by Tarl Telford
"There were only four witches in all the Land of Oz, and two of them, those who live in the North and the South, are good witches. I know this is true, for I am one of them myself, and cannot be mistaken. Those who dwelt in the East and the West were, indeed, wicked witches; but now that you have killed one of them, there is but one Wicked Witch in all the Land of Oz--the one who lives in the West."
-- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, chapter 2, "The Council with the Munchkins"
Which Witch is Which?
So there are only four Witches? Is this a Star Wars dark lord of Sith-type limitation on the number of Witches? Let's explore this witch-rule across three different versions of Oz - canonical Oz, by L. Frank Baum; and The Hidden History of Oz.
Baum's Witches
North
The Good Witch of the North was not named in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz novel, nor was she named in any of Baum's Oz books. However, Baum gave her the name of Locasta in the 1902 musical extravaganza, The Wizard of Oz.
Ruth Plumly Thompson, Baum's handpicked successor in writing Oz books, revamped the character and gave her the name of Tattypoo.
The Good Witch of the North is often confused with Glinda. Why? Because the 1939 MGM movie, The Wizard of Oz, combined the two good witches into one and called that character Glinda.
East
The Wicked Witch of the East is not named in Baum's books.
West
The Wicked Witch of the West is not named in Baum's books. However, in the 1910 silent film, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this witch is named Momba in the intertitles (or title cards).
South
The Good Witch of the South is Glinda the Good. She is the most powerful of the Witches. According to the Soldier with Green Whiskers, Glinda:
"knows how to keep young in spite of the many years she has lived."
-- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, chapter 18, "Away to the South"
She was the most beautiful of the four witches. Later books in Baum's Oz series refer to Glinda as a Sorceress, rather than a Witch.
Hidden History of Oz Witches
This information is taken from The Hidden History of Oz, Book One: The Orphan Sorceress of Oz.
Gayelette
Gayelette Kronkob is the eternal sorceress who rules from the Ruby Palace in the lands of the North. She is a sorceress who exists in a different time than normal people - she does not ever age. She is more than one hundred years old. Her constant research keeps her too busy to pay attention to either matters of state or family.
Gayelette researches the power of dreams, probing into the mystery, "Why does nobody in Oz dream?"
Kalinya
Kalinya Thistleswitch rules over the Munchkins in the East as their unquestioned leader. She is cruel and easily irritated. Her magic is telekinetic, and her greatest threat is to throw a person into the sky. She is clever and constantly schemes to gain more power, especially against her chief rival, Gayelette.
It is Kalinya who later becomes known as the Wicked Witch of the East.
Ondri-baba
Ondri-baba Thistleswitch is the homely and cruel younger sister of Kalinya. She is short and stocky, and fond of wearing ornate neckpieces. Her magic is invisibility. She has a magic eye that can see long distances; it can see what normal waking eyes cannot see. She controls the majority of the magic hourglasses sold by Smith & Tinker, and so controls the Sandy Armies.
It is Ondri-baba who eventually conquers the Winkies in the West and becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
Sonadia
Sonadia Discontentia is only mentioned in the book. She met her untimely death under very mysterious circumstances. Through conversations with Kalinya and Glinda, we learn that Sonadia had powers over weather, and she taught some of these spells to Gayelette.
Mombi
Ozmombina Decheryon Lodoveen Carcose, known as Mombi, is a strategist and political opportunist. Though her powers of transformation and disguise are well-known to the leaders of the various lands in Oz, Mombi seeks out true positions of power--always found behind the throne. She is careful in her use of power, though sometimes she gets caught up in Kalinya's schemes.
Note: Mombi is not mentioned in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, though she is the primary antagonist in Baum's second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz.
Locasta
Locasta Donovia Brenfire is a brilliant Munchkin maiden, taken as an apprentice by Kalinya, Witch of the East. She is quiet and non-confrontational, doing what she is told. She fears her master and the cruel punishments that she earns for her supposed ineptitude. Her most powerful magic is the ownership of an oracular hat.
Though sent to capture Glinda, she learns a valuable lesson from the young sorceress and finds the courage to stand on her own merit. With Glinda building her forces in the South, Locasta becomes what Glinda cannot be--the Witch of the North.
Glinda
Glinda Mahalia Kookaburr is the daughter of the Ruby Sorceress, Gayelette Kronkob, and Quelala Kookaburr, rulers of the North. She was born a princess, but she imagines for herself adventure and romance, just like in her large collection of books. She has fiery red hair, and a temper to match.
When her parents disappear, Glinda finds herself thrown into adventure, with the Wicked Witches chasing after her. With a name and a fame belonging to her mother, Glinda fights back against the witches to earn for herself the title of Glinda the Good, and secure a new home for herself in the South.
History of the Witches in Oz
Baum's version
According to Baum's later Oz books, the witches had been ruling for decades, and the three witches--East, West, and Mombi in the North--cconspired to conquer the entire Land of Oz and divide it up among themselves.
Hidden History version
According to stories in Book One, there have been two Witch Wars. Both of these wars tore the Land of Oz apart as the Witches combined their powers and created vast armies to fight against the kings and queens of the land.
In the Second Witch War, the Witches obtained an alliance and power from the Queen of Dreams, a mysterious ruler from across the sea. The Witches unwisely used this power and poisoned and destroyed the sea. The sea became a toxic desert that surrounds the Land of Oz.
Book One details the beginning of the Third Witch War, as the Wicked Witches again combine their power to overthrow the rulers of the land. While this book begins the Third Witch Wars, they do not end until later books, with the arrival of a young "sorceress" (Dorothy) to the Land of Oz.
How will it end?
The Witch Wars end when all the Witches are dead. We know that Dorothy interacts with all of the main witches in the original story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She destroys two of them, and receives magical protection and favors from the other two. However, the journey from four cardinal witches to two witches is a fascinating one explored in the Hidden History of Oz novels.
Dorothy Gale: The Girl that Saved Oz
Dorothy Alora Gale from Seward County, Kansas, was a dreamer, like her mother. She saved the Wizard from himself, and opened the gates of Oz like no one had before her. Oz creator, L. Frank Baum, caught a glimmer of her greatness when he wrote:
As for Uncle Henry, he thought his little niece merely a dreamer, as her dead mother had been, for he could not quite believe all the curious stories Dorothy told them of the Land of Oz...
--The Emerald City of Oz, Chapter 2, "How Uncle Henry Got into Trouble", by L. Frank Baum (Emphasis Added)
Uncle Henry does not understand the power of dreams.
Long before Dorothy was born on June 10, 1890, her history began. Her relatives were part of a group of dreamers that watched for the return of their lost son, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, who disappeared in 1852. This secretive group protected Dorothy's parents as long as they could from the forces of wicked magic. When they were overcome by the evil, Dorothy was taken to a place of safety, a place where no magic would find her.
Dorothy was raised by her mother's bro
ther and his wife. Uncle Henry Philologus Solomon and Emerald "Em" Jane Hugson raised Dorothy from an infant on the gray plains of Kansas. Her destiny did not rest there, though. When she was ten years old, she soon found herself swept up in a mighty adventure that began with a dream. The tornado carried her into the sky, away from the safe embrace of the gray earth. For many hours Dorothy watched and waited. Then she fell asleep.
In the air above the gates between worlds were easier to unlock, and the dreaming Dorothy passed through the secret gates conjoining the worlds, and went through to Oz.
First Journey to Oz
When she arrived in Oz, she quickly gained fame as a sorceress of no small repute. She accidentally killed Kalinya, the Wicked Witch of the East, and gained the Silver Slippers as a reward. On her legendary journey to Emerald City to see the Wizard, she encountered three truly unique friends. They met with the enigmatic Wizard and received the impossible mission to kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Thus began their journey. They were captured and imprisoned. After weeks of slavery, Dorothy doused the Witch with water, destroying her completely. As a reward, she took the Golden Cap.
Dorothy's innocence was her strength. Her determination and unquenchable hope gave her power to stand against the darkness, but also destroy two Wicked Witches, and obtain two of the most powerful magical items in the land. Without knowing their true power, she traveled to Emerald City to claim her reward from the Wizard.
The humbug wizard was unable to grant the wishes of Dorothy and her friends. Though he was a bad wizard, he claimed to be a very good man. Dorothy helped him discover a way back home.
Though she was left behind, she helped the Wizard to find himself. Glinda provided Dorothy with the knowledge that she needed to travel back home. Her first journey to Oz was not her last. She came back again and again until Ozma granted that she and her family could stay in Oz forever.
Dreams
Dorothy's dreams brought her to Oz, and made life better for her family. As the one dreamer who truly has the ear of the child queen, Dorothy is a force for good. It remains to be seen how long her favor will last. No one native to Oz can dream, and the dreamers from Earth can change the land around them. With Dorothy at the center of the new generation of dreamers in Oz, the fragile magic wielded by Ozma cannot hold back the changes forever.
When she discovers the chaos embodied by her best friend, Ozma must choose between friendship and duty. Dorothy will become the center of a conflict that will divide loyalties down a razor's edge.
References:
See Dorothy's First Trip to Oz for a day-by-day breakdown of her magical journey, as related in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz novel.
Dorothy's Family Tree is in Genealogy.
There's Only One Wizard in Oz
When Dorothy met the Wizard, she discovered the truth.
"I think you are a very bad man," said Dorothy.
"Oh, no, my dear; I'm really a very good man, but I'm a very bad Wizard, I must admit."
--The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter 15, "The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible"
And so began the greatest unmasking in the history of literature. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, was unmasked (at least to Dorothy and her friends) as a fake. He was the man behind the curtain. He was Oz, the Great and Terrible. He was the Wizard who was more powerful than all of the Witches in Oz, combined. Except...except he didn't think so. He had a much more normal history before he was a stranger in another world.
Early Life
Oscar Zoroaster Diggs began his life as the youngest son of Malachi Diggs and Sonia McGee, both of Ireland. He was a dreamer and a storyteller, quite different from the soldiers in his family. His two eldest brothers, James Elias Diggs and Lamech Bartholomew Diggs, died while Oscar was still a baby. Their deaths haunted the family for years. When conversation turned to great battles and acts of valor, the stories inevitably turned to the fallen brothers. Such tales were too heavy for the hearts of even the strongest soldiers, and so the family would turn to young Oscar for a silly story, a witty rhyme, or a funny voice.
The child Oscar never knew the truth about his brothers. He only knew that they fell in a land far away, doing their duty as soldiers. What he couldn't understand was that they protected the family from raiders. The baby Oscar was hidden in a closet to keep him alive. His eldest brothers were heroes, but Oscar thought them phantoms that haunted him through his childhood. He knew his father wanted them back, but he never realized how much his father depended on his youngest son to be a better man--to rise above war and make his mark on history in his own way.
Young Dreamer
The ghosts of his family's past haunted him, and seventeen-year old Oscar ran. He ran to the western frontier of the United States. He ran into the storm to escape his past. Along the way, he took a job in a circus as a ventriloquist. There, he came under the tutelage of Bathsheba Carver, a fortune-teller who was also a dreamer. She taught Oscar how to enter the dreamlands, and how to pass through the gates. He took those teachings and built on them. He built cities in the chaos, organizing and creating walls and gates in the deeper dreamlands. Oscar, or Oz (as he called himself) made his power known to the shadows in dreams. He was powerful beyond compare in dreams, and then he always woke up.
The only solace he found was in his stories. One day, while practicing his oratory skills in a balloon high in the sky, the tether broke in the wind, and the storm carried him away. He fell asleep. While he slept, the gates opened between the worlds, and he physically passed through. When he awoke, the storm raged around him and a fearsome battle raged below.
Dreaming in Oz
He found himself in the Land of Oz, in the middle of a battle between the Wicked Witches and the Winkies. His newfound friends quickly found strength in his stories of American revolution and independence. His call for the freedom of all men was a clarion call to a land that had only known kings and witches. Yet there was another power that this newcomer to Oz held. He was a dreamer.
In a land powered by human dreams that are filtered through the gates of magic, a dreamer of unfiltered dreams can change the land around him. And he did. With every dream, Oz became more and more wonderful and horrible. The whimsy of Oscar's dreams always cast dark shadows. Emerald City was built to honor this great Wizard who could change the land in his sleep. He was more powerful than all of the Witches, combined, for he was a dreamer, and held the raw magic of Oz in his sleeping mind. Yet it was a magic he could not control.
For all of his stories, and for all of his good intentions, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs was just a man. That is all he ever wanted to be. He wanted to be free from the shadows. And he wanted to find love. Instead, he found himself embroiled in a war for power that divided Oz completely. With every attempted action to end the war, he made things worse. His best attempts resulted in the death of a king, the creation of Kalidahs (tiger-bears), and the cataclysmic upheavals that nearly destroyed the land.
Exile
To protect himself, and to protect those he loved, he isolated himself in his Pandaemonium Chamber, a place that was magically protected against the shadows and the chaos. There he stayed for many, many years, while the history of Oz unfolded around the legend of the Wizard. There he would have stayed, until his dying day, except for the brave actions of one young dreamer named Dorothy. Which brings us full circle to Dorothy Gale, the girl who saved Oz.
SECTION FOUR
Genealogy of Oz
Each person wonders where they came from. A knowledge of one's own family history is important to understand his or her place in the world. Presented in this section are two small family trees for two very important members of the Oz family. Oscar Diggs (the Wizard) and Dorothy Gale (the Girl who Saved Oz).
Why Are Kings Named Oz and Queens Named Ozma?
The Land of Oz has been ruled by kings and queens since its beginning. With only slight exception, there has always been a descendant of Queen Ozma the First on the throne of the
Emerald Lands. There are five primary lands in Oz, with rulers on each throne. For the purposes of the Kings Oz and Queens Ozma, the throne of the Emerald Lands is the primary focus.
"Many years before you came here this Land was united under one Ruler, as it is now, and the Ruler's name was always 'Oz,' which means in our language 'Great and Good'; or, if the Ruler happened to be a woman, her name was always 'Ozma.'"
--Ozma, to the Wizard, in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, Chapter 15, "Old Friends are Reunited"
Ozma the First
Ozma the First was the daughter of Lurline, Queen of the Faeries. Ozma Bandersnatch (the Greatest Ozma) stepped down from her place in the Faerie Band and became the ruler of the central lands in Oz. This year was designated 1 Ozy. It is equivalent to the years 685 AD, and 1215 BDG (Before Dorothy Gale). It began the reckoning of chronology in Oz.
Shortly before the death of his mother, Bertolimaeus Oz was crowned as King Oz the First in a ceremony in the Emerald Fortress. He honored his mother by naming his heir after her. She became Queen Oz the Second. Her son honored his grandfather by taking the name King Oz the Second. And so it went down through the generations, with the king or queen putting off their birth name (which may or may not have been a variant of Oz), and taking on the name Oz or Ozma.
Non-Lineal Kings
The only exceptions to the lineage of Lurline were a period of time when the Emerald Lands were ruled by a pretender king, Blamish Gant, who killed the entire royal family. But as those stories go, there is always a surviving heir. Such was the case of Ozmatine Lazarus, who returned from the dead (so to speak), and reclaimed her rightful throne as Queen Ozma the Fourth (crowned in 674 Ozy). The other exception is King Scarecrow, crowned by the Wizard of Oz in Ozy 1215, 1 ADG (After Dorothy Gale; there is no year 0 ADG).
