The Wicked Witch of the East

Wicked Witch of the East
Oz character
The Wicked Witch of the East as pictured in The Tin Woodman of Oz—illustration by John R. Neill (1918)
First appearance	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Created by	L. Frank Baum
Portrayed by	Margaret Hamilton (The Wizard of Oz) Michelle Federer (Wicked) Sharon Taylor (Once Upon a Time) Rachel Weisz (Oz the Great and Powerful) Florence Kasumba (Emerald City)
Information
Aliases	Gingema (1939) (The Wizard of the Emerald City) Evvamene (1974) (The Wiz) Rebecca Eastwitch (1992) (Oz Squad #2) Nessarose Thropp (1996) (Wicked) Old Sand-Eye (2000) (The Unknown Witches of Oz) Diana (2003) (MÄR) East (2006) (Witch Hunter) Evanora (2013) (Oz the Great and Powerful) Zinna (2013) (Grimm Fairy Tales presents Oz #1) Witch of the East (2014) (Once Upon a Time) Mistress East (2017) (Emerald City)
Species	Human (witch)
Gender	Female
Occupation	Ruler of the Munchkin Country (at time of death)
Title	The Wicked Witch of the East
Family	The Wicked Witch of the West (sister)
Nationality	Ozian of Munchkin descent

The Wicked Witch of the East is a fictional character in the Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. She is a crucial character but appears only briefly in Baum's classic children's series Of Oz books, most notably The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

The Wicked Witch was an elderly, malevolent woman who conquered and tyrannized the Munchkin Country in Oz's eastern quadrant, forcing the native Munchkins to slave for her night and day. Her charmed Silver Shoes (famously changed to magic ruby slippers in the 1939 movie musical) held many mysterious powers and were her most precious and prized possession. The Witch met her demise when Dorothy Gale's farmhouse landed on her after being swept into the sky by a cyclone. Her old and withered body turned to dust, leaving behind the magical shoes which were passed to Dorothy as their new owner.

The Wicked Witch of the East was believed to be more powerful than the Good Witch of the North, but not as powerful as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. She also appeared to be more powerful than Mombi, the Wicked Witch of the North, as the Good Witch of the North was able to defeat Mombi, but was powerless to overthrow the witch of the east and free the Munchkins.

She was not in any way related to the Wicked Witch of the West, (as it made out to be in several adaptions) but leagued together with her, and also the Wicked Witch Mombi and the Wicked Witch of the South, to conquer and divide Oz among themselves in four sections as recounted in Baum's fourth Oz book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908). After the fall of Pastoria, the last mortal King of Oz, the old witch conquered the eastern section of Oz and held the native Munchkins in her bondage for a number of decades.