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Glinda

Glinda is a fictional character created by L. Frank Baum for his Oz novels. She first appears in Baum's 1900 children's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and is the most powerful sorceress in the Land of Oz, ruler of the Quadling Country South of the Emerald City, and protector of Princess Ozma.

Glinda the Good

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

L. Frank Baum

Unhuman witch
Immortal witch
Sorceress Enchantress
Fairy/Goddess

Female

The Good
The Good Witch of the South
The Sorceress of the South
The Royal Sorceress of Oz

Immortal and witch
Protector of Oz
Ruler of the Quadling Country
Protector of Princess Ozma, the Princess of Oz

Ozian of Quadling descent

Inspiration[edit]

Baum spent a great deal of time with his mother-in-law, activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, who encouraged him to write down his Oz stories. Baum's biographers have drawn correlations between Baum's "Good Witch" and Gage's feminist writings.[1][2]

Literature[edit]

L. Frank Baum[edit]

Baum's 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz refers to Glinda as the "Good Witch of the South";[a] she does not appear in the novel until late in its development. After the Wizard flies away in his balloon, the Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Dorothy, and Toto travel South to the land of the Quadlings to ask Glinda for her advice. Glinda tells Dorothy of how she can return home to Kansas using the Silver Shoes, and frees the Winged Monkeys by giving them the Golden Cap that controls them, after having them escort Dorothy's three companions safely from Quadling Country.[3] In the well-known 1939 film version, Glinda is a composite character with the Witch of the North. Later books call her a "Sorceress" rather than a "witch",[4] though Baum's writings make clear that he did not view witches as inherently wicked.


In the books, Glinda is depicted as a beautiful young woman with long, rich rare red hair and blue eyes, wearing a pure white dress. She is much older than her appearance would suggest, but "knows how to keep young in spite of the many years she has lived" - a fact that is established in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by the Soldier with the Green Whiskers. She has ruled the Quadling Country ever since she overthrew the Wicked Witch of the South during the period when Ozma's grandfather was king of Oz.


Glinda plays the most active role in finding and restoring Princess Ozma, the rightful heir, to the throne of Oz, the search for whom takes place in the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, although Glinda had been searching for Ozma ever since the princess disappeared as a baby. It may well be that she did not overthrow the Wicked Witches of the East and West, despite being more powerful than they were, because she wanted all of Oz to be unified under its rightful ruler, Ozma, first. After Ozma's ascent to the throne, Glinda continues to help the Princess of Oz shape the future of the Land of Oz as a whole, no longer confining her powers to guarding her Quadling Kingdom in the South alone; true to her character, Glinda does not interfere in affairs of State unless Ozma seeks her counsel or help specifically.


In addition to her vast knowledge of magic, Glinda employs various tools, charms, and instruments in her workshop. The Emerald City of Oz reveals that she owns a Great Book of Records that allows her to track everything that goes on in the world from the instant it happens. Starting with The Road to Oz she trains the formerly humbug Wizard in magic; he becomes a formidable practitioner, but acknowledges that she is more powerful yet.


Glinda lives in a palace near the Northern border of the Quadling Country, attended by fifty beautiful maidens from each country of Oz.[5] She also employs a large army of female soldiers, with which she takes on General Jinjur's Army of Revolt, who had conquered the Emerald City in The Marvelous Land of Oz. Men are not prominent in Glinda's court.


Glinda is strongly protective of her subjects in the South. She creates walled, gated communities for the rabbits of Bunnybury and the paper dolls of Miss Cuttenclip, showing a personal interest in the concerns of not only the humanoid Quadlings, but also the other inhabitants of her jurisdiction.


In The Emerald City of Oz, when Ozma goes to consult Glinda about the security of her Ozian citizens, the Sorceress seals off all of Oz from the Great Outside World, making Oz invisible to the eyes of mortals flying overhead in airplanes and such. However, unlike Ozma, Glinda is willing to ignore strife and oppression in remote corners of Oz like Jinxland and the Skeezer territory as long as it does not threaten the Emerald City or innocent outsiders. The readers are left with the sense that Glinda is experienced and seasoned to the point of knowing that there is not a magic cure for everything, and that certain things cannot be changed or perhaps should not be changed for better or for worse.


One of the more obscure facts about Glinda is that she created the Forbidden Fountain with the Waters of Oblivion, at the center of Oz, whose waters redeemed a former King of Oz who was exceptionally cruel. This happened "many centuries ago" according to Ozma (again alluding to Glinda's advanced age), and it is this fountain that saves Oz from the invading Nome King and his allies in The Emerald City of Oz, by making them forget their nefarious intentions. Glinda clearly made the Fountain at a point in Oz's history when the Land was unified under one of the members of the Royal Family of Oz, albeit a tyrannical king in this isolated incident, and so she was able to intervene in a way that she could not when the country was divided between the Wizard and the Wicked Witches of the East and West et al., prior to Dorothy's arrival.


Most intriguingly, in The Emerald City of Oz, when the Nome King considers invading Oz, he is told by a minion, General Guph, that Glinda the Good's castle is located "at the North of the Emerald City," when it has been established that Glinda rules the South, while another Witch (the one who welcomed Dorothy to Oz, and was retroactively named Tattypoo) reigned in the North. Guph may have gotten his facts muddled, as none of the Gnomes had been to Oz at that time, but it portends the depiction of Glinda as the Good Witch of the North rather than the South in the 1939 MGM film (which is the most widely known version of Oz to date).


General Guph also tells the Nome King that Glinda "commands the spirits of the air,". As mentioned above, he is not an expert on Oz, but this statement made by Guph once again foreshadows a much later cinematic rendition of Glinda, in the film version of the Broadway musical The Wiz in which Glinda (played by Lena Horne) and the original (played by Billie Burke) is responsible for the twister that brings Dorothy's house to Oz and sets all subsequent events into motion.


Of all the characters in L. Frank Baum's Oz, Glinda is the most enigmatic. Despite being titled "Glinda the Good," she is not a one-dimensional caricature whose sole purpose is to embody and generate all that is generically considered "good," as indicated above.


She ultimately becomes the adult anchor in the Oz books, because she is never distracted or swayed, and always maintains absolute firmness of purpose - something that cannot be said for the other adult characters in the series such as the Wizard and the Shaggy Man or even the Good Witch of the North. They all fall short of Glinda's wisdom and resoluteness.


In Baum's final book, Glinda of Oz, we learn that Glinda resides in a castle with one hundred of the most beautiful women in Oz at her beck and call.


In Alexander Volkov's Magic Land series, the witch is called Stella and appears very rarely. However, she is often referred to by the author and the characters and always offers people help or refuge during hard times. She is described as a golden-haired eternally young beauty in a pink dress. She rules the Pink Country which is inhabited by the tribe of Chatterboxes. She seems to be a good friend of the Winged Monkeys ever since releasing them.


In Philip Jose Farmer's novel A Barnstormer in Oz, Glinda is portrayed as young and beautiful enough to attract the protagonist, though the interest is not mutual.

Wicked (novel)[edit]

In Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked, she is initially called "Galinda," and (through her mother) is descended from the noble clan of the Arduennas of the Upland. Her character is seen extensively in the first half of the novel, but disappears for most of the second half, compared to her musical counterpart.


Though originally snobbish and superficial, she is also intelligent enough to be accepted to Shiz University's Crage Hall, where she is assigned to share a room with Elphaba. After a long period of mutual loathing, the two girls later become close friends.


Galinda drops the first 'a' in her name in the middle of the story, in tribute to Doctor Dillamond, a martyred Goat who taught at Shiz (Dillamond made the habitual mistake of calling her "Glinda" instead of "Galinda" while they shared a carriage, before her arrival to the university). The Goat's death also prompts Glinda to re-evaluate her life, and she dedicates herself to studying sorcery, at which she proves to be quite skilled.


It is stated that she marries Sir Chuffrey in the second half of the novel, and they have no children. She initially dislikes Elphaba's sister Nessarose (who goes on to become the Wicked Witch of the East), but becomes close to her after Elphaba leaves Shiz, and enchants the Silver Shoes that enable Nessarose to walk without any assistance.


As in the original Oz books, she is revered as a powerful sorceress. Maguire follows the 1939 movie in having Glinda ultimately become the Witch of the North, not the South. Glinda also appears in Son of a Witch, Maguire's sequel to Wicked, now widowed from Sir Chuffrey.

Films and TV[edit]

The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908)[edit]

In The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, Glinda was portrayed by Evelyn Judson. She was played by Olive Cox in the 1910 version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the latter, she appears in one scene in which she enlarges Toto to make him a better protector for Dorothy.

Musicals[edit]

The Wizard of Oz (1942, stage adaptation)[edit]

In 1942 the 1939 film was adapted into a stage musical for performance at The MUNY in St. Louis.[11] This version has been performed widely throughout the United States.[11] Glinda in this version is called the Sorceress of the North; and Broadway star and ballerina Patricia Bowman portrayed the role in its initial staging.[12]

The Wiz[edit]

In the Broadway musical The Wiz, Glinda is the Good Witch of the South, as she appears in the Oz books. She appears only once at the end of the musical to help Dorothy return to Kansas from the Land of Oz. Glinda is the sister of Addaperle (Abrakadabra), Evillene (Sadista), and Evvamean, the other three witches of Oz. The role was originated by Dee Dee Bridgewater. In the film version, she is played by Lena Horne, and she causes the snowstorm that brings Dorothy to Oz. She is portrayed by Uzo Aduba in the 2015 television special.