Good Magician

Humfrey

Just about everyone in Xanth knows of the "Good Magician Humphrey.  He is the magician of information. He knows everything!  Except where his socks are!

He is also a grumpy old man. He's over a hundred years old and shriveling up. He wears "mundane" type glasses and is usually seen bending over his tomes.   He is actually becoming very Gnome-like.

He is always studying and gathering information to put in his "Book of Answers". So he doesn't like to be bothered.  Of course anyone with a problem wants to get the answer to their problem.  So they come to him.

He resides in a castle that was once the site of the  Zombie Master of old.   It was built by centaurs who owed service to him. In order to keep out only the very serious and determined, he has set up barriers to discourage inquisitors.  His castle is in the same place but is altered in appearance. It changes for each inquisitor, of whom Humfrey "knows" is coming.  It usually is surrounded by a moat that has some kind of "moat monster" in it.  The monster is not always the same, but the job of the monster is always the same. To keep everyone out!

Inquisitors have to pass through three barriers in order to enter the castle. This is no easy task. Usually getting past the "moat monster" is the first barrier. Then there are two more barriers that usually take "brains" to figure out.  Once they make it into the castle,   they must pay one year's service to get an answer to their question.

Sometimes, even someone sent to him by the king of Xanth on "official" business, end up having to go through the ritual.  He "forgets" to turn them off for them. :-}

After all that, his "answers" are usually obscure, with no meaning to the inquisitor. They usually have to figure out his answers. . .  . BUT. . . . They are always the correct answer!

Humfrey is usually in or referred to, in all the Xanth stories. His history is told in Question Quest.

Background Designed By:  Knight Dreams

Humfrey and book cover art by Darrell Sweet.

Humfreys were "borrowed"  from Jana, it links to her Xanth page.