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And that is precisely why later Oz authors marginalized her. The post-Baum Oz canon (especially the Thompson and Neill books) favored glamour and spectacle. A elderly, pragmatic sorceress who does paperwork? Give us Glinda, with her chariot of rubies and army of maidens. Locasta faded into footnotes, appearing only in adaptations that respect Baum’s original text, like the 1985 film Return to Oz (where she appears briefly in the background of Mombi’s hall) or the 2007 comic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young. Locasta’s most revealing scene occurs not in the first book, but in Baum’s The Marvelous Land of Oz (the second novel). When the young boy Tip flees the wicked witch Mombi, he seeks refuge in the North. Locasta receives him not as a supplicant, but as a queen receiving a political refugee. She listens to his story, then delivers a chilling line:
In the grand tapestry of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , few characters are as shrouded in contradiction, editorial accident, and quiet tragedy as Locasta Tattypoo. To the casual fan of the 1939 MGM musical, she is a blur—a rosy-cheeked, bubble-borne fairy who tells Dorothy to “follow the Yellow Brick Road.” But in the rich, sprawling mythology of Baum’s original books, Locasta is something far more complex: a regional sovereign, a political anomaly, and a witch whose reputation has been systematically erased by a Hollywood mistake. locasta tattypoo
This conflation has persisted for nearly a century. Ask a random person: “Who is the Good Witch of the North?” They will answer, “Glinda.” But Baum’s first book is explicit. After Dorothy’s house crushes the Wicked Witch of the East, a small, elderly woman in a white gown approaches. She is not Glinda. She is Locasta Tattypoo , the ruler of the northern quadrant of Oz: the Gillikin Country. And that is precisely why later Oz authors marginalized her
Her most famous act in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is subtle and easily overlooked: she kisses Dorothy on the forehead. That kiss is not maternal affection. It is a powerful protective charm—a stasis ward —that renders the girl invulnerable to harm from anyone who means her ill will. “No one will dare injure you,” Locasta says, “because they will know you are under my protection.” Give us Glinda, with her chariot of rubies
Long live Locasta Tattypoo. The forgotten witch. The first guardian. The best of the North.
The next time you watch the 1939 film, and Glinda floats down in her bubble to ask, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” remember: that was Locasta’s line. That was Locasta’s kiss. And somewhere in the Gillikin Country, an old woman in a ruby-tipped hat is smiling, knowing that the road she set Dorothy upon led not just to Oz, but to a home worth fighting for.
The Wicked Witch of the East ruled the Munchkins with terror. The Wicked Witch of the West ruled the Winkies with fire and wolves. Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, ruled the Quadlings but was largely isolationist. And Locasta? Locasta held the North—a buffer zone against the most dangerous threats from the western mountains.