Gayelette

Infobox character
colour = MediumVioletRed
colour text =
series = Oz
name = Gayelette


caption = Wedding of Gayelette and Quelala
Illustration by W.W. Denslow
first = "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900)
last =
creator = L. Frank Baum
nickname =
alias =
species = human
gender = female
age = unknown
born = unknown
death = probably immortal
occupation = sorceress
title =
family = none known
spouse = Quelala
children = none known
relatives = none known
residence = Ruby Palace in the Gillikin Country
nationality = Gillikin

Gayelette is a fictional character in L. Frank Baum's novel, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". She is a great sorceress and princess who lives in the North (Gillikin Country) of the Land of Oz, and resides in a ruby castle built by her people, the men of whom she considers ugly and stupid, aside from her young husband, Quelala.

History with the Winged Monkeys

When Gaylette decides it is time to get married, she can find no men worthy of mating with her. Eventually however, she finds a young boy named Quelala, and has him raised to make a suitable husband for her. When Quelala grows up, he is fitted for a silk and velvet suit for the wedding. While Qualala is walking in the forest inhabited by the Winged monkeys, he is spotted by the King of the Monkeys, who, as a prank, picks him up and throws him into a river. Quelala is able to swim to safety, and does not mind the prank at all, but Gayelette is furious at the damage to the suit and uses her powers to punish the Winged Monkeys.

Though she originally intends to have the Monkeys thrown to their deaths in the same river into which they had cast Quelala, her husband pursuades her to reduce the extremity of the punishment, and instead she enchants a Golden Cap so that the Monkeys must to do the bidding of its wearer, though each wearer gets only three opportunities to command them in such a fashion. The first to do so is Quelala, to whom she gives the cap as a wedding present. Gayelette cannot stand the sight of the Winged Monkeys, so Quelala's only request is that they go away where she never has to see them.

The entire story of Gayelette and Quelala is told by the current King of the Winged Monkeys, whose grandfather tricked Quelala. The Monkeys do not know how the Wicked Witch of the West acquired the Golden Cap.

In spite of her harsh treatment of the Winged Monkeys and her judgment of the people, the current King of the Winged Monkeys says that her subjects loved her. She used her magic to help the people and was considered wise and good. ["The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", ch. 14]

Later Oz books

Gayelette never appears again in a canon Oz book. In Roger S. Baum's "Dorothy of Oz", she and Quelala aid Dorothy Gale when Dorothy seeks them out. ["Dorothy of Oz", ch. 11] They did not meet in the first Oz book.

Some have speculated that Gayelette may be a younger version of the Good Witch of the North, though such an explanation is not canon. She was not included in Jack Snow's "Who's Who in Oz", nor was Quelala. The character has never appeared in an adaptation with the exception of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" anime series, but then only in the unedited TV version.

The characters also appear in Christopher Charles Douglas's fan novel, "Mira of Oz" (2002). ["Mira of Oz", [http://www.angelfire.com/az3/gillikin/mira.htm] ]

References