Saint Aelphaba

Saint Aelphaba is a legendary Munchkinlander mystic from six or seven centuries before the events of the novel, whose story of retreating behind a waterfall to pray is recounted by the sisters at Kiamo Ko and whose name is given to Elphaba. The saint's narrative of withdrawal, endurance, and ambiguous return serves as a symbolic parallel to Elphaba's own life, and her legend is invoked to explore themes of disappearance, sanctity, and the nature of evil.

Identity and Legend

Saint Aelphaba of the Waterfall was a Munchkinlander mystic who lived six or seven centuries ago. According to the story told by Five, one of Sarima's sisters at Kiamo Ko, she was a woman of such beauty that local men constantly pestered her for attention. To preserve her sanctity, she went into the wilderness with her holy scriptures and a single bunch of grapes. Wild beasts threatened her, and wild men hunted after her, and she was sore distressed. Then she came upon a huge waterfall coursing off a cliff. She said, 'This is my cave,' and took off all her clothes, and she walked right through the screen of pounding water. Beyond was a cavern hollowed out by the splashing water. She sat down there, and in the light that came through the wall of water she read her holy book and pondered on spiritual matters. She ate a grape every now and then.

The Return and Its Ambiguity

When at last she had finished her grapes, she emerged from the cave. Hundreds of years had passed. There was a village built on the banks of the stream, and even a milldam nearby. The villagers shrank in horror, for as children they had all played in the cavern behind the waterfall—lovers had trysted there, murders and foul deeds had taken place there, treasure had been buried there—and never had anyone ever seen Saint Aelphaba in her naked beauty. But all Saint Aelphaba had to do was open her mouth and speak the old speech, and they all knew that it must be she, and they built a chapel in her honor. She blessed the children and the elderly, and heard the confessions of the middle-aged, and healed some sick and fed some hungry, that sort of stuff, and then disappeared behind the waterfall again with another bunch of grapes—a bigger bunch this time. And that is the last anyone has seen of her.

Thematic Significance and Parallels to Elphaba

The story of Saint Aelphaba is invoked directly in the novel as a parallel to Elphaba's own life. When Five finishes recounting the legend, Sarima remarks, 'So you can disappear and not be dead.' Elphaba, however, immediately challenges the story's authenticity, suggesting that the reemerging Saint Aelphaba 'might have been some hussy from the next town over who wanted to give gullible peasants a good going over.' This skeptical interpretation reflects Elphaba's own lifelong struggle with faith, identity, and the meaning of her own existence. The saint's withdrawal behind a waterfall—a barrier of water—echoes Elphaba's own profound aversion to water, which is both a physical vulnerability and a symbolic barrier. The saint's ambiguous return, her ability to vanish and reappear, mirrors Elphaba's own pattern of disappearance and reappearance throughout her life, from her flight from Shiz to her years in the mauntery and her eventual seclusion at Kiamo Ko. The legend also raises questions about the nature of sanctity and evil: if a saint can be doubted, then perhaps a witch can be misunderstood. The story of Saint Aelphaba thus serves as a narrative mirror, inviting the reader to consider whether Elphaba's own story might be subject to similar reinterpretation and whether the line between the sacred and the wicked is as clear as it seems.