Good Witch of the North
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The Good Witch of the North is a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by American author L. Frank Baum.
[edit] The classic books
In the original novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Good Witch of the North is an elderly sorceress from Gillikin Country who is summoned to Munchkin Country when Dorothy Gale's falling house kills the Wicked Witch of the East. She advises Dorothy to travel to the Emerald City to seek the aid of The Wizard. In Baum's fifth Oz book, The Road to Oz, she is one of the many guests who attend Ozma's birthday party.
The name of the Good Witch of the North, Gayelette, is on page 138 of the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In Baum's own stage version of The Wizard of Oz, he gives the Witch the name Locasta. However, in Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz novel The Giant Horse of Oz, the Witch is named Tattypoo. [1]
[edit] The 1939 movie
In the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, the Good Witch of the North is called Glinda, which is the name of the Good Witch of the South in the Oz novels. In the movie, the Good Witch of the North (Gayelette), portrayed by Billie Burke, is young and beautiful, and in addition to meeting Dorothy on her arrival in Oz, she also supervises her progress on her journey to the Wizard and helps her find her way back to Kansas at the end of the story. The movie makes no reference to the Good Witch of the South.
The two witches were combined for the sake of the film to save time. This was often done in many movie versions - combining the elements of two popular book characters to shorten lengthy novels.
[edit] Modern works
Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and the musical Wicked (based on the book), follow the model of the 1939 movie in giving the name "Glinda" to the character who grows up to become The Good Witch of the North. See the article on Glinda for more information on this character.
In William F. Brown and Charlie Smalls's The Wiz, the Good Witch of the North is named "Addaperle" in the stage version and "Miss One" (played by Thelma Carpenter) in the 1978 film version. Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, is a separate character in both stage and film versions.
In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, Glinda and the Good Witch of the North are again separate characters (and the Good Witch of the North has the name Tattypoo), although they are both played by Miss Piggy (as are the two Wicked Witches).
