The Good Witch of the North is a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by American author L. Frank Baum. She is the elderly and mild-mannered Ruler of the Gillikin Country. Her only significant appearance in Baum's work is in Chapter 2 of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), in which she introduces Dorothy to Oz and sends her to meet the Wizard, after placing a protective kiss on her forehead. She makes a brief cameo appearance at Princess Ozma's birthday party in The Road to Oz (1909), but is otherwise only mentioned elsewhere in the series.
L. Frank Baum presented her as an extremely kind and gentle character who stood against the oppression and subjugation of people. She became the Ruler of the Gillikin Country in the North after freeing the Gillikins from the clutches of Mombi, the erstwhile Wicked Witch of the North. However, the character's kindness and magnanimity of spirit was not confined to her own domain, and she was loved not only by her own subjects but also by other people in Oz, such as the Munchkins. Although she wasn't as powerful as the Wicked Witch of the East and was hence unable to depose her the way she deposed Mombi, the Good Witch of the North was nonetheless exceedingly sensitive to the plight of the enslaved Munchkins, who regarded her as their friend. She also appears as a highly-altered player in Ruth Plumly Thompson's The Giant Horse of Oz (1928), in which she is called Tattypoo.
Her role was significantly expanded in the 1902 musical extravaganza, in which L. Frank Baum named her Locasta. The character was more famously conflated with that of Glinda, The Good Witch of the South, for the 1939 film version.
Read more about Good Witch Of The North: The 1939 Movie, Later Works
Famous quotes containing the words the north, witch and/or north:
“Is it not the chief disgrace in the world, not to be an unit;Mnot to be reckoned one character;Mnot to yield that peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear, but to be reckoned in the gross, in the hundred, or the thousand, of the party, the section, to which we belong; and our opinion predicted geographically, as the north, or the south?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A witch is one who worketh by the Devil or by some curious art either healing or revealing things secret, or foretelling things to come which the Devil hath devised to ensnare men’s souls withal unto damnation. The conjurer, the enchanter, the sorcerer, the diviner, and whatever other sort there is encompassed within this circle.”
—George Gifford (16th century)
“I felt that he, a prisoner in the midst of his enemies and under the sentence of death, if consulted as to his next step or resource, could answer more wisely than all his countrymen beside. He best understood his position; he contemplated it most calmly. Comparatively, all other men, North and South, were beside themselves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)