I was interested in hearing some peoples views on this character. He seems to be of some importance to Equestria's past, but we know so little about him. Share your theories and head canon here.

956735
Rumor: Star Swirl is actually Discord

956931
The "leaked dialogue" was proven to be false, but I still hold that among my favorite theories.

957051 It was? I hadn't heard of that. Well, that's a pity then, but as you said, it's still a nice theory nevertheless.

Star Swirl headcanon? Well, you asked for it. Prepare for words.

I'm not sure how or when it happened, but somehow Star Swirl the Bearded became my favorite non mane-6 pony, despite never appearing in the show. I blame writing about him, because I end up loving all ponies I write about, but honestly I always liked him because he's just so darn interesting.

He's almost the reverse of building fanon of a background pony, where you form a personality and history from the template of what a a backgrounder looks like. All we know for sure of Star Swirl at all is what he wore, what time he lived in, that he mentored Clover the Clever, and fathered several spells. It's almost a given his cutie mark is the one found on his notebook, as modern ponies put cutie marks on their stuff. We can also make an educated guess on his that he wasn't very good with ponies, based on "not understanding friendship" as Twilight does, but honestly that could range anywhere from being shy to being out and out evil.

As for my headcanon? Well, I think it's best seen in the little M.O. I wrote up for him:

House Galaxy has studied and practiced magic for longer than anypony can remember.

My parents studied magic for decades. I studied magic for years.

And what I learned was this: We ponies have no idea what magic is.

None. Because we do not care to find out.

Ponies believe magic is for moving the sun, the moon, the quills, the needle and thread. Magic is always practical, it must always do something, accomplish something and what it accomplishes must always be useful. Magic is never allowed to simply be.

Magic is never for magics sake.

You want to know why I ask so many questions? It is because nopony else will. Ponies are content to languish in their ivory towers and till their fields and harvest their raindrops and nothing more. We are content creatures. We are what we are. And we never aspire to be anything more. We know our purpose when it etches itself on our flanks and we are content. We stay in our gardens, fat and content.

I do not think I have even been content. Good. Discontent drives one to be better. It makes one wonder. It makes one change.

I do not aspire for harmony.
(It is an awful thing to admit, I know. I only say so because I am in the Nation of Earth Ponies amongst beetles, bandits, and rock farmers who cannot throw me in the nearest dungeon for heresy. I am a bit of a coward that way.)

I have seen harmony. I have heard harmony. I don’t want it. At least I do not think so.

Harmony is beautiful. So is a rose in a vase. But roots cannot branch in vases. I don’t want a vase. I want thorny hedges, I want to be in danger of hailstorms and aphids. I want to grow. I want to grow and grow and grow until I can grow no further.
And then I will grow more.

We can move the heavens with magic, wonderful. But what else can magic do? Without set purpose what will it do? Why have magic at all? Other creatures are fine without magic, so why do we have it? What is magic for? Magic mends stitches and it can move stars and ink pots. What else?

What is magic for?

...I think that is what I really want to know.
I think I am the only pony that does.

The guy was a revolutionary.
In my headcanon for the Pre Classical era, for a long time magic was always functional and practical and nothing less. He didn't hate the company of other ponies, but he was often very frustrated with them. Because he rarely thinks of anything outside magical theory and because he isn't concerned with social concerns or royal balls he has a difficult time making friends. Being interested in earth and pegasus magic as well as unicorn magic didn't earn him many friends in the isolationist Unicorn Kingdom either. Most likely never had romantic interests either.

As a result, he built a reputation for being grumpy and a little crazy. He often seemed tired and older than he looked.

The bells represent the spells he's invented. When he ran out of places to put them on his cape, he put them in his study, hanging from the ceiling like stars.

I also think of him as blue with a pink mane, both of which faded with age. And he will cut you if you touch the beard.

If he knew Celestia and Luna at all it was likely when they were still fillies and when he was very, very old. Presuming the sisters arrived after Hearth's Warming, anyway.
I'm not on board with the being Discord theory. I can understand how it makes sense, but I'm just not with it. It seems too easy. I can see him being involved with him, though. Most likely by summoning him by playing around with stuff he shouldn't.

Also, he's distantly related to Trixie because that's hilarious.

956735 In the canon of the show, I think he's probably like the show's Gandalf or Merlin. Maybe he was a bit like Twilight before she discovered the magic of friendship.

Now, as for my headcanon...

I actually cast him as the villain in my Celestia story. Whenever I read Arthurian legend, I have this distrust of the character of Merlin. He seems so manipulative and distant from humanity.

In my head, that's how Starswirl was. And when that line came out in Season Three's finale about him not understanding friendship like Twilight, I was excited because the show seemed to suggest it.

In the show, I see two kinds of Magic on display. There's the kind of magic that comes from learning and practicing, as when Twilight studies hard to learn a new spell (also, zebra mysticism and changeling sorcery fall into this "neutral magic" category), and ultimate Magic, which comes from friendship. I see Starswirl as someone who was great with the first kind of Magic, but failed to understand the second.

In my headcanon I have split the actions of Starswirl into two distinct ponies. Though as history has progressed the books have forgotten one and hefted their accomplishments onto the other.

First there was Starswirl the Bearded, live 2000 years before the start of the series and was an Archmage in the Kingdom of Monoceros and served Princess Platinum's mother. He was as bright as Twilight having attained the rank of Archmage before he even turned 20. He did craft over 200 spells, during the even of HWE he stayed behind in the Valley of Dream and experienced first hand the ravages of Tirek's rule. He help lead the Exodus to Equestria and help found the new nation and signed his name to the Haven Concords. He was executed by Discord, but gave a prophesy before he died, stating that the Sun and Moon will revolt and free the nation. He did not have a hat with bells on, but did have a snazy beard.

Second was his descendent, Star Swirl the Belled. She wore the belled hat and was a contemporary of the Sisters and was a midwife (apprentice) when Celestia was foaled, she acted as a teacher to them after their Ascension. She did create spell but was more of a performer and practical mage. She was known to call herself the Great and Powerful Star Swirl.

My head canon is that Starswirl was a young headstrong magi who dabbled in dangerous experiments (one of which involved a changeling) and accidentally injured one of his friends, for which he was expelled from Magic School. He sought out grand adventures and quests to find legendary artifacts. Over time Starswirl made a name for himself in the unicorn city of what is now Old Canterlot. The king and queen hired him as a magical adviser who would warn of coming disasters and whatnot. His greatest battle would be fought against the dragon-lord Axelbar, who almost tore Starswirl limb from limb. But luckily a young unicorn mare appeared to fend off the evil. Her name was Clover the Clever and she sought Starswirl out to be raised as his apprentice. They went on to discover the Alicorn Amulet, a mystical item created for the sole purpose of increasing magical power by ridiculous amounts.

Later on in life Clover left his side and kick started the events of the Hearths Warming. At the ripe age of 154 he chose another apprentice known as Aurora from a list of candidates and raised her as one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestrian history. Which would then lead to the events of my on hiatus story. Dreams Of Broken Promise

After Magical Mystery Tour, I have wondered if Star Swirl was a lot less benevolent than initially assumed. It's hard to watch the effects of the "masterpiece" spell and think Star Swirl was trying to do something helpful, because it involves forcibly rewriting a character's mind and suppressing the memories of nearly everyone except the caster. That sounds like dangerous magic to be experimenting with.

So I had a rethink about his character. Instead of comparing him with Gandalf the Grey, I'm open to the notion that he's the Equestrian equivalent of Saruman the White: extremely powerful and initially on the side of good, but later he was corrupted by his own flaws and became a serious impediment to bringing harmony to the world. He may have invented over 200 spells and gotten a whole wing of the Canterlot Archives named in his honour, but that doesn't say anything about his ethical integrity. Edison invented over a hundred patented devices, but that didn't stop him from being extremely antagonistic towards Nikola Tesla, and had he succeeded in his aims, we might have been stuck with a DC electric grid for decades instead of the far more efficient AC one.

Truth be told, I'm more inclined to view Clover the Clever as the Gandalf-esque figure because she effectively discovered Friendship Magic first, along with Smart Cookie and Private Pansy, and we see that her personality is very close to the "lover of learning" paradigm. Since Star Swirl lived in the pre-classical era, I wonder if Clover's efforts brought about a new age of magic, the classical era itself. That said, her obscurity compared with Star Swirl suggests that Clover's one of the more underappreciated ponies from history, despite pioneering an entire field (Friendship Magic) long before Twilight came on the scene.

All of these are all so interesting!

957079
Is that excerpt from a story? I'd be interested in reading the whole thing!

958683
Sort of. It's more like a paraphrase of excerpts that will appear later in my story.

958804
Well, now we've seen quite a bit of him - any new thoughts?

6965030
Up until the post-Windigo era, the only real change to what I had before is that he was already old when Celestia and Luna showed up. These days I think of him as closer to middle-aged.

After the move to Equestria, though, as the years pass, he does what many revolutionary idealistic young people do: he grows up. He compromises. His priorities change. Plus, by that point, his theories on what magic is and does and how it's used has already changed the function of magic as we know it, so there's not a lot left to revolutionize. Meet the new boss.
He still seeks to understand magic as it functions, but after the hardship of Windigos and the influx of monsters in the young nation he realizes there are bigger things to settle. If he had the time, he'd happily spend all day and all night pouring over scrolls and circles and potions, but that's not the case anymore. (And neglecting his cutie mark does little for his mood.) Post-founding, Celestia and Luna (mostly Celestia) at the time, are busy keeping the country together as three formerly separate tribes and governments learn how to live under one banner. Meanwhile, Star Swirl (and eventually the rest of the Pillars) travel the land fighting monsters, helping villagers, banishing monsters, and generally wearing himself ragged. Equestria, I think, was a rougher place in the old days. There was no time to talk down the bitter unicorn sorcerer or the scheming sirens because they'd kill you the moment you opened your mouth. If not you, then another innocent pony. Now and then, there were very rare exceptions (such as Scorpan) but as far as Star Swirl is concerned, while ponies range in grey, there's a limit. At the end of the day, evil is evil and that's the end of it. To think otherwise could mean disaster. A threat left alone today means a bigger threat next week.

He didn't much like other ponies as a colt, he didn't like them as a young stallion, and he didn't like them when he lost all his color and grew a mighty beard. Star Swirl's still very impatient with ponies as a whole and does not have time for their nonsense, but at the end of the day, he'd die for them in a heartbeat. And then his ghost would call them all morons.