A LITTLE WITCH WILL LEAD THEM

A blogger friend of mine did a post the other day showing a tray that she had painted for Halloween. It is so cute I told her she had inspired me to paint a tray of my own. The following is what I came up with.

I've titled the painting, "A Little Witch Will Lead Them",

now I just need to decide where I want to put it. How about on the table in front of the sofa?

Maybe I'll set it on the buffet where everything else tends to end up.

While I was down loading the photos I'd taken into the computer I could hear voices in the hall outside of my studio so I went out there to investigate and this is what I found.

"We really need to do something with this silly tree. All of these hearts are creeping me out. Glenda, give it a tap with that marvelous wand you're so proud of and see if you can make the darn thing less disgusting."

"I'm with Belladonna on this. These hearts are just plain creepy. Go ahead, zap it with your wand."

"Alright. Stand back and I'll see if I can make it look a bit more like a Halloween tree."

*S*P*A*R*K*##S*P*U*T*T*E*R*##S*P*A*T!!!**

*PUFFFFFF*

"Well would you look at that?! The stupid wand actually works."

"But...uhh, Glenda...?? Where did all of these pumpkins come from?"

That's exactly how it happened. I didn't get a photo of the puff of smoke that appeared just before everything on the table top changed because it all happened too fast.

The enchanted tree does seem to be happier now that he has his little buddy the crow back. The tree and the crow are my sister Maggie's designs and if you would like to make an enchanted tree of your own visit her blog  Off My Rocker  where you can order the pattern.

It really feels like fall now that the temperatures have dropped and the rains have started. The leaves on my trees are still green but that will change before too much longer.  As much as I enjoy summer I'm ready to embrace some cooler weather. With the cooler weather comes other things to enjoy like baking and then there are the holidays and I do love those holidays! 

I hope you're having a good week and once again, thanks for stopping by.

The Oz Party Still Going Strong

Chapter Three

Since this is the third day of my celebrating I’m beginning to get a bit loopy. I may be close to having my fill of Oz for a while so after this post there will only be one more day to see whatever else I might have come up with. If you’ve been here throughout my Oz posts you’ve either learned a lot about Oz or are sure I’m over the rainbow and need to be put away somewhere that has soft walls, bars on the windows and locks on the doors.  

Today I have yet another  subject to cover and that is all there is to know about Glinda the Good Witch of Oz not just a pretty face she’s smart and powerful too, or at least this was what I thought when I was a young girl reading the books and watching the movie.

When I saw Glinda the first time I was so impressed. Hey, I was a young girl and in those days I was all about pretty and shiny things. (Still am) What little girl wouldn’t want a dress just like the one in the movie? I could picture myself wearing that dress and spinning in circles and watching that dress float out around me. Heck, it floated out to infinity without the spinning. I’d never seen anything like it. Then there was that gorgeous crown. Can you name any little girl you know who wouldn’t want to have that crown? I still want that crown and I’m not that little girl anymore.  Then you have to give Glinda credit for making an entrance.  Now that’s showmanship if nothing else. Compared to the other grown women in the movie, Auntie Em, nice but as plain as bread pudding and that awful Miss Gulch who scared the little wimpy girl I was back then so badly I had nightmares where she was chasing me on her bicycle. Then the Wicked Witch who looked so much like that awful Miss Gulch except maybe even scarier and compared to them Glinda was like nothing I’d ever seen and everything I wanted to be.

My idea of Glinda

Glinda and Dorothy in Munchkin Land

As I’ve mentioned a time or two in the past few days I read all of the Oz books that our public library had to offer and I continued reading them through the years whenever I found one at the book store or library. These are some of the things those books had to say about Glinda the Good Witch.

Baum's 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz refers to Glinda as the Good Witch of the South. She finally gets Dorothy home by telling her of the power of the silver slippers. She gets the Golden Cap from Dorothy, and uses it to get the Scarecrow back to the Emerald city, the Tin Man to the land of the Winkies, and the Lion to a nearby forest, areas which the characters have been made rulers of. Later books call her a "Sorceress" rather than a "witch." Baum's writings make clear that he did not view witches as inherently wicked or in league with the Devil, so this change was probably meant to signal that Glinda's knowledge and command of magic surpassed that of a witch.

In the books, Glinda is depicted as a beautiful young woman with long, rich red hair and blue eyes, wearing a pure white dress. When I made my version of Glinda I chose to go with the movie version, dressing her all in pink. She is much older than her appearance would suggest, but "knows how to keep young in spite of the many years she has lived" - a fact that is established in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by the ‘Soldier With Green Whiskers.’ She has ruled the Quadling Country ever since she overthrew the Wicked Witch of the South during the period when Ozma's grandfather was king of Oz.

She plays the most active role in finding and restoring Princess Ozma, the rightful heir, to the throne of Oz, the search for whom takes place in the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, although Glinda had been searching for Ozma ever since the princess disappeared as a baby. It may well be that she didn't overthrow the Wicked Witches of the East and West, despite being more powerful than they were, because she wanted all of Oz to be unified under its rightful ruler, Ozma, first. After Ozma's ascent to the throne, Glinda continues to help the Queen of Oz to shape the future of the Land of Oz as a whole, no longer confining her powers to guarding her Quadling Kingdom in the South alone; true to her character, Glinda does not interfere in affairs of State unless Ozma seeks her counsel or help specifically.

In addition to her vast knowledge of magic Glinda employs various tools, charms, and instruments in her workshop. The Emerald City of Oz reveals that she owns a Great Book of Records that allows her to track everything that goes on in the world from the instant it happens. Starting with The Road to Oz she trains the formerly humbug Wizard in magic; he becomes a formidable practitioner, but acknowledges that she is more powerful yet.

Glinda lives in a palace near the southern border of the Quadling Country, attended by fifty beautiful maidens from each country of Oz. She also employs a large army of female soldiers, with which she takes on General Jinjur's Army of Revolt, who had conquered the Emerald City in The Marvelous Land of Oz. Men are not prominent in Glinda's court.

Glinda is strongly protective of her subjects in the South. She creates gated communities for the rabbits of Bunnybury and the paper dolls of Miss Cuttenclip, showing a personal interest in the concerns of not only the humanoid Quadlings, but also the other inhabitants of her jurisdiction.

In The Emerald City of Oz, when Ozma goes to consult Glinda about the security of her Ozian citizens, the Sorceress seals off all of Oz from the ‘Great Outside World,’ making Oz invisible to the eyes of mortals flying overhead in airplanes and such. However, unlike Ozma, Glinda is willing to ignore strife and oppression in remote corners of Oz like Jinxland and the Skeezers territory as long as it does not threaten the Emerald City or innocent outsiders. The readers are left with the sense that Glinda is experienced and seasoned to the point of knowing that there isn't a magic cure for everything, and that certain things cannot be changed or perhaps should not be changed for better or for worse.

One of the more obscure facts about Glinda is that she created the Forbidden Fountain with the Waters of Oblivion, at the center of Oz, whose waters redeemed a former King of Oz who was exceptionally cruel. This happened "many centuries ago" according to Queen Ozma (again alluding to Glinda's advanced age), and it is this fountain that saves Oz from the invading Nome King and his allies in The Emerald City of Oz , by making them forget their nefarious intentions. Glinda clearly made the Fountain at a point in Oz's history when the Land was unified under one of the members of the Royal Family of Oz, albeit a tyrannical king in this isolated incident, and so she was able to intervene in a way that she couldn't when the country was divided between the Wizard and the Wicked Witches of the East and West et al., prior to Dorothy's arrival.

Most intriguingly, in The Emerald City of Oz, when the Nome King considers invading Oz, he is told by a minion, General Guph, that Glinda the Good's castle is located "at the north of the Emerald City," when it has been established that Glinda rules the South. Guph may have gotten his facts muddled, as none of the Nomes had been to Oz at that time, but it portends the depiction of Glinda as the Good Witch of the North rather than the South in the 1939 MGM film (which is the most widely known version of Oz to date).

General Guph also tells the Nome King that Glinda "commands the spirits of the air, this statement made by Guph once again foreshadows a much later cinematic rendition of Glinda, in the film version of the Broadway musical The Wiz in which Glinda is responsible for the twister that brings Dorothy's house to Oz and sets all subsequent events into motion.

Of all the characters in L. Frank Baum's Oz, Glinda is the most enigmatic. Despite being titled "Glinda the Good," she is not a one-dimensional caricature whose sole purpose is to embody and generate all that is generically considered "good," as indicated above.

She ultimately becomes the adult anchor in the Oz books, because she is never distracted or swayed, and always maintains absolute firmness of purpose - something that cannot be said for the other adult characters in the series such as the Wizard and the Shaggy Man or even the Good Witch of the North. They all fall short of Glinda's wisdom and resoluteness.

In the 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz, Glinda is the Good Witch of the North, not the South as in the book. Glinda performs the functions of not only the novel's Good Witch of the North and Good Witch of the South, but also the novel's Queen of Field Mice, by being the one who welcomes Dorothy to Oz, sends her "off to see the Wizard," and orchestrates her rescue from the deadly poppy field in addition to revealing the secret to going back home.

That is what most of the Oz the books have to say about Glinda but there are those who have a different tale to tell. Oma Linda has another version that you may care to read and then you can decide for yourself. Is Glinda the witch she’s purported to be? Or has it all been a cover-up to keep us all safe but confused? Who knows? Maybe after reading what Oma Linda has to say you might have other ideas and decide to join ‘Team Green’.

The following is a list of books that have been written about Oz starting with the one you all are most familiar with.

 L. Frank Baum (1856 – 1919)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ~ 1900

The Marvelous Land of Oz ~ 1904

Ozma of Oz ~ 1907

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz ~ 1908

The Road to Oz ~ 1909

The Emerald City of Oz  ~ 1910

The Patchwork Girl of Oz  ~ 1913

Tic-Tok of Oz ~ 1914

The Scarecrow of Oz ~ 1915

Rinkitink in Oz ~1916

The Lost Princess of Oz ~1917

The Tin Woodman of Oz ~ 1918

The Magic of Oz ~ 1919

Glinda of Oz ~   1920

 

Due to the popularity of the Oz books a second author, Ruth Plumly Thompson stepped in after Baum’s death and wrote nineteen books to add to the original series then thirty three years later another book was published the year she died a one last book was published.

Ruth Plumly Thompson (1891 – 1976)

The Royal Book of Oz ~ 1921

Kabump in Oz ~ 1922

The Cowardly Lion of Oz ~ 1923

Grampa in Oz ~ 1924

The Lost King of Oz ~ 1925

The Hungry Tiger of Oz ~ 1926

The Gnome King of Oz ~ 1927

The Giant Horse of Oz ~ 1928

Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz ~ 1929

The Yellow Knight of Oz ~ 1930

Pirates in Oz ~ 1931

The Purple Prince of Oz ~ 1932

Ojo in Oz ~ 1933

Speedy in Oz ~ 1934

The Wishing Horse of Oz ~ 1935

Captain Salt in Oz ~ 1936

Handy Mandy in Oz ~ 1937

The Silver Princess in Oz ~ 1938

Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz ~ 1939

Yankee in Oz ~ 1972

The Enchanted Island of Oz ~ 1976

 

I find it interesting that the illustrator John R. Neill who did the illustrations for all of the Oz books written by L. Frank Baum except for the first one and nineteen of the ones written by Ruth Plumly Thompson ended up writing and illustrating three more books to add to the series.

John R. Neill (1877 – 1943)

The Wonder City of Oz ~ 1940

The Scalawagons of Oz  ~ 1941

Lucky Bucky in Oz  ~ 1942

The Runaway in Oz was released after his death in 1995

 

The next author to tell us tales of Oz was Jack Snow who contributed two more books to the series. He later wrote a book introducing us to over 630 characters from the first 39 Oz books.

Jack Snow (1907 – 1956)

The Magical Mimics in Oz  ~ 1946

The Shaggy Man of Oz  ~ 1949

Who’s Who in Oz  ~ 1954

 

Rachel R. Cosgrove (1922 – 1998)

The Hidden Valley of Oz ~ 1951

The Wicked Witch of Oz ~ 1993

Eloise Jarvis McGraw with Lauren Lynn McGraw

Merry Go Round in Oz ~ 1963

The Forbidden Fountain of Oz ~ 1980

Eloise Jarvis McGraw (1915 – 2000)

The Rundelstone of Oz ~ 2000

More works about Oz:

 

Dick Martin

The Ozmapolitan of Oz ~ 1986

Edward Einhorn

Paradox in Oz ~ 1999

The Living House of Oz ~ 2005

Dave Hardenbrook

The Unknown Witches of Oz ~ 2000  

 

Gregory Maguire has written four book based on Oz the Wicked Years and this series of books has a slightly different view of Oz and his work has become some of my favorites. As I mentioned in an earlier post this was the first time the Wicked Witch of the West was given a name.

Wicked ~ 1995

Son of a Witch ~ 2005

A Lion Among Men ~ 2008

Out of Oz  ~ 2011

James Howe                      

Mr. Tinker in Oz ~ 2000

Sherwood Smith

The Emerald Wand of Oz ~ 2005

Trouble Under Oz ~ 2006

Margaret Baum                 

The Silver Tower of Oz ~ 2011

Frank Joslyn Baum L. Frank Baum’s son

The Laughing Dragon of Oz  ~ 1934

Philip Jose Farmer

The Barnstormer in Oz ~1982

Roger S. Baum L. Frank Baum’s great grandson

Dorothy of Oz ~ 1989

Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage ~ 1995

Joan D. Vinge

Return to Oz ~ 1985

Note: The book cover art that appears throughout the list are from the works of L. Frank Baum.

Books of Oz have been published as recently as 2011 and no doubt there will be more in the future.  This book list I put together has over sixty titles written by numerous authors although many fans believe the only books of Oz worth reading are the ones written by Baum.

If you believe that to be true you just might be missing out on reading some very entertaining books. For the most part I’ve enjoyed each and every one that I’ve read although there are some that were written more for children than those of us who are only child-like. 

I have only one post left for my Celebrate Oz offerings that is the one tomorrow where Dillywink will find out where he’ll be spending his time in the future. If you’re interested in finding out where that will be come back here tomorrow and see. Once again, you have until midnight tonight to enter the drawing.

Hope you’re having a great weekend and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Things You Might Not Know About the Land of Oz

Chapter Two

A few days ago I posted letting you know that I was going to be participating in the Celebrate Oz party and at the beginning of that post I put a map of Oz. The reason I have a different one at the beginning of this post is because this map is the map that has the correct placement of the Winkie Country and Munchkin Country. MGM took liberties and switched the two. I discovered this when I was doing some research trying to answer a question someone asked the other day. That someone was Oma Linda. You know who I mean. She’s the one who is the instigator behind this party and a fellow Oz lover.  I thought I’d take this time to give her an answer. The question was, “Where does the Red Brick Road lead to?”

 After much squinting at my maps (I've found several) and much reading and checking and researching and then double checking my findings, I have decided the road must lead to the Quadling Country. I made this decision based on the fact the color that represents Quadling Country is red.  For those of you who are even the least bit interested I’ve gathered together some trivia concerning the four countries that make up the Land of Oz. This information comes from the books written about Oz.


The Gillikin Country is the division to the north and is represented by the color purple and is bordered on the northern edge by The Impassable Desert. Like all of the countries of Oz, the Gillikin Country contains various unusual sights, places and facts. Among them are:

• The forest of the Winged Monkeys winged creatures that obey whoever wears the enchanted Golden Cap
• The palace of the Good Witch of the North (never actually mentioned, but assumed to exist because the Good Witch of the North rules this particular province)
• The Ruby Palace of Gayelette.
• Jellia Jamb reported to have been born a Gillikin.
• The house of Mombi, a witch whom the Wizard hired to transform and keep hidden Ozma, the rightful ruler of Oz.
• The village of Loonville, whose balloon-like inhabitants warn strangers to stay away from their clearing (the Loons can also become too puffed-up).
• Yoop Castle, where a female giant Yookoohoo lived and ruled her valley.
• Dragons living beneath the Earth's surface, allowed to come out once every 100 years in search of food.
• The Forest of Gugu, ruled by Gugu the Leopard King with his counselors Loo the Unicorn, Rango the Gray Ape, and Bru the Bear.
• Giant purple spiders that catch travelers in their webs and make them their servants.
• Mist Maidens, fairies who live in a fog bank.
• Flatheads, people living on a mountaintop whose heads are flat and must carry their brains in a can in their pockets.
• Skeezers, once friends and now rivals of the Flatheads who live within a glass city in the middle of a lake.
• Reera the Red, a Yookoohoo preferring her privacy and specializes in transformations.
• Pumperdink, an elaborate fairy tale kingdom known for dipping its criminals in ink. Ruled by King Pompus and Queen Pozy Pink. Prince Pompadour is their son.
• Up Town, proclaimed the capital city of the Gillikin Country after the abandonment of post by the Good Witch of the North, ruled by Joe King and Queen Hyacinth, who are famous for their horse, High Boy, a large, purple animal with telescoping legs.
• Regalia, sister city to Pumperdink, home of Prince Randy.
• Upandup Mountain, home of Badmannah.
• The village of the Lanternesians.
• Dinker's shop of smokables.

The Quadling Country is the division to the south and is represented by the color red and is ruled over by The Good Witch Glinda. It is bordered on the south by The Great Sandy Waste.  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 (most of the regions between the mountains of the Hammer-Heads and the Forest of the Fighting Trees) are forbidding and dangerous. Some of the interesting features or sites of Quadling Country are:

• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• Jinxland, a monarchy separated from the rest of the Quadling Country by a gorge.
• Morrow, home of King Pastoria’s hunting lodge.

The Good Witch Glinda in all of her sparkling glory and oh so much pink. She really does seem to have a thing for sparkly things, doesn't she?

The Munchkin Country or Munchkin Land is the division to the East and is represented by the color blue. Munchkin Country is linked to the Emerald City by means of the yellow brick road.  It is bordered on the eastern side by The Shifting Sands. While the Eastern part of the Munchkin Country is described as rich, beautiful, fertile and pleasant, and inhabited by friendly people, the Western part of the province ( the region bordered by a large forest and the area surrounding the Emerald City) is wild, rough and dangerous. Certain areas of this land are densely forested, and inhabited by ferocious beasts.

Munchkin Country is the site where Dorothy Gale’s house lands after being carried to Oz by a tornado.  Munchkin Country's ruler was the Wicked Witch of the East until Dorothy's arrival in Oz and she is eliminated when the house lands on top of her.

Dillywink, a charming fellow and one of the shorter Munchkins. Not all Munchkins are short you know.

The Winkie Country is a division of the Land of Oz. It is distinguished by the color yellow. This color is worn by most of the local inhabitants and predominates in the surroundings.

This was the country ruled by the Wicked Witch of the West before Dorothy "melted" her with a bucket of water after which the Tin Woodman ruled over the Winkies as their Emperor. The Winkie Country is separated only by the Deadly Desert from the underground Dominions of the Nome King. The Winkie Country like all of the countries of Oz has many unusual and unique sights and structures such as:

·         The Scarecrow's house, which is shaped like an ear of corn.

·         The house of Jack Pumpkinhead a giant hollowed-out pumpkin.

·         The palace of the Tin Woodman, created because the Wicked Witch's castle was too damp and the Tin Woodman would rust.

·         The Truth Pond, which anyone can bathe in and be freed of an enchantment but must always afterward tell the truth.

·         The Tottenhots, small sprite-like people who sleep during the day and play at night.

·         Merry-go-mountains, mountains that whirl swiftly and are made of rubber.

·         Thi, where bipeds with heart-shaped chests subsist only on thistles and use mechanical dragons to pull their chariots.

·         Bear Center, in a forest where stuffed bears are ruled by the Lavender Bear and guided by the wind-up Little Pink Bear.

·         Yip Country, a republic advised by the Frogman and separated from the Winkie Country at the top of a mountain.

·         Perhaps City on Maybe Mountain.

·         The dark forest of Gloma the good witch.

·         Wackajammy, the bread basket of the West.

Elphaba AKA The Wicked Witch of the West,

maybe, maybe not what do you think?

Careless Dorothy Gale  AKA  The Witch Slayer

Remember, on Sunday, July 22^nd I’m going to have a drawing and someone will be giving Dillywink a new home. You can enter the giveaway on this post or any of my Oz posts up until midnight Saturday July 21^st.

I hope I was able to provide some things in this post about Oz that you didn’t know and maybe were just a wee bit interesting to you.

As always, thanks for stopping by.