Your Favorite "Mysterious Old Man" in literature.

[the protaginist]

Almost every Fiction book has one. that mysterious old man who teaches the hero how to fight, travels with them for a bit, and usually dies. from Gandalf to Quai-gon, there are tons. which is yours?

Edit: well, there is a novelization of the movie.and the various spin-offs. I won't be to strict on it being books only.

 

[Erana]

Who cares?
They're all the same archetype of the Hero myth, to me.

 

[Hallow'sEve]

My favorite would be the Terrible Old Man from H.P. Lovecraft's story...."The Terrible Old Man"

 

[Enigmers]

Gandalf.

I mean, seriously, look at that beard!

 

[Hallow'sEve]

Dumbledore

 

[soul_rune1984]

Zifnab from the Death Gate series by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman. He's introduced in the second book.

 

[Kellerb]

The old man of the river if anyone has heard of the sword of shanarrah trilogy, i mean, hes only seen 4 times in the entire trilogy, and hes more powerful than all the bad guys.

Gandalf is pretty cool too

 

[blindey]

Mine would be simple: Socrates. No not the philosopher of Greek and such, a different one. It's from a book (and later fairly ok movie) called Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and it influenced me a lot in my formative teenage years.

 

[alwaysrockon]

the old man from "the road"
no fucking joke...that was his name.

My favorite would be the Terrible Old Man from H.P. Lovecraft's story...."The Terrible Old Man"

^ this

 

[Dorian]

Brom from Eragon. You still keep finging stuff out about him even after 3 & 1/2 books.

 

[barryween]

Master Roshi, that perverted old coot...
does he count?

 

[Jamanticus]

Gandalf.

I mean, seriously, look at that beard!

Plus his awesome Ring of Power

Spoiler: Narya

EDIT: I agree with Gandalf being my favorite, by the way.

 

[Trivun]

Has anyone read the Three Worlds cycle by Australian author Ian Irvine? That has a classic example of 'Mysterious Old Man', although he doesn't actually die during the course of the series (he only dies between parts, since the second part of the cycle is set 200 years after the first). I am of course talking about Shand, of the View from the Mirror quartet. The same series of novels also gave rise to several other examples, in particular the warlord Yggur (pronounced Ig-gur, apparently) and (a woman, surprisingly) Tulitine, who is actually listed in the book glossary as 'Mysterious Old Woman' .

 

[the farkinator]

Just like Yahtzee Croshaw said, "It's not like there's anything wrong, it's just that the set pieces are starting to repeat themselves." (I am aware this may be a misquote)

 

[coldfrog]

Zifnab from the Death Gate series by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman. He's introduced in the second book.

Zifnab is top notch Weird Old Guy material... Apparently one of their other series' had a similar character called Fiz Ban or something, but I never read that one.

My vote goes to Kruppe in the Malazan Tales of the Fallen. This particular character stereotype seems to be particularly prevalent in fantasy-type books. That's basically the only genre so far in this thread.

 

[sheic99]

The Spirit from Alan Moore's run on "Swampthing," not Will Eisner's "The Spirit."

 

[Madshaw]

I don't have a favourate, just a general contempt for them

 

[soren7550]

The G-Man.

OK, I know that's a bit off and such But I still think he's cool and all(and a bit of an ass.).

 

[Zetona]

Godot.
/thread.

Though I'm not sure if he's old, per se; all that's said about him is that he has a beard.