Ruler, Ruler, Ruler, Home--Oz pages 55-56

 Hello lovelies! Our story is nearing the end! Glinda the Good is here to help everyone achieve their dreams. This is a mostly wordy illustration in that I wanted to illustrate what each of our Fab Four wants to do after Dorothy goes back to Kansas. I used the harlequin style of painting again. I like this because it is like the Ozian version of Duck, Duck, Goose--three will go off to be rulers of their respective countries, and Dorothy goes home. But don't worry about Oz being so male dominated--in the next book the rightful ruler of named Ozma ascends to the throne. 

Before they went to see Glinda, however, they were taken to a room of the Castle, where Dorothy washed her face and combed her hair, and the Lion shook the dust out of his mane, and the Scarecrow patted himself into his best shape, and the Woodman polished his tin and oiled his joints.

When they were all quite presentable, they followed the soldier girl into a big room where the Witch Glinda sat upon a throne of rubies.

She was both beautiful and young to their eyes. Her hair was a rich red in colour and fell in flowing ringlets over her shoulders. Her dress was pure white, but her eyes were blue, and they looked kindly upon the little girl.

"What can I do for you, my child?" she asked.

Dorothy told the Witch all her story: how the cyclone had brought her to the Land of Oz, how she had found her companions, and of the wonderful adventures they had met with.

Note: Later Oz books by Baum have Glinda use the Great Book of Record where everything that happens in Oz in recorded in her book and she can see at a glance what is happening in the furthest corner of the country. This would have been really handy here and could have saved Dorothy all that trouble!

"My greatest wish now," she added, "is to get back to Kansas, for Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning; and unless the crops are better this year than they were last, I am sure Uncle Henry cannot afford it."

Glinda leaned forward and kissed the sweet, upturned face of the loving little girl.

"Bless your dear heart," she said, "I am sure I can tell you of a way to get back to Kansas." Then she added, "But, if I do, you must give me the Golden Cap." Note: I hope she doesn't mean in the southern way, but she is the good witch of the south after all so maybe she does. 

"Willingly!" exclaimed Dorothy; "indeed, it is of no use to me now, and when you have it you can command the Winged Monkeys three times."

"And I think I shall need their service just those three times," answered Glinda, smiling.

Dorothy then gave her the Golden Cap, and the Witch said to the Scarecrow, "What will you do when Dorothy has left us?"

"I will return to the Emerald City," he replied, "for Oz has made me its ruler and the people like me. The only thing that worries me is how to cross the hill of the Hammer-Heads."

"By means of the Golden Cap I shall command the Winged Monkeys to carry you to the gates of the Emerald City," said Glinda, "for it would be a shame to deprive the people of so wonderful a ruler."

"Am I really wonderful?" asked the Scarecrow.

"You are unusual," replied Glinda.

Turning to the Tin Woodman, she asked, "What will become of you when Dorothy leaves this country?"

He leaned on his axe and thought a moment. Then he said, "The Winkies were very kind to me, and wanted me to rule over them after the Wicked Witch died. I am fond of the Winkies, and if I could get back again to the Country of the West, I should like nothing better than to rule over them forever."

"My second command to the Winged Monkeys," said Glinda "will be that they carry you safely to the land of the Winkies. Your brain may not be so large to look at as those of the Scarecrow, but you are really brighter than he is--when you are well polished--and I am sure you will rule the Winkies wisely and well."

This is my first page. As the Scarecrow wants to go back to the Emerald City and the Tin Woodman wants to go back to the country of the Winkies, I have painted their triangles green and yellow respectively. In some illustrations the Scarecrow is pictured wearing a gold crown until Ozma becomes the rightful ruler of Oz and he steps down, so I have given him a gold jewelled crown. The Tin Woodman was given  a silver oil-can, inlaid with gold and set with precious jewels so I made him a silver jewelled oil-can. You can't tell the Scarecrow's words and washed with iridescent blue and the Tin Woodman's with silver.  

Then the Witch looked at the big, shaggy Lion and asked, "When Dorothy has returned to her own home, what will become of you?"

"Over the hill of the Hammer-Heads," he answered, "lies a grand old forest, and all the beasts that live there have made me their King. If I could only get back to this forest, I would pass my life very happily there."

"My third command to the Winged Monkeys," said Glinda, "shall be to carry you to your forest. Then, having used up the powers of the Golden Cap, I shall give it to the King of the Monkeys, that he and his band may thereafter be free for evermore."

The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman and the Lion now thanked the Good Witch earnestly for her kindness; and Dorothy exclaimed:

"You are certainly as good as you are beautiful! But you have not yet told me how to get back to Kansas."

"Your Silver Shoes will carry you over the desert," replied Glinda. "If you had known their power you could have gone back to your Aunt Em the very first day you came to this country."

This is my second illustration. I made the Lion’s triangle red because his forest in in Quadling country and Dorothy’s a sort of sepia to represent Kansas. Since the Lion will be king of the beasts, I made him a crown that looks like it was carved out of a tree since he will live in a forest and I gave Dorothy one of her silver shoes. The Lion's words are iridescent orange and Dorothy's are a wash or brown. 

 Note: This quote about "If you had known their power you could have gone back to your Aunt Em the very first day you came to this country" works in the book because she has never met Glinda before. Remember in the book it is a whole different witch who meets her when she first arrives in Oz. In the film Glinda says the same thing, but it makes her come across as a “psycho glitter bitch” for making Dorothy go through all that. The film tries to fob Dorothy off with the line “If I had told you, you wouldn’t have believed me” which always made me mad. Why wouldn’t she believe you?  You need two witches to pull this off. 

"But then I should not have had my wonderful brains!" cried the Scarecrow. "I might have passed my whole life in the farmer's cornfield."

"And I should not have had my lovely heart," said the Tin Woodman. "I might have stood and rusted in the forest till the end of the world."

"And I should have lived a coward forever," declared the Lion, "and no beast in all the forest would have had a good word to say to me."

"This is all true," said Dorothy, "and I am glad I was of use to these good friends. But now that each of them has had what he most desired, and each is happy in having a kingdom to rule besides, I think I should like to go back to Kansas."

Stay tuned tomorrow as Dorothy says goodbye to her companions.