Ozblogging: The Marvelous Land of Oz, Part 5

Episode Five: Glinda

The Scarecrow & co. drop in (literally) on Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. When the Scarecrow asks for her help in getting rid of Jinjur, Glinda brings up the pretty valid objection that the Scarecrow only had the throne in the first place because some wandering con man gave it to him. It's a good point, but it does lead one to ask why Glinda didn't bother to do anything about this before Jinjur's little bloodless coup? If the Scarecrow's not the legitimate ruler of Oz now, he wasn't then, either.
   
Fortunately, Glinda knows that there is a legitimate ruler of Oz -- Ozma, the daughter of Pastoria, the former King whose throne the Wizard usurped. (Yes, that's the Wizard all over. See my speculations about Agent Diggs in a previous column.) Apparently the Wizard hid her so well that even Glinda, with all her magical powers, can't locate her. Not that she seems to have tried very hard.
   
Glinda consults her files. "I have in my library a book in which is inscribed every action of the Wizard while he was in our land of Oz -- or, at least, every action that could be observed by my spies."
   
Oh. Nothing alarming about that at all, Glinda. And who else do you have files on?
   
She eventually determines that the Wizard secretly made three visits to old Mombi during his tenure in Oz. They all agree that Mombi must have been involved in the disappearance of the rightful heir. Tip warns Glinda: "She is a terrible old woman! And obstinate, too."
   
"I am quite obstinate myself," Glinda replies, with a smile which somehow is not at all chilling.
   
She marches her own army of girl soldiers (more stage version chorus-girl opportunities from Mr. Baum) to the Emerald City. Unlike Jinjur's rebel force, Glinda's soldiers aren't fooling around. They have spears and swords and seem to know how to use them. The spears have mother-of-pearl inlaid handles and silver points -- tacky, but they'll still mess you up more than a pair of knitting needles would.
   
They reach the city and lay siege. Glinda demands that Jinjur hand over Mombi. Mombi turns Jellia Jamb into a duplicate of herself, and sends her out to Glinda. This only works for about one paragraph, and gets Glinda seriously ticked off.
   
Jinjur claims she doesn't have Mombi, and agrees to let Glinda's forces search the city for the old witch -- but if they don't find her by sundown Glinda has to leave peacefully. The sorceress agrees, for no reason I can fathom. She has a real army, she's the mightiest sorceress in Oz, and Jinjur has no provable claim to the throne at all. Why doesn't Glinda just take over and then look for Mombi? Because then the story would end too soon, and Baum still has his word length to worry about.
   
Turns out Mombi has transformed herself into a rose in the flower garden, and the Tin Woodman mistakenly clipped the blossom and put it in his buttonhole. Mysteriously, this neither kills Mombi nor leaves her in constant agony. She decides to hang around in the Woodman's buttonhole and spy on the enemy's plans.
   
Now things get awesome. Glinda recognizes the flower as Mombi. Mombi turns into a shadow and tries to escape. Glinda seals up the tent. Mombi becomes an ant. Glinda tries to catch the ant but it turns into a Griffin! Glinda pursues the Griffin riding on the back of the Sawhorse! (J.R. Neill goes nuts drawing Glinda in her flowing robes riding off at high speed.) Evidently this isn't the flying kind of Griffin because Glinda chases it clear to the edge of the deadly desert, where she captures Mombi and turns her back to her own shape.
   
The alert reader may be able to tell I have a serious crush on Glinda. She's one of my favorite Oz characters -- because she is pretty blatantly the real power in the kingdom. She's a lovely female combination of Cardinal Richelieu, Saruman, and J. Edgar Hoover, and the only reason she doesn't rule over all Oz is that it's so far below her pay grade she can't be bothered.
   
Consider: Glinda has an omnipresent network of spies (in later volumes this turns into a Magic Book which records everything that happens everywhere in the world). She has a private army approximately 20,000% larger than the actual Army of Oz. And she is apparently the most powerful Sorceress anywhere.
   
In later books, Baum's biggest structural challenge is simply the problem of how to keep the characters from getting in touch with Glinda, because she can generally solve their little problems with contemptuous ease. And we must respect the ingenuity of a man who can keep his characters from contacting a woman who instantly knows everything going on anywhere in the world.

This does raise some questions about The Wizard of Oz -- was the Wizard scamming Glinda? Or was she going along with the scam as part of her deep-laid plan to eliminate the Wicked Witches from Oz? We can only guess. Glinda knows the answer. Glinda knows everything.

Continued in Part 6.

Comments

[Dwtwiddy]

"Why doesn't Glinda just take over and then look for Mombi? Because then the story would end too soon, and Baum still has his word length to worry about."

I think this is a use of the dream-logic of the folk tale. Jinjur is establishing a taboo, and potent one at that: night is evil's time. Glinda is powerful, but even she has to bow before the taboo. Everyone has their limits.