Those Elusive Rulers of Oz's Kingdoms
by Ruth Berman

   The identities of the kings of the Munchkins, Gillikins, Winkies, and
Quadlings have been puzzling Oz fans for a long time.  Way back in
December 1963, Fred M. Meyer ran the results of an "Oz Mysteries"
poll in the "Baum Bugle," one of the mysteries being the question of the
identities of the rulers of Oz who marched in the parade celebrating
Ozma's birthday party in "The Road to Oz"; they were also mentioned
in "Ozma of Oz", when the Munchkins' king greeted Ozma and her
party on their return from Ev.  The poll's general opinion was that the
Munchkins' king had to be Cheeriobed, introduced by name as the lost
Monarch of the Munchkins by Ruth Plumly Thompson in "The Giant
Horse of Oz."

("spoiler" note: following material assumes knowledge of ending of
"Giant Horse")

   The "Road" king couldn't have been Cheeriobed's father, because
the older king was destroyed by Mombi on the day of Cheeriobed's
marriage to Princess Orin -- which was three years before Mombi
kidnapped Orin and turned her into the Witch of the North, which, in
turn, was before Dorothy came to Oz in "The Wizard of Oz" and first
met the Witch of the North.  (Orin, in the 1928 "Giant Horse," described
Mombi as having attacked her "about" 25 years ago, which fits well
enough with events from the time of "Wizard" or a few years earlier.)

   It could have been some otherwise unknown Munchkin king,
perhaps someone who had been selected by the Munchkins after the
death of the Wicked Witch of the East, in the same way that the
Winkies chose the Tin Woodman after the death of the Wicked Witch of
the West.  John R. Neill called the Scarecrow the ruler of the
Munchkins in his Oz books, and perhaps Neill was assuming for
symmetry's sake that the Munchkins would have chosen the
Scarecrow.  But the Scarecrow was separately mentioned in both
"Ozma" and "Road" (part of the returning expedition, and marching
elsewhere in the parade). so he couldn't have been the Munchkins'
king then.  Maybe Neill was assuming that Cheeriobed chose to retire
some years after "Giant Horse," and the choice of the Scarecrow was
made then.

   The Tin Woodman, by contrast, did not march in the "Road" parade
unless he was, as one would expect, the unnamed king of the
Winkies.  A group of Winkies, including a tin band and some of the Tin
Woodman's servants, marched further along in the parade, but the Tin
Woodman was not described as being with them.

   If Cheeriobed met with Ozma in "Ozma" and "Road," however, there
is a problem: after kidnapping Orin, Mombi sent the monster Quiberon
to keep Cheeriobed and all his people trapped on the Ozure Isles, so
how did Cheeriobed get out, and why didn't he ask for her help in
getting rid of Quiberon and finding his wife if he did get out?  (For that
matter, what was Ozma doing entering the Munchkin Country, coming
back from Ev?  Did the magic carpet get lost in mid-desert and take
them the long way round before striking Oz?)

   A possible solution to Cheeriobed's freedom of movement is that
Quiberon did not arrive until several years after Mombi stole Orin.
Creating such a monster must have demanded an extremely powerful
spell.  Perhaps Mombi used a slow-acting spell, one that would "grow"
Quiberon over a long period of time, as if he were a Mangaboo
("Road") or a royal Rose ("Tiktok").  And perhaps creating a monster as
large as Quiberon took up so much of Mombi's power that starting the
spell left her weakened, and it was this weakness that made it possible
for the newly bewitched Tattypoo to overcome Mombi and limit her
power thereafter.  And at that point, perhaps it was impatience with the
length of time it was taking to grow Quiberon that sent Mombi off to
the Crooked Magician ("Land"), thinking to use his Powder of Life to
complete Quiberon, and thus set in motion the events that led to
Ozma's restoration to the throne and Mombi's loss of the rest of her
magic powers.  (Incidentally, the Crooked Magician was Dr. Nikidik in
"Land," and Dr. Pipt in "Patchwork Girl" -- I suspect his full name was
Dr. Nikidik Pipt.)

   But the slow-acting spell continued to work in the years that followed
Mombi's downfall, and eventually Quiberon ripened and flew off to the
Ozure Isles, as programmed, arriving some time after the "Road"
parade.  And as to why Cheeriobed did not ask Ozma's help in finding
Orin -- he did.  But she was new to the throne and inexperienced, and
finding lost people seems to be a difficult task, even for magic.  In
"Land" Glinda almost failed to find Ozma and Mombi, and it was by
chance that Ozma's father was discovered, years later, in "Lost King."
A clever enough spell can fool the Magic Picture (as happened with the
Wizard's bag in "Shaggy Man").  The terms of Orin's amnesia and
changed appearance may have baffled all attempts at finding her.

   Another oddity in the "Road" rulers is that most of the time, Glinda
and the Good Witch of the North were spoken of as ruling the
Quadlings and the Gillikens, but the two Good Witches appeared
further along in the parade, marching arm-in-arm several spaces behind
the four kings.  Fred Meyer suggested (in the 1963 poll report) that
Ozma had allowed each of the four territories to select a king, but that
the Quadlings' king was so much less powerful than Glinda, that she
was in practical (if not in parade) terms the ruler, and became the ruler
in name soon after.  The same suggestion would apply to the
Gillikens.  One of the poll respondents, Gary Bargar, suggested that
the name of the Quadling king might have been Quad, assuming the
country was named for an earlier dynasty and assuming the new king
came from that dynasty.  It might also be suggested that the Quadlings
could have selected one or another of the local rulers who appeared in
later books, such as King Fumbo of Ragbad ("Grandpa"), in the days
before his own territory went to pieces, or Baron Belfaygor of Bourne
("Jack Pumpkinhead"), or the king of Red Top Mountain ("Ozoplaning").

   The king of the Gillikens could have been any of several local
Gilliken monarchs, but there is one obvious candidate: Orin's father,
King Gil of Gilkenny.  The name suggests that he came from a line of
rulers of the Gillikens, and a member of the family of previous rulers
would probably be a popular choice for the Gillikens.

   When Quiberon finally arrived and cut off Cheeriobed and the Ozure
Isles from the rest of Oz, nobody seems to have noticed that the Ozure
Islanders stopped visiting the mainland.  Perhaps they had almost
entirely stopped visiting anyway, because they and Cheeriobed,
grieving over the loss of Orin, had gradually withdrawn more and more
into retirement.  Gil, too, must have been grieving -- and perhaps it was
his grief that led him, too, to withdraw, and then to turn over his
kingdom to the Good Witch of the North, ironically unaware of her true
identity.  (And perhaps Gil's retirement, in turn, made the Quadlings'
king decide to retire and turn over the title to Glinda?)

   If these identifications are correct, there was a sad irony in the
parade.  Cheeriobed and Gil, if they had only known it, were only a few
yards away from their lost Orin.

   If Gil was still alive when Orin was finally found, no doubt he was as
delighted as Cheeriobed.  If so, however, he evidently preferred
retirement to ruling.  He did not ask for his title back to replace the
"lost" Good Witch of the North.  Ozma appointed Joe King, instead.

   The history of the rulers of the kingdoms of Oz is elusive.  The
relationships between the four large kingdoms and their smaller
sub-kingdoms, and between the foursome and the Emerald City, are
complicated and have no doubt changed a good deal over time.  For
instance, the kingdom that once covered most of the southern
Munchkin territory had shrunk into the tiny territory of Seebania ("Ojo").
But Baum gave a clear indication of the identity of the Winkies' king in
"Road," and Thompson's seems to have intended Cheeriobed and Gil
to be seen as the "Road" parade's Munchkin and Gilliken kings, and,
as the opinion of a Royal Historian, her view carries weight.

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END OF ARTICLE