Locasta Tattypoo //top\\ May 2026

Long live Locasta Tattypoo. The forgotten witch. The first guardian. The best of the North.

“I am not as powerful as the Wicked Witch of the East was,” she confesses, “or I would have made you some wings to fly home.” This is a rare moment of vulnerability from a sovereign. She is a good witch, but not an omnipotent one. Her power is defensive, not teleportational. She redirects Dorothy to the Emerald City not out of cruelty, but out of honest limitation. She is the good administrator who knows her own constraints. The name “Tattypoo” is one of Baum’s most delightful inventions—part nonsense, part implied history. In later Oz books (particularly Ruth Plumly Thompson’s and Baum’s own The Tin Woodman of Oz ), we learn that Locasta is not a sorceress by accident. The Tattypoo family has served the North for generations, often intermarrying with the ruling fairy dynasties of Oz. locasta tattypoo

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. Long live Locasta Tattypoo

Consider the audacity of that. Locasta, from her northern tower, projects a mark of sovereignty across the entire country of Oz, telling every bandit, beast, and wicked witch: This child is mine. The Wicked Witch of the West spends the entire middle of the novel unable to touch Dorothy, only resorting to tripping her or summoning wolves and crows. Why? Because of Locasta’s kiss. That is the mark of a true political operator. Locasta’s true character emerges in the subtext of Oz’s recent history. Before Dorothy’s arrival, Oz was a fractured state. The Wizard, a humbug from Omaha, ruled the Emerald City through illusion. The four quadrants were each governed by a witch: two wicked (East and West), two good (North and South). This was not a coincidence. It was a cold war. The best of the North