Quadling Country

Quadling Country
Map of Oz, with Quadling Country in the south
The Oz series location
Creator	L. Frank Baum
Genre	Children's books
Type	Fairy country
Notable locations	Forest of the Fighting Trees, Dainty China Country, Glinda's Palace, Jinxland
Notable characters	Glinda, Hammer-Heads, Hoppers, Horners

The Quadling Country is the southern division of L. Frank Baum's fictional Land of Oz. It is distinguished by the color red, worn by most of the local inhabitants as well as the color of their surroundings. Like the Munchkin Country, the outer regions of the Quadling Country are rich, pleasant and beautiful, inhabited by kind and friendly people, while the areas closer to the Emerald City (i.e. most of the regions between the mountains of the Hammer-Heads and the Forest of the Fighting Trees) are forbidding and dangerous (see "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" section below).

Elements in Quadling Country

Like all the countries of Oz, the Quadling Country contains various unusual sights and places. Among them are:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

• The palace of Glinda the sorceress, also known in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other Oz books as the Witch of the South
• The mountains in which dwell the belligerent and armless Hammer-Heads
• Forest whose animals hail the Cowardly Lion as their king
• The Dainty China Country
• The forest of the Fighting Trees, whose Northern row of trees have the power to use their branches to fling away anyone who attempts to enter the forest

The Emerald City of Oz

• Miss Cuttenclip, who cuts paper dolls from live paper
• Fuddlecumjig, where the inhabitants are made from puzzle pieces and have to be reassembled often
• Utensia, a kingdom inhabited by animated eating and cooking implements
• Bunbury, a land where all the inhabitants are animated food
• Bunnybury, where intelligent rabbits walk on their hind legs and wear clothes
• Rigmarole Town and Flutterbudget Center, where people either explain things in a roundabout way or worry over nothing

The Patchwork Girl of Oz

• Mister Yoop, a captive "untamed giant"
• The Hoppers, one-legged cave dwellers who travel by hopping
• The Horners, pun-loving radium miners with horns who share the caves with the Hoppers and breed prodigiously

The Scarecrow of Oz

• Jinxland, a monarchy separated from the rest of the Quadling Country by a gorge

The Lost King of Oz

• Morrow, home of King Pastoria's hunting lodge.

Appearances in modern works

In Gregory Maguire's revisionist Oz novels Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Son of a Witch, Quadling Country is described as a largely undeveloped, swampy region, with the ruddy-faced Quadlings being portrayed as artistic and sexually free. It is also stated that in Oz they represent the lowest of the low in humans. It is here that Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West), Nessarose (the Wicked Witch of the East) and Shell are raised, though they are natives of Munchkinland. Despite its unprofitable swampy soil, Quadling Country is reported to be situated above vast deposits of rubies, and for this reason the Wizard sends his forces to clear the area for mining. This campaign results in the decimation of both the population and the ecosystem of the area.