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What we know of Oz: Book 1, West and monkeys

We explored the East, so why not go this time to the West! # The West, the Yellow Land, the Country of the Winkies. At the time of the story, it is THE place everyone avoids in Oz. We know that the river that separates the East and the Center leads to the West, because when their raft is carried away the Tin Woodman tells his comrades they’ll end up in the domain of the Wicked Witch of the West. The Emerald City has no road leading to the West, not even a pathway, because nobody wants to go there.

When Dorothy and her friends start going West, they at first are in the middle of “fields of soft grass, dotted with daisies and buttercups” (due to the pleasantness of the setting, I guess they are in the western part of the “central” region). But when they enter into the Land of the West properly, things take a very different turn. The ground becomes “rougher and hillier” as well as “untilled”. There are no houses, no farms, as well as no trees, so that in this country the sun shines bright and hot, with no fresh shadow to protect the travelers. Contrary to the East, the West clearly suffered from the Wicked Witch’s reign. However, when the heroes travel back to the Emerald City, they describe the Western Country as actually being made of “big fields of buttercups and yellow daisies” (apparently, the local flowers), as well as having some butterflies flying around. Note that this second journey happens at least two weeks if not more after the death of the Wicked Witch – maybe the country had time to regrow a flora and fauna in between? We only see one noticeable location in all of this country – the castle of the Wicked Witch, also called the Yellow Castle because the castle is all yellow, both inside and outside. Interestingly, the castle is never described as creepy or terrifying looking – in fact, the rooms inside the castle are described as “big” and “beautiful”. We know that the Castle is located quite far away from the Emerald City because our protagonists spend at least one week walking away from it, and they still end up “far away” from the Emerald City. # The Winkies are the local population of the West, and in the book’s time period the slaves of the Wicked Witch of the West. It is said that she forced them to work hard for “many years” and treated them with great cruelty, but to what work did they toil every day? It is never specified. Outside of this, we know that the Winkies are noted to not be brave people, fleeing easily in front of the danger – for example, when tasked with killing the Lion, and even when armed with sharp spears, they flee upon hearing his roar. It is noted that the Witch has many Winkie guards around her castle, who are too afraid of the Wicked Witch to disobey her. But deep down they are not bad people, just forced into fear and submission. It is quite interesting that the Witch, herself being a coward, uses fear as a way to control her population. The Winkies celebrate greatly the Witch’s death – and in fact it is them, and not the Munchkins, that decide to turn it into a holiday, celebrating it with feasting and dancing. We also clearly see that the Winkies have a very strong association with gems and metals. We never see any Winkie farm, but they have goldsmiths, as well as “very good” tinsmiths. They take a great liking to the Tin Woodman, to the point they beg him to become their new ruler – and finally their gifts to the heroes are all made of expensive stones and metals. Collars of gold for Toto and the Lion, a bracelet studded with diamonds for Dorothy, a gold-headed walking stick for the Scarecrow, and a silver oil can inlaid with gold and set with precious jewels. (This actually fits very well with the idea that the Wicked Witch dried up the land, preventing any kind of real farming, and the Winkies having to turn to metallurgy and gem-mining to survive). # Of course, she was going to be brought up at some point. The most iconic villain of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West. Who actually is quite different from how you may imagine her – and is also not so much of a big villain in the Ozian books.

We know that the Wicked Witch never leaves her country, instead attacking those that enter her borders. Many times throughout the book warnings were given to Dorothy: “If we end up in the West, she will enchant us and make us her slaves!” or “She would make you a slave if you passed her way”. Indeed, the Wicked Witch of the West has a very simple mindset – either you’re a slave, either you’re nothing. She is obsessed with controlling and enslaving anyone who enters or live in her country, and if she can’t enslave you, or if you can’t be a good slave, she will just kill or destroy you. In fact, this was her first decision upon seeing the heroes: a strawman, a tin man, a lion and a little girl? They don’t make good slaves! That is why she tries to kill them at first. But upon seeing it fail, she decides to save one of them: the Lion. She ends up revising her opinion of him after he frightens Winkies with his roar, and decides to capture him and “put him to work”. Once captured and locked in a cage inside her castle, the Wicked Witch tries to tame the Lion in order to harness him to her chariot (in her own words, it would amuse her to have him drag her chariot “like a horse”). However, each time she enters the cage, the Lion roars and threatens her, so she ended up deciding to starve him until he would agree to be harnessed (something Dorothy thwarts by giving food to the Lion every night).

Because you see, this is another big trait of the Wicked Witch of the West – she is a coward. Or rather she is a witch plagued with fears. She is as afraid as everyone else in Oz upon hearing the Lion’s roar, she is terrified upon seeing the Silver Shoes and ready to flee, and she is also said to have two enormous terrors, phobias that prevent her from stealing away the Silver Shoes. In the book, the shoes have no protective charm whatsoever, so the Witch thinks of stealing them when Dorothy takes them off, but the little girl only takes them off twice in the day. When she takes her bath, and when she goes to sleep. And the Witch is both afraid of water (for understandable reasons) and of the dark, so she can never steal the shoes. Yes, you heard it right, the Wicked Witch of the West is afraid of the dark. Yep, quite a twist on the typical witch image, huh? In fact, when you read the book, you realize that the Witch seems mostly associated with the light and the sun than with the night – her country has a hot, blazing sun, is devoid of any vegetation (suggesting a drought of some sort), her castle is of a bright yellow… And the only clouds mentioned in the story appear after the Witch’s death. (Which led to some people theorizing that the Wicked Witch put some sort of spell on the country preventing it from ever raining, causing a massive drought). This also offers quite some contrast with the Wicked Witch of the East, who was ultimately destroyed by the sunlight. Even more ironic is that the inhabitants of the Emerald City call her “wicked and fierce”, so apparently she built herself the reputation of a dangerous and fearless witch, which she is not.

In terms of physical description, we have only two indications about the Witch’s appearance (outside of the fact that she is often referred to as a “woman”). At one point, there is a mention of her having a “skinny feet”, and she only has “one eye”. Some like to interpret it as her wearing an eyepatch, while others rather make a cyclop out of her. But this one eye is said to be “as powerful as a telescope” and able to see “anywhere”. She apparently has a habit of sitting in front of her castle to look around at her country and spy on everyone – this is how she saw the protagonists arrive. We also know that she always carries with her an old umbrella, with which she threatens Dorothy and hits Toto (for hitting the Winkies, she rather has a strap) – the choice of an umbrella is quite fitting given her weakness to water. She is weak to water, but she still allows water in her castle, mind you. In fact, when she makes Dorothy her slave, she puts her in her kitchen, forcing her to sweep the floor and feed the fire with wood, but also to clean pots and kettles – thus Dorothy has to work with water. Plus Dorothy also takes baths while in the castle. I guess the Witch doesn’t want anyone to find out about her weakness so she keeps it around casually as if it was nothing? The book insists that she never touched water or never let water touch her. As for the reason of this water-allergy, the book may reveal it. You see, at one point Toto bites the Wicked Witch in the leg, but no blood comes out of the wound. The narration mentions that the Witch was so wicked that “the blood in her had dried many years before”. The completely absence of any kind of liquid or fluid inside her body may explain why she is so sensitive to water – note here that this is said to be a result of “wickedness”. We can compare it to the Wicked Witch of the East, who was said to have been so old that she dried up in the sun. We also know that the Wicked Witch is prompt to anger because she gets enraged at the mere sight of the travelers inside her country, and when they defeat her first armies, she “stamps her foot, tore her hair and gnashed her teeth”. Because yes, in the book the Wicked Witch has several armies at her service. Of course she has the Winkies that she sends after the heroes, but as noted above they are cowards too and flee easily in front of the Lion’s roar, even when armed with spears. But her true force is located in other armies… the Witch always has, hanging around her neck, a silver whistle. When she blows in it once, she invokes a pack of forty great wolves, with “long legs, fierce eyes and sharp teeth”, that can tear people to pieces. When she blows in it twice, she invokes a great flock of forty crows that can blacken the sky and peck the eyes out of people before tearing them to pieces. Finally, when she blows in it thrice, she invokes a great swarm of black bees that can sting people to death. She invokes all three armies to go after the heroes, but they are all defeated: the Tin Woodman chops the wolves’ heads off, the Scarecrow snaps the neck of all the crows, and the bees all break their sting and die when trying to kill the Tin Woodman. Outside of her silver whistle, Golden Cap and telescope-eye, we also see the Witch do one other bit of magic – in order to get the Silver Shoes, she puts an iron bar in the middle of the kitchen and turns it invisible. Her turning object invisibles ties up with the themes previously explored or mentioned: the one of the sight (her magic eye) as well as the one of the light. Thanks to this bar, she actually manages to steal one of the Silver Shoes and put it on. The narration specifies at this point that to have one of the two shoes is actually to own “half of their charm”, and Dorothy couldn’t possibly use the power of her own shoe against the Witch, even if she knew how (it is unclear if it is because a shoe can’t act against another shoe, or if half of a shoe is not enough power). That is when Dorothy becomes very angry and throws a bucket at her, making the Witch melt like “brown sugar”. She ends up as a “brown, melted, shapeless mass”, and Dorothy just washes it away by cleaning the floor, as she did since many may days for now. # The Golden Cap. I just couldn’t forget this one. This magical cap made of gold, with a “circle of diamonds and rubies” running around it. We know it is the size of Dorothy’s head (since everything in Oz is the size of Dorothy), and it has a strong charm attached to it – it can invoke the Winged Monkeys, a race of monkeys with “a pair of immense and powerful wings attached to their shoulders”. These Monkeys, once invoked by the Cap, are bound to do anything the wearer of the Cap orders them to do, in the limits of what is physically possible. But there are some rules…

First, to invoke the Winged Monkeys one has to follow a strict ritual. Standing on their left foot, they have to say “Ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke!”. Then, standing on their right foot they have to say “Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo!”. Finally, standing on both feet they have to shout “Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!”. All the instructions to this process are written inside the cap, in case anyone forgets. The second limitation is that the wearer of the Cap can only invoke the Winged Monkeys three times, after that the charm stops working. When we first see the Cap, it is in possession of the Wicked Witch of the West (who keeps it inside the same cupboard she keeps all her food in, which… isn’t the safest place to store a powerful magic item, especially since Dorothy found it pretty easily). She already used it two times before the events of the story. She invoked once the Winged Monkeys to help her enslave the Winkies and take the control of the Land of the West; and then she invoked the Winged Monkeys a second time to fight off the Wizard of Oz and banish him out of the Yellow West. The third time she uses the Monkeys, it is to kill the heroes, after all of her previous armies were defeated – the Monkeys carry on her wish, except for her desire to kill Dorothy because she is protected by the North Witch’s kiss and, as they say, “she is protected by the Power of Good, which is greater than the Power of Evil”. A… very strange statement, especially given that the North Witch was said to be weaker than the Wicked East Witch, but anyway.

The Cap then falls into the hands of Dorothy, who also uses it three times. Once to have the Winged Monkeys carry her and her friends from the West to the Emerald City, since they can’t find their way on their own (it is noted at this point that the Winged Monkeys are actually really fast, able to do several days’ worth of walking in a few hours). The second time she invokes them, it is to carry her out of Oz back to Kansas, but the Monkeys answer that they can’t because they “belong” to Oz and can’t leave it, Kansas not being a place for them to exist in. This second invocation is thus wasted. The final time Dorothy invoked them was to pass over the Hammerheads Hills, to the Quadling Country. The Cap finally ended up into the hands of the Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, that promised to use it three times herself – one to bring the Scarecrow back to Emerald City, a second time to bring the Tin Woodman back to the Winkies, and a third time to bring the Lion back to his forest. She also adds that after her wishes are done, she would give the Golden Cap to the Winged Monkeys themselves so that no one may ever use it again. The Winged Monkeys are also noted to be usually heard “chattering and laughing”. The Queen of the Field Mice is perfectly aware of the spell of the Golden Cap and she knows apparently quite well the Winged Monkeys, adding that the mice fear them because they are “full of mischief” and think that it is “great fun” to plague the mice. # We actually also get a complete backstory for the Winged Monkeys and the Golden Cap in the book. It is told to Dorothy by the current leader of the Winged Monkeys, a monkey noted to be “much bigger than the others” (a sentence that was funnily twisted in the 1990s cartoon by having the leader of the Winged Monkeys being actually very fat). This story is pretty interesting because it takes place in the North of Oz, and gives us a bit more information about this unknown country. The Winged Monkeys used to be “free people”, living in a great forest of the North, spending their time eating nuts and fruits, doing as they pleased. The trouble was that the things that pleased them were mischiefs – pulling animal tails, chasing birds, throwing nuts at travelers. They were “careless, happy, full of fun, enjoying every minute of the day”. But one day they became bound to the Golden Cap. This story is said to happen “many years ago”, before Oz-wizard “came out of the clouds” to rule over Oz. At the time, the King of the Winged Monkeys was the current leader’s grandfather. The Winged Monkeys lived in a forest near a handsome palace built of great blocks of ruby (it is quite weird to hear of a red stone in the Gillikin Country, given that the Quadling Country is the one associated with the color red. But at the time Baum had no idea what color the North would have – however note that the rubies can actually be purple!). This palace was the one of Gayelette, a beautiful princess that was also a powerful sorceress. She is never said to be a Witch, or even a Good Wich, but she is described using all of her magic to help people, and she apparently never hurt anyone who was good (which suggests that she hurt the people who were bad).

Everyone loved Gayelette, but she had one big sorrow in life: she couldn’t find someone to love in return. Apparently, all of the men around her were too “stupid and ugly” to “mate” with one “so beautiful and so wise”. It isn’t clear if this is Gayelette’s own thoughts or an obvious fact… but it seems to imply that the people of the North are dumb uglies. Until one day Gaylette found a boy that was handsome, manly and wise beyond his years. She swore to make him her husband once he grew up, so she took him in her ruby palace and used all of her magic powers to make him “as strong and good and lovely as any woman could wish”. Yeah this sounds a bit creepy… a woman kidnapping a child and using her magic to mold him artificially into the perfect husband… yep, definitively creepy.

Anyway, finally Quelala, that is the name of the boy, became a man, and the wedding was prepared. Quelala wore a beautiful wedding outfit, a rich costume of pink silk and purple velvet (not here an early idea that the North is associated with purple). He was walking by the side of a river with this outfit when the Winged Monkeys spot him, and deciding to have a bit of fun, took him and threw him in the middle of the river. Quelala wasn’t offended by that, in fact he laughed merrily at the joke, but Gayelette became furious upon seeing the beautiful costume ruined. She was so angry she wanted the Winged Monkeys to be thrown in the river with their wings tied up – which would certainly make them drown. Talk of a good sorceress… Hopefully the Monkey King pleaded very well for his cause, and Quelala also slipped a kind word for the Winged Monkeys. So Gaylette rather punished them by binding them to the Golden Cap with the charm described above – this Golden Cap was a wedding gift from Gaylette to Quelala, and it apparently cost the princess “half of her kingdom”. Quelala was the first owner of the Cap, and his only order was that the Winged Monkeys would go where Gaylette would never see them again. After that the Monkeys lived an idle and peaceful life for many years, before the Cap fell into the hands of the Wicked Witch of the West.

This backstory fascinates Ozian fans in general, who makes all sort of theories about Gayelette – making her a previous Good Witch of the North, or making Gayelette and Quelala the parents of Glinda, or whatever else can pass through their head. Remember though that Gayelette is never called a Witch but merely a "sorceress" without a capital letter, and this position of sorceress is put on the same level as her role of princess, which reinforces this idea that a sorceress is more a job or a function than a person's nature. It is also interesting to note that this backstory talks indeed of a very specific kingdom, presumably located inside the land of Oz, which seems to be a clue that in the past Oz was a group of several kingdoms bordering each other.

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