Witch

The Wicked Witch of the West

A witch, in the Land of Oz, is a creature that can control the magic and the other creatures magics or not. the good witches are protectors, and the wicked witches are controllers. No one knows the origin of the witches or their powers, but they are very powerful. There are two types of witches, good and wicked who are associated with the four cardinal directions and the four separate countries of the Land of Oz who have chosen if they follow the path of good or wickedness.

Powers and abilities

• Spell casting: The power to affect changes with magical means.

• Telekinesis: The power of move things and people with the power of the mind.

• Eletrokinesis: The power of control or create the eletricity.

• Pyrokinesis: The power to control or create fire.

• Potion making: The power to create supernatural potions.

• Flight: The power of fly with or without a broom.

Disabilites:

• The wicked witches are vulnerable to water, as shown in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Characteristics by authors

L. Frank Baum

In his first Oz book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), L. Frank Baum famously created good witches in the north and south of Oz and evil witches in the east and west. The Wicked Witch of the East ruled the Munchkin Country, while the Wicked Witch of the West dominated the Winkie Country. Dorothy Gale met the Good Witch of the North, from the Gillikin Country, early in her first stay in Oz (Chapter 2). Glinda is identified as the good "Witch of the South" (Chapter 18), though in later books she is generally called a sorceress rather than a witch. She is consistently located in the Quadling Country.

Baum left his Good Witch of the North unnamed in his original book; but in his 1902 stage adaptation of the book he called her Locasta Tattypoo.

The author killed off both of his wicked witches in his first Oz book; when he came to write his second, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), he needed a new villain, and produced Mombi, the Wicked Witch of the North. For the first time, both a good and an evil witch were associated with one of the cardinal directions. She had been taking care of the young Ozma who had been changed into a male called Tippetarius or Tip by order of the Wizard. However in the end of that book, she is stripped of her powers.

Baum added another level of complexity to his scheme in his fourth book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908). At one point, Princess Ozma explains that there had previously been wicked witches in all four quadrants; in addition to the two destroyed by Dorothy, "a good witch had conquered Mombi in the North and Glinda the Good had conquered the evil Witch of the South" (Chapter 15).

Baum added others villains, witches (like Blinkie), Yookoohoos, and other magic workers in later books, but did not amend his large-scale yet still incomplete fourfold scheme, of four evil witches and two good ones.

Ruth Plumly Thompson

Ruth Plumly Thompson, Baum's successor as Royal Historian of Oz, made two significant additions to this scheme. Most significantly, she created Gloma, the witch-queen of the Black Forest, in The Wishing Horse of Oz (1935). Gloma, if not precisely the Good Witch of the West, is at least a good witch in the west.

Thompson also created Tattypoo, in The Giant Horse of Oz (1928), as her version of the Good Witch of the North. In that book, Mombi with magic had previously placed the monster Quiberon in Lake Orizon which was to harass and oppress the people of the Ozure Isles.

Interestly enough in The Lost King of Oz, Mombi is issued capital punishment of death by water for all of her misdeeds. (a short story called "Executive Decisions" from Oziana 38 says she wasn't really executed)

Later authors

The remaining gaps in the larger fourfold plan tempted the talents of later Oz writers. Rachel Cosgrove Payes took up Baum's hint and created Singra as the Wicked Witch of the South in her novel The Wicked Witch of Oz, a book written in 1952 but not published until 1993.

Eric Shanower draws his own, unnamed Wicked Witch of the South in his first Oz graphic novel, The Enchanted Apples of Oz (1986). In his fifth Oz graphic novel, The Blue Witch of Oz (1992), Shanower accepts Thompson's Gloma as the Good Witch of the West, and then creates his own Good Witch of the East in the person of Abatha, the Blue Witch of the Munchkins.

In the Wicked series by Gregory Maguire, the Wicked Witch of the West is named Elphaba as the Wicked Witch of the East is named Nessarose. Also Ginda's original name is Galinda, but was changed because of Dr. Dillamond mispronouncing it.

In his 2000 novel The Unknown Witches of Oz, David Hardenbrook accepts Locasta as the Good Witch of the North, but adapts the character to his own purposes.