Jason Ogg

Jason
Jason Ogg, as drawn by Matt Smith
Name	Jason Ogg
Race	Human
Age	Fiftyish
Occupation	Smith
Physical appearance	Very large and muscular
Residence	Lancre Town, Kingdom of Lancre
Death
Parents	Gytha Ogg
Relatives	Shawn Ogg, 13 more siblings
Children	Several, Pewsey the youngest
Marital Status	Married
Appearances
Books	Witches Series
Cameos

Jason Ogg is the smith of Lancre. No, you don't understand: Jason Ogg is The Smith of Lancre. The Smith in Lancre has a long-term contract. He can shoe anything, and when anything shows up, he has to shoe it. Some of the local lads once brought him an ant. He made the tools and spent a long night over a powerful lens. The ant can still be heard, occasionally, clattering across the forge floor.

A smith is a kind of male witch: he knows things other people don't know (e.g., The Horseman's Word), he has power over iron. He needs to follow the protocol, and know how to keep a secret, especially in Lancre. A regular client at the forge is Binky, Death's trusty steed; endorsements don't get much better than that. He also once fitted a unicorn with silver shoes. Some people say Jason is a bit slow, because he doesn't say much. Some people don't pay attention.

Jason is the eldest son of Gytha "Nanny" Ogg, Lancre Town's resident witch. Nanny is a small woman, so the connection can be hard to grasp. Her little boy has "arms like tree trunks and legs like beer barrels stacked in twos". Presumably his late father, the previous Lancre Town smith, was as large if not larger.

Jason is the unofficial town sheriff because he can break up pub fights by picking up one contestant in each hand and banging them together if necessary. He also takes a leading part in the Lancre Morris Men, the local folk-dancing, little theater and Scumble tasting society.

Annotation

The tradition of shoeing the unshoeable is well established throughout Roundworld history, starting with St. Dunstan, X century English bishop. Being a hands-on man of cloth, he was once working in his forge when the Devil decided to pay a visit; Dunstan grabbed him by the nose with his tongs and shoed him. Also, there is a popular Russian XIX century novella "The tale of squint-eyed Lefty from Tula and the steel flea" where the eponymous character, self-taught craftsman from the Russian coutryside, is called upon by the Tsar to one-up the miraculous dancing clockwork flea from England; he and his team hole up in their shed for a month and then present their work - the same flea, with the mechanism seemingly broken, as it can no longer dance. However, upon an examination through a microscope it is discovered that the flea has been shoed with golden shoes, with Lefty himself providing the nails.