don’t feel too bad revealing this because it happens in the middle of the book and is not the end of the confrontation between the hiver and Tiffany. It is at this point that Mistress Weatherwax stirs herself to come to Tiffany, and Tiffany’s real apprenticeship begins. I love this part of the book because Tiffany has seen a part of herself that makes her ashamed, and she has her eyes opened to the importance of the lessons from Miss Level and Mistress Weatherwax. One of my favorite lines is from Mistress Weatherwax when she is talking to Tiffany about the magic Miss Level does compared to Mrs. Earwig:
“…the start and the finish, the start and the finish, is helpin’ people when life is on the edge. Even people you don’t like. Stars is easy, people is hard.”
A lot of what Miss Level does on her rounds involves helping women in childbirth and helping the elderly who are dying. The start and the finish. When Tiffany confronts the hiver again, as she must, she has to deal with it as a witch would deal with a person on the edge, a person she does not particularly like. As usual, Pratchett’s writing about life and death is absolutely beautiful. The Tiffany Aching series is meant for young people, but as an adult I have great appreciation for Pratchett’s sensitivity (and humor) when dealing with death.
This is really a beautiful story. Sure, it’s also funny but the overall message about what magic is— using knowledge to help those without it, helping people “on the edge,” not expecting payment or appreciation but doing what needs to be done — well, we need more of that in the world. We can all be witches by being human and not letting fear or an obsession with “things” paralyze us.
