Scrow

The Scrow are a nomadic Vinkus tribe inhabiting the Thousand Year Grasslands, encountered by Elphaba during her journey on the Grasstrail Train. Their significance in the narrative lies in their chieftain, Princess Nastoya, who is secretly an Elephant living under a spell, and in their role in offering Elphaba a new identity as a witch, marking a turning point in her self-conception after years of seclusion in a mauntery.

Identity and Culture

The Scrow are a tribal people of the Vinkus, distinct from the Yunamata and the Arjiki. Their encampment is arranged in concentric circles, with the Princess's tent at the center, surrounded by her advisors and concubine-husbands, and beyond that, four hundred tents housing perhaps a thousand people. They are described as having poached-salmon skin, moistly protruding eyes, handsome generous noses, and big buttocks and wide rolling hips, men and women alike. Their culture includes a shrine, a sacred grove of trees, and a reverence for elephants that predates language and history. They are also known to practice ritual slaughter of guests, a fate that Pinchweed, a member of the Grasstrail Train, narrowly avoids due to his honesty.

Princess Nastoya and the Elephant Revelation

The Scrow are ruled by Princess Nastoya, a massive, elderly woman carried in a palanquin, who is revealed to be an Elephant living under a spell. She explains to Elphaba that she chooses to live as a changeling because an Elephant is a hunted thing in these times, and that the Scrow approve of her, having worshipped elephants from before the time of language. She tells Elphaba that those who are the most themselves are the victims when the times are a crucible. She gives Elphaba three crows as familiars, telling her she is in hiding as a witch now, and that they have the same enemy. The Princess also reveals that she can hear bees, and that Elphaba, on some level, caused the bees to kill the cook.

Encounter with Elphaba

Elphaba, along with Oatsie Manglehand, the rafiqi, Igo, and Pinchweed, is summoned to the Scrow shrine. There, Princess Nastoya questions each traveler about their intentions. Elphaba states her purpose: to retire from the world after making sure of the safety of the survivors of her lover, to face his widow, Sarima, in guilt and responsibility, and then to remove herself from the darkening world. The Princess tells Elphaba that no retreat from the world can mask what is in her face, and that she must go and do her job. When Elphaba asks to stay, the Princess refuses to answer, but before she leaves, she tells Elphaba, "Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny."

Narrative Role and Significance

The Scrow, through Princess Nastoya, serve as a catalyst for Elphaba's transformation from a maunt seeking oblivion into a witch who accepts a role in the world. The encounter provides Elphaba with a new identity and purpose, as well as magical familiars. The Princess's revelation that she is an Animal living under a spell reinforces the novel's themes of oppression and the cost of survival in a hostile political climate. The Scrow's isolation and their reverence for a hidden, powerful being also mirror Elphaba's own hidden nature and her eventual assumption of the mantle of the Wicked Witch of the West.