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witchesoz · 2 years

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Volkov lore: Wood soldiers and Ore-Diggers

Volkov published his « The Wizard of Emerald City” in 1939. He published its sequel, “Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers” in 1963. It is a… major reinvention, let's say that, of “The Marvelous Land of Oz”.

The story speaks of Urfin Jus (basically a mix of Jinjur, Ugu the Shoemaker and a few other minor Oz villains). Urfin Jus is a Munchkin living in Blue Land, however Urfin absolutely hates the other Munchkins. He is taller than them, he did a conscious effort to stop his jaw from munching constantly so as to differentiate him, and he does not wear the traditional blue but rather brown. He also is a grumpy, sly, selfish man – so much that he actually willingly became a servant and assistant of Gingema, the Wicked Witch of the East. After her death, crushed by Ellie’s trailer-house, he explores her cave and takes from it several magical items that can be useful. One turns out to be… the Powder of Life.

Urfin Jus, in his every-day life is a joiner. It isn’t much to ruin and harass the so-hated Munchkins, but he manages – notably by crafting dolls that have scary faces so as to terrify Munchkin children. When he discovers that the Powder of Life can animate objects, he creates a wicked plan: he crafts an entire army of wooden soldiers he brings to life with the Powder and has them marching on the Emerald City to become king of the Magic Land. At first, the heroes of the city (Faramant Guardian of the Gates, Din Gior the long-bearded soldier, the Iron Woodman and Strasheela the Wise, new ruler of the City) defend it very well – but they have a traitor among their ranks, a man named Ruf Bilan who allies himself with Urfin Jus and lets his army inside. The heroes now captive ask a good friend of them, a crow named Kaggi-Karr, to go to Kansas and ask Ellie to come rescue them.

Ellie thus begins a travel to Magic Land with her dog Totoshka and her uncle Charlie Black, a one-legged sailor (and an equivalent of Baum’s Captain Bill). After all sorts of adventures underground (since they cannot reach Magic Land on the surface, because of the desert and the mountains), the trio reaches Magic Land, free the captured heroes, defeat the wooden army, and send Urfin Jus in exile. Then Ellie is brought back home again, and everything is fine.

Some interesting facts and points in this book:

# Urfin Jus uses his knowledge of making dolls with horrifying face well by creating his soldiers – he creates them with horrifying faces that scare their enemies. However, said wooden soldiers are at first mocked by other people because they are entirely naked, and Urfin Jus has to paint clothes on them.

# Urfin isn’t alone in his plan: in the beginning of the novel, one of the Great Horned Owls (the pets of Gingema) joins Urfin and guides him in his wicked deeds. The Owl’s name is Guamokolatokint, and he dislikes it when Urfin uses “Guam” as a name – ultimately they agree on using Guamoko, though the Owl is unsatisfied with his name being cut short. Guamoko is noted to be a very old Owl, and his wisdom is essential – while Urfin Jus is a determined and inventive man, he lacks the foresight of the Owl. In the end, when Urfin Jus is defeated, Guamoko abandons him and remakes a life for himself as a ruler of the Magic Land birds.

# The courtiers of the Emerald City are shown to actually be vain, lazy people who enjoy a bit too much their wealth, spending their days chatting and having fun, only pretending to take care and be busy with state matters. But despite that, they still stay faithful to Strasheela, refusing to swear allegiance to Urfin Jus and openly expressing their disdain and disgust with those among them that become servants of the invader. There is also a funny moment, after Urfin Jus conquered the Emerald City – in his megalomania, he gives himself an almost never-ending list of titles, which he is forced to cut short when he realizes that his new ministers are unable to repeat them properly.

# There are several hooks and hints for the book that would come next: Ellie and co travel underground to reach Magic Land, in the process spot a marvelous city, and when Urfin Jus is defeated the traitor Ruf Bilan runs away and hides underground.

# About Uncle Charlie Black – he actually just returned to Kansas after years of absence. This great traveler had been captured by a tribe of cannibals, and Ellie’s family (the Smith) assumed he had been devoured. As it turns out, Charlie Black became friend with the cannibals, who were very nice people (at least when he proved them he was more useful living than in a stew). They accepted him into his tribe, and even later helped him go back home.

# Urfin Jus has another companion called Topotun, a bear rug he accidentally animated when he first got hold of the Powder of Life. Topotun is actually a kind and sweet thing, and acts as the “good influence” at Urfin Jus side. Too bad the rest of his counsellors are just as evil: a creepy wicked puppet and the cruel former pet of a wicked witch. In fact, Volkov introduces a nice idea: the Powder of Life gives the creatures it animates a personality depending on their appearance. The creatures that look scary or horrifying will become evil, cruel or wicked, while the creatures that look beautiful, cute, kind or sweet will become good and benevolent.

# The heroes ask Urfin Jus to think about his evil deeds during his exile, in hope that he will realize that all he tried during the novel did not brought him an ounce of happiness: he worked extremely hard to build an entire army, but that was entirely stupid and difficult to control ; his so-called allies disliked him and abandoned him at the mere sight of defeat ; the hard and difficult siege of the Emerald City only resulted in him ruling over a population that hated him and refused to obey him, making him a very paranoid king, and ultimately he was dethroned in a very humiliating way by the rightful rulers… Contrary to the Wicked Witches, who were inhuman beings whose cruelty knew no limit, they hoped that Urfin Jus, being a man, would understand how evil leads to no happiness. SPOILERS: He doesn’t, but after two other wicked plans failing miserably, he will finally understood how being wicked is not for him and abandon all evilness.

# Strasheela is noted to be, just like the Scarecrow of Baum, bored out of its wits when ruling the Emerald City. Note that, contrary to the Scarecrow, he does not abandon his job and continues to rule – he just dislikes ruling when everything is peaceful and joyful because he has nothing to do. In fact, this is why later Stella the Witch of the South offers him a "magic television", the equivalent of Baum's Magic Picture, so he might entertain himself by looking at what happens in the world.

# Some people have noted that Urfin Jus looks a lot like Severus Snape. A grumpy and sour cynic, with an inventive and resourceful mind, preferring to be alone and dressing in dark clothes, with bushy eyebrows and a hooked nose, hugely popular in the fandom and despite being very unpleasant not truly evil…

“The Seven Underground Kings” is the third Magic Land book, released in 1964. Just like how “Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers” was inspired by “The Marvelous Land of Oz”, this one was inspired by “Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz”, Baum’s tale of an underground travel.

In Volkov’s book, we follow what happened to the treacherous Ruf Bilan, who at the end of the last book ran away underground. He arrived in Underground Land, an entire city and land located… well underground. This country has a peculiar government system, where seven kings take the crown in turn. Basically, each king rules for a month, while the six others are put to sleep by the Soporific Waters of the Sacred Spring. However Ruf Bilan wrecks it all by destroyed the Sacred Spring, and depriving Underground Land of its Soporific Waters. Resulting in the seven kings being awake at the same time… and the beginning of a big political fight between them. Hopefully, at the same time Ellie arrives with her cousin, a boy named Alfred. They were exploring a cavern in Iowa and got lost, ending up in Underground Land. The seven kings believe Ellie to be a fairy and ask her to restore the Soporific Waters, but she cannot do it – however she sends Totoshka to Magic Land with a letter. Her good friends immediately send a team of Winkies (led by a Winkie craftsman named Lestar) and they manage to create a pump that takes the Soporific Waters out of the depths of the Earth. However this water is very concentrated – the heroes put all the seven kings to sleep at once, and when they finally wake up, the water ended up erasing all of their memories. The seven kings become commoners, the heroes suggest and encourage the Underground citizen to go back to the surface and resettle, rebuilding a new nation, and finally Ellie, Alfred and Totoshka return home on the back of a dragon named Oyho.

However, before everything ends, Ramine, the Queen of the Field Mice, appears to Ellie – and reveals that she is actually a fairy! Yep, there are fairy mice. And Ramina makes a sad prophecy to Ellie: she will never see her friends from Magic Land again.

Yep, Volkov seemingly wanted this book to be the end of the Magic Land tales.

But, just like Baum, the series would not die…

Other informations of interest about this book:

# Each of the seven kings of the Underground City actually corresponds to one of the seven colors of the rainbow, and their palace is the Rainbow Palace – which was built as a reminder of the rainbow underground-dwellers will now never seen again (yes, because originally they lived above ground).

# There is a recurring joke about the two Underground doctors constantly fighting and arguing with each other. At the beginning of the book, the two doctors, Boril and Robil, are shown fighting as the Underground Land is formed… and in the “present” of the book, centuries later, two doctors named Boril and Robil also fight. This is actually explained by the fact the latter duo are the descendants of the former: the job of doctor is hereditary, and visibly their names are also passed from father to son. The fight of the two doctors is actually based on the effects of the Soporific Waters: do they kill someone or not? Because you see, the sleep of the Waters is so deep the person stops breathing and the heart stops beating, so doctor Boril claims that the persons are dead. But Robil objects that there is no rigor mortis, and the bodies are still warm.

# Ellie’s cousin is named Fred Cunning – and true to his name, he is a clever boy who will grow up to become an engineer.

# The book actually reveals the history and origins of Magic Land. Long ago, before official history was even recorded, a powerful wizard named Hurricap lived in the land that is known today as America. He was the mightiest wizard existing, and was eager to give people what they wished for: he gave them an invulnerability to the claws of the beasts ; a great speed to go faster than stags ; a bow that never missed its targets… But after many years of granting people’s request, Hurricap became tired and went into reclusion to never be bothered again. He wandered the world and found out what would later become Magic Land – and he surrounded it with high mountains and a great desert so that people would never find it. He also declared that it would forever be summer in Magic Land, and that it would be so magical all animals will be able to talk. All that done he prepares to begins his retirement and rest – until a magpie warns that he isn’t exactly alone and that there is already an awful lot of people living here. “Why didn’t I saw them?” the Wizard cries. The magpie simply answers that he is a bit too tall, and them a bit too small: indeed Hurricap isn’t just a wizard, he is a giant wizard whose head reaches the top of the tallest trees, and on top of that his old age weakened a lot his sight (plus, as the narration jokingly precises, eyeglasses did not exist back then). Dissatisfied, Hurricap said he wasn’t going to take back all the magic he gave to the land, because it would be too much work, but he left the land to the people and he built himself a splendid palace in the mountains nearby – forbidding any dweller of the land to ever go near him. The rule was respected for many years, until centuries later the wizard died and his palace crumbled to ruins, but even then the Magic Landers refused to go near the place. And thus, slowly the memory of Hurricap was lost, and people believed that their land has always been magical and cut-off from the rest of the world…

# Afterward, several states and kingdoms formed themselves in Magic Land, and they started fighting against each other. A thousand years before the present, in the West of Magic Land, there was a kingdom ruled by a man named Naranya. He ruled for such a long time his son, Prince Bofaro, grew tired of waiting and plotted to overthrow his father with several thousand supporters – but his conspiracy was discovered. The old king decided to inflict upon his treacherous son and his allies the fate they intended for him (imprisonment for life): he banished them to the Cavern, a gigantic underground cavern filled with strange beasts under their kingdom, and declared that their descendants would never be allowed to return to the surface. All the king allowed to give them were tools for farming and weapons to defend themselves against the Cavern’s beasts. They discovered the Cavern was an entire underground land, with a lake and everything, and where autumn was eternal: trees and bushes crimson, rose and orange ; yellow grass… The only light was created by golden-ish clouds hanging under the roof of the cavern. As for the beasts of the Underground realm, the new dwellers did not worry much: the beasts kept fighting each other. You had the Sixpaws, hideous creatures with six limbs and dirty shaggy fur, and the dragons (described as giant crocodiles with leathery wings) – the dragons kept attacking the Sixpaws because they devour the eggs the dragons bury under the earth, while the Sixpaws keep attacking the dragons because they devour the Sixpaws young whenever they can, resulting them not caring much for the new inhabitants.

# As years passed by, they grew fields using the rare rainfalls that came from the golden clouds. They captured dragons and sixpaws young, that they tamed and trained to become docile working beasts… the people of the Underground became known as the Ore-Diggers, because they spent most of their time digging for gold and precious metals. However, trouble came because of the court created by their ambitious king Bofaro: a bunch of idle courtiers and servants that kept growing larger and larger each day, eating away most of the kingdom’s riches. Eventually they had to come back to the surface – and started trading with the Blue Land of the East, offering copper, bronze, iron, glass and gems in exchange of grain, eggs, vegetables, butter and fruits (note that the Ore-Diggers could only come out at night, given that their eyes were unaccustomed to the bright sun light, resulting in “night markets”).

# Bofaro had seven sons he loved deeply, so much he couldn’t manage to designate one his heir, and after seventeen different wills, he decided to name all seven his heirs, forcing them to rule one month each. But as soon as Bofaro died, the brothers began quarreling, each wanting to rule first: the tall Prince Vagissa wanted succession by height, the fat prince Gramento by weight, the strong Tubago by strength, etc… After a good physical brawl they divided the land, city and palace between themselves, each choosing a different color of the rainbow to identify their belongings. But quickly things went sour: the country had no fixed laws since they changed every month, each king got a squad of dragon-riding guards to protect themselves against eventual attacks of their brothers, each king tried to invent remarkable and new customs to differentiate himself from his brothers, resulting in official greetings of the king changing each month, and each month people had to change their clothes…

I won’t tell you the full history, Volkov spends an awful time detailing the past of the Underground Land, but basically the Ore-Diggers physiology changed a lot throughout the centuries (becoming paler, leaner and getting wider eyes each century), and the excesses of the seven kings grew worse and worse, until they found the Soporific Waters of the Sacred Spring and used it to put to sleep six of the seven courts, resulting in a balanced and sustainable lifestyle. Though the trouble was that after six months of sleep, the wakers had no tiredness at all and did not need to sleep for the entire month of their rule – plus the enchanted sleep magically extended their lifespan, since they did not aged or evolved during their slumbering. And also, the Ore-Diggers became more and more unaccustomed to the real light, and more and more suspicious of the people of the surface, until they ended up cutting all ties with them.

# Now, to return to Magic Land proper, Volkov also reveals to us more about the witches. Three hundred years and four months after the Soporific Water was discovered, four sorceresses lived at the four corners of what is known today as America: two good witches, Villina and Stella, and two wicked witches, Gingema and Bastinda (sisters, but quarreling so much they did not want to see each other). However, as time went by the settlement of humans grew closer and closer to the dwelling of the witches, and they decided to leave America – the four witches (also called “fairies” in the book, because visibly witch/fairy is the same thing) consulted their magic books, found out about Magic Land went there – all at the same time. Resulting in the four of them meeting face to face in Magic Land: Gingema, wizened because of all her wickedness ; the one-eyed Bastinda always with her black umbrella (a magic umbrella that carries her around like a wizard would use a magic carpet) ; Stella who has the secret of ever-lasting youth ; and the white-haired Villina who is the only one of the four Witches able to change her magic book’s size to transport it easily. Gingema and Bastinda refused to share the country, despite Stella’s offer to each have their own part of Magic Land, so Villina offered to have a battle between them – but Gingema and Bastinda realized that Villina’s magic book was much more powerful than theirs, and so that they would be easily defeated. So they decided peacefully to split the country between themselves; Gingema received the Blue Land, Stella the Rose Land, Villina the Yellow Land and Bastinda the Violet Land, and they all decided that the central area would be serve as a “buffer” between them, and that none of them would rule it.

At the time, the Magic Landers had overthrown their tyrants and kings, tired of their constant fighting, and changed the weapons into farming tools to live peacefully. The tribe who traded with the Ore-Diggers in the Blue Land were gone for long, and had been replaced with the small-sized and jaw-moving Munchkins – Gingema appeared to them, declared herself their ruler, and proved them her power by conjuring storms and tornadoes. She said she would leave them live their life peacefully, if only they would pay her a tribute in mice, frogs, leeches and spiders for her to eat. The Munchkins still kept trade with the Ore-Diggers, and there was still a Night Market, for they needed metal, but the Ore-Diggers were so unaccustomed to light and suspicious of people that they now never traded directly with them, and only appeared in the deepest darkness, where the Munchkins could not see.

Bastinda conquered the peaceful and hard-working Winkies: she made them build a castle for her, took a few Winkies as her servants, and hid herself inside the castle, never leaving it for the duration of her rule. The Good Witches also became rulers of their lands, but did not oppress their people, instead helped them in all the ways they could and improved their life.

# We also get to hear a bit more about James Goodwin, the man from Kansas. He was a “loser”, not because he was lazy or stupid but merely because he had such a bad luck everything he tried failed. He finally had success when he bought a hot air balloon and was paid by people to let them travel in it – but one day Goodwin was swept away by a tornado to the center part of Magic Land. There, the people believed him to be a wizard. He had them build him a city (they traded a lot with the Ore-Diggers, who gave them a lot of emeralds), secluded himself in it and spread the rumor has the most powerful wizard in the world. He only made one mistake: he became greedy and tried to invade Bastinda land, only for his army to be attacked by the Winged Monkeys. Goodwin himself nearly got captured by managed to make an escape.

[In fact, in the books I described, James is asked if he wants to return to Oz to help the heroes. And he flats out answers no - that he had enough of magic and would never return to Magic Land for anything in his life.]

# Actually I was wrong here – visibly the Powder of Life was not in Gingema’s cave. This book explains that a storm brought unknown seeds to Urfin’s garden. No matter how much he took the plants away they would grow twice as big and lively, so he ended up pulling them by the roots, cutting them into pieces and drying them out – resulting by accident in the brown powder of life.

- - - - -

You know how Russian novels are know to be extremely long, descriptive and complex? Well you clearly see those books are Russian. Volkov, contrary to Baum, wanted to create one expansive but logical and continuous world, avoiding the erratic world-making of Baum. The trouble however is that it results in entire chapters of backstory, exposition and historical justifications of everything... quite hard to sum it up as a result. But it is also very interesting, because it gives us a glimpse of what Oz could have looked like if Baum had made the effort of actually explaing in details a lot of his unexplained plot points.

#volkov lore #alexander volkov #volkov's magic land #urfin jus #the seven underground kings #wooden soldiers

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bitcoinblogtc-blog · 6 years

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стратегия игры в тото - Тотошка — альтернатива казино — выигрывать крупно и легально в лобом: Суперэкспресс @ azbukacasino.com

#футбол результаты #стратегия игры в тото - Тотошка — альтернатива казино — выигрывать крупно и легально в лобом: Суперэкспресс @ azbukacasino.com

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witchesoz · 2 years

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Oz... I mean Magic Land lore: More of Volkov

The fourth book of the Magic Land series was published in 1968: “The Fiery God of the Marrans”. If you remember, the Marrans or Leaper are the brutish population of extremely violent and xenophobic people living in the rocky wasteland between the Great River south of Emerald City and the Rose Land over which rules Stella the Good Witch.

This novel returns to the character of Urfin Jus. Ten years have passed since his defeat and he is still living in exile, with only two companions, the two first objects he gave life to: Topotun the gentle Bear-Rug, and Eot Ling, a wicked grimacing Wooden Clown. Despite all the time that passed, Urfin Jus still dreams of becoming the ruler of Magic Land. One day, a giant eagle names Carfax falls in Urfin Jus’ little garden, and Urfin nurses him back to health. Carfax is very thankful and agrees to help Jus as a returning favor. Urfin also ends up in possession of a cigarette lighter that Charlie Black forgot during his last visit. This two elements give Urfin enough material to prepare another wicked plan…

He decided to return to Magic Land despite his banishment, and went straight to the tribe of the Marrans. There, he tricked the simple-minded and primitive people into believing that he was a “fiery god” to be worshipped – for example the lighter is supposed to show that he can produce fire at will, something that greatly amazes the Marrans who don’t have exactly a great mastery of fire. Once Urfin settled himself as their gods, he orders the Leapers/Marrans to attack the rest of the land. They quickly conquer the Violet Land and then focus on conquering the Emerald City (note that this is the exact same strategy Urfin used for his previous attack, where he first conquered the Blue Land then attacked the Emerald City). Oh yes, and the Emerald City is now called the Emerald Island, because they dug a canal all around the city to add another layer of protection.

Hopefully Ellie comes to save the day as usual! Oh wait… no, scratch that, it was established right before that Ellie could never come back. So instead it is Ellie’s little sister, Annie, that goes on the adventure with her friend Tim. They arrive to Magic Land riding a… solar-powered mechanical mule. Okay. And they save the day with an all-seeing magic box (aka the “magic television” of Stella the witch), a magic circlet and… a volleyball. Yep. They defeat Urfin, and the guy ends up so ashamed that he flees to avoid more disgrace.

Some points about the book:

# The narration does not make it clear if it all happens ten or eight years after the previous book.

# Annie was an obvious attempt at creating a replica of Ellie (it is mentioned that Annie was born during the events of the Seven Underground Kings), and… well most of the fans of the books hate her for being a bland copy. She even has her own dog, the grandson of Totoshka, named Arto.

# The trouble Carfax the giant eagle was fleeing from where actually two more giant eagles: you see, the tribe of the giant eagle is limited to a hundred individuals, no more no less. As a result, to have a baby you need to put yourself in a waiting list that has been respected for centuries. And Carfax, the former leader of the tribe, tried to put himself first in the waiting list by modifying it… as a result the entire tribe rebelled against him and chased him away.

# Urfin seems to always have trouble with his armies. His previous army, the Deadwood Oaks, were utterly stupid and thus very hard to control. For the Marrans, it is because they have a hard time staying awake for too long and conquering countries leave them very tired. Urfin ends up using a special kind of nuts that cause insomnia to whoever eats them to keep his army awake… but unknown to him the nuts are a powerful drug, and soon the Marrans become junkies. Ultimately, the heroes cure the Leapers of their addiction by using the Sleeping Water (remember, from the previous book) which can erase all addictions.

# You might be wondering about the mule. Yes. Remember Fred Cunning, the clever young man who would grow up to become an engineer? Well, the mules (in plural, there are two) are actually his invention: he built two mechanical mules named Caesar and Hannibal, that work with solar power (remember, it’s in the 60s). The thing is that, when they arrive in Magic Land, the two mechanical mules become alive, sentient and start speaking. Later, when Annie returns home with the mules, they turn out to be extremely hard workers, so much that the father of Annie and Ellie ends up with a lot of free time since the mules do most of the field work for him, and he ends up selling their services to several neighbors, resulting in the family becoming a bit richer.

In 1970 was released what seemed to be the grand finale of the Magic Land tales. “The Yellow Fog”.

Five thousand years ago, when Hurricap (remember, the giant wizard who created Magic Land) was still living, a dreadful creature came to Magic Land. Name Arachna, she was a wicked witch, as well as a giant like Hurricap. She started attacking the land with all sorts of natural disasters, causing storms, floods and earthquakes. Hurricap decided he would save the land from her misdeeds (and he also just wanted to live peacefully on his own, and Arachna was the equivalent of the loud neighbor who keeps partying to five in the morning). However Hurricap, being a good wizard, refused to kill anything or anyone. So he decided to simply put a sleeping spell on Arachna, hoping that upon waking up she would be wiser and kinder.

Now, five millennia passed by, and Arachna just woke up – just as evil and wicked as before. She immediately asks the people of Magic Land to start worshipping her as their supreme leader, but they refuse to bow down to the giant witch. They already fought several times for their freedom and aren’t ready to give up. As a result, Arachna tries to think of a disaster to inflict upon the land, to force its inhabitants to bow down to her. First she wants to invoke locusts to destroy the crops, but she abandons this idea, realizing that she can’t put heavy taxes on people whose cattle starved to death. She considers using a flooding rain (after all it worked in the Bible – my private joke), but she also abandons the project because it looks too much like a natural disaster and she couldn’t prove that it was her actions. And then, she finds the perfect curse. The Yellow Fog. The Yellow Fog is an irritating, toxic yellow fog, that she puts over the land, to block the sun and the sky, turning the eternal summer of Magic Land into an eternal winter (and also basically making weak and sick anyone who goes too much near it or breathes it too much – yes the parallels with the chemical warfare were conscious). This is Arachna’s ultimatum: either let her rule and she will dispel the fog, either refuse to have her as queen and let your land die.

Interestingly, Arachna has an entire army of Gnomes serving her, the only people she was kind to during her first attempt at invading Magic Land, and who swore a vow of loyalty to her. They made a promise to serve her forever… however they never made a vow to fight her enemies or her battles, and so they flat out refuse to invade Magic Land for her (hence why she needs the Magic Landers to surrender on their own). And when Arachna is defeated (cause of course she will be) they will greatly rejoice, because after all she was still a wicked witch.

Annie and Tim return to Magic Land to help their friends, alongside the dog Artoshka and their uncle Charlie Black. They are joined by Carfax the giant-eagle (who was always a noble creature and realized in the last book he was manipulated by a wicked man), a giant made of iron that the group of heroes created (named Tilly-Willy), and… Urfin Jus.

Indeed, earlier, Arachna visited Urfin Jus. She had heard he conquered the country twice and wanted to enlist his help into conquering Magic Land a third time. However Urfin Jus refused: he recognized that conquering it was an exhausting and impossible task, that only brought misfortune and defeat to those that attempted it, and he even warned Arachna of not making such a foolish mistake. After this visit, Urfin ended up thinking about precisely how being wicked never brought him anything, and resolves to abandon his wickedness and rather become good in order to be more happy and not have as many worries – he joins the heroes as an ally and becomes one of the heroes of Magic Land.

Now I don’t know exactly how the book ends, but what I know is that the people and armies of the Magic Land end up marching against Arachna, and that the giant witch, corned by all these powerful enemies, jumps off the Cliff of Doom, killing herself. Oh yes, and somehow the giant Tilly-Willy, rendered sentient by the land’s magic, creatures a perpetual motion machine. But I lack information on the exact context.

It seemed like a good ending, right?

But no! One more book was left! “The Mystery of the Deserted Castle”. It was written in 1975, but was only published in 1982. Rumors said that some parts of the book were ghost-written since Volkov’s health was failing him at the time, and we would willingly believe it: this book introduces science-fiction to magic land!

A spaceship leaves the distant planet Rameria and approaches Earth, with the intent to conquer and enslave the Earthlings. The group is made of two different species, the Arzaks, a slave-race, and the Menvits, their masters, who have an hypnotic gaze that can turn any living being into slaves. Searching the planet for a safe spot to land on, they decide to land in Magic Land (though they ignore it has any magic). But, as usual, things don’t go as planned: people from the Outer World (the usual group) go to Magic Land and help the locals get rid of the Menvits. The aliens made their headquarters in the ruins of Hurricap’s castle: the heroes build a pipeline linking the Soporific Waters to the old castle, and end up erasing the mind of the Menvits. As for the Arzak, they are actually free from the hypnosis of the Menvits thanks to emeralds, who can disrupt the charm. They return on their home planet with their spaceship filled with emeralds, in the hope of freeing their enslaved race.

(Interestingly, it had been noted that another type of gem, the diamonds, were magic-repelling, more precisely diamonds can protect one against the effects of the Soporific Waters)

Since the sixth book is so different from the previous five, and is strongly implied to have been changed by another author, many of the fans refuse to read it or refuse to acknowledge it as part of the series.

#volkov lore #volkov's magic land #alexander volkov #the fiery god of the marrans #the yellow fog #the mystery of the deserted castle #russian oz

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witchesoz · 2 years

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Volkov VS Baum

So… We know that Volkov created his own version of Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. But how different exactly is it from the original book? Here’s a list of some major differences. Note that I could not read the entire book – I only read parts and bits of it, so I might have missed some elements. Also note that I read the English translation, so…

# Dorothy is now Ellie, Toto is Totoshka, and she is not an orphan anymore, since she lives with her parents, Farmer John and Anna. She doesn’t live in a self-made house anymore, but rather in a house-trailer whose wheels have been removed. It is mentioned that the family had several times to face prairie tornadoes, but usually they hide in the cellar and it merely topples the house – they put it back up, clean things and then resume their life as if nothing happened. When Ellie is not doing chores, her father teaches her about reading, writing and arithmetic (because school is too far away for Ellie to go). However Ellie often visits their neighbors on the prairie, located a few miles away – “Uncle Robert”, with his sons “Bob and Dick”, or “Old Man Ralph” who makes toy windmills for the children. Oh, but she still lives in Kansas.

# There are several hints in the beginning of the book about Ellie’s future adventures: her father promised her to one day take her to the fair/circus, and she keeps dreaming of their “toys, candies, monkeys and lions”. Ellie also complains about her old, ugly, worn-out shoes and wishes to have pretty ones. Finally she is also sad to hear her mother say all the magicians were gone from their world, and says that she would love for magic to return.

# A HUGE change is that Volkov actually has the prologue of his story switch between the points of view of Ellie, and the one of the Wicked Witch of the East. Indeed, Volkov gives her more of a character. In this version, the Wicked Witch of the East is named Gingema. She lives in a deep and gloomy cave, where she keeps all sorts of weird and terrifying things – an enormous stuffed crocodile hanging on the ceiling, a long stout snake curled around a pillar, Great Horned Owls as pets, and a bunch of desiccated mice tied together by their tails like a bunch of onions. Gingema’s defining feature is her diet: she only eats mice, snakes, frogs and other creepy-crawlies. This however puts her at odds with the “humans” (because yes, the Witch clearly says that she is not human). She says that they keep cutting down forests, draining swamps, chasing away frogs and killing snakes, which deprives the world of all the delicious food around, forcing her to survive on mere worms… Gingema had enough.

She prepares in her cauldron a fetid brew made of dried mice and snake heads, which she mixes up by using a broom as a spoon. This brew is actually a magic ritual – she uses it to invoke the most dreadful and destructive storm the world has ever know, and instructs it to destroy all the house and humans in the world, and to only let alive the “frogs, mice, snakes and spiders” for her to feast. (If you want a look at the incantation she recites to conjure the storm, it is “Susaka, masaka, lema, rema, gema! Burido, furido, sema, pema, fema!”. To conjure the storm she had to drag her cauldron out of her grotto, and this is how the tornado actually ends up dropping a house on her head…

Another nice touch – in Baum’s book, the Wicked Witch turns to dust, and it is merely said that she was so old the sun dried her up. Here, it is explained that Gingema was indeed very old, and afraid of the sun. She spent most of her life hiding in her deep cave precisely to avoid the sunlight, and only got out of it at night or during the early hours of the morning. Hence, the sun is indeed her weakness, the same way water destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West.

# The Good Witch of the North is also given a name here: Villina. Physically, she is identical to how Baum described her. Another HUGE difference here is that, in this version, she is the one who actually killed Gingema. You see, she heard about how Gingema had done utterly insane (in the book, “batty”) and wanted to destroy the world for her food. So, Villina used all of her magic arts to actually twist and change Gingema’s spell: first, she removed all destructiveness of the storm, then she made it pick up from the ground only one house, and finally she directed the storm to drop the house on Gingema’s head. However, Ellie’s presence is something she had not predicted – her “Magic Book” told her usually houses were empty during tornadoes/storms.

What about this “Magic Book” you say? Well, this is another twist to the story. In Baum’s novel, the Good Witch predicts Dorothy’s next course of action by turning her hat into a magic board. Here, Villina owns the Magic Book (which is a sort of changed version of Glinda’s Great Book). It appears at first as a very small book, the size of a thimble, that Villina keeps in the folds of her clothing. But blowing on it turns it into a thick, sizable and very heavy tome. It usually contains the answers to the question or desire that drives its reader – it turns its pages on its own to bring them what they are looking for. For example, when Villina consults it, it tells her a prophecy about how “The Great Wizard Goodwin will send home a little girl brought here by a tornado, if she helps three beings in granting their fondest wishes.” [You guess it, here Ellie’s encounter with three companions is driven by the Book’s prophecy]. It seems that the book is written in a strange language only Villina can understand (indeed, said prophecy is written in the book as “Bambara, chufara, scoricky, moricky, turabo, furabo, loricky, yoricky…” etc. Villina then disappears and leaves Ellie alone – indeed, she cannot stay too long away from her own country. And here, no magic kiss.

# Volkov changed the colors of Oz, now called “The Magic Land”. The East stays the Blue Land, where the main color is blue, and inhabited by the Munchkins. The West is however now the Violet Land, while still inhabited by Winkies. The North Land is the Yellow Land now, inhabited by… we actually never find out. And the South Land is the “Rose Land”, whose official color is Pink and inhabited by the Quadlings. Or Chatters. You see, Volkov also decided to explain the names of each Ozian ethnicity by quirks they have, habits specific to their kind. The Munchkins for example forever munch, even when not eating anything their jaws keeping moving. The Winkies, them, blink an awful lot, and use blinking to express their emotions. Finally the Quadlings where changed into the “Chatters”, because their quirk is that they “quaddle”, aka they keep chatting, talking and gossiping about anything and everything – even when a Chatter is alone he or she will end up talking to themselves. Quite annoying for outsiders, but beside that the Quadlings are noted to be kind, welcoming and hard-working people. It is also mentioned that, beyond the desert surrounding the Magic Land, there is a range of enormous mountains no one ever crossed.

# The Munchkins do not believe Ellie to be a Witch, but actually a Fairy, because fairies “travel in the wind with their own houses” and only a fairy could kill the wicked witch. They are also greatly bewildered by Totoshka, since it is a beast they never saw before – Totoshka is the one that brings Dorothy the Silver Shoes, like in the Baum book, except here he finds them at the entrance of Gingema’s grotto. The Munchkins are terrified of this place, and upon hearing that the dog went there and returned, they believe he is also some sort of magician or has great powers. The Munchkins explain that they believe the Shoes to have a great magical power, since Gingema only wore them during “great occasions”, but they ignore exactly what. They also explain that Gingema made them toil “day and night” by forcing them to fetch for her spiders, bats, frogs and leeches – all the things that are the worst fears of the Munchkins, but delicacies to the old hag. The Munchkins ask Dorothy to become their ruler, but she refuses. They also offer her an enormous feast - and interestingly, while in Baum’s Oz people rarely ate meat, here the Munchkins offer her a feast of “ram, roast geese and ducks”.

# The Scarecrow is named Strasheela. On top of being like in Baum’s book, here his “stupidity” is also played by the fact he often mixes up words or expressions (for example saying “Good night” for “Good day!” or “hateful” instead of “lovely”) – because he is just learning the human language and hasn’t grasped all of it yet.

# Volkov decided to change one of Baum’s biggest mistake – the Tin Woodman. Tin cannot rust. Volkov changed it by turning the Tin Woodman into the Iron Man, or Iron Lumberjack, whose body and necktie are made of iron (and thus can rust), and whose hat is a copper funnel. His backstory is also slightly changed – here it is the wicked aunt of his love that brought his downfall and bribed Gingema into cursing the man’s axe, in exchange of a “whole basket of fat leeches”. Here, this all also happened recently – indeed, after getting the last of his body removed, the Iron Lumberjack stopped seeing his loved one, and he precises that it was “one year” ago.

# Volkov added an entire new adventure after Ellie meets the Iron Lumberjack. You see, she takes off her Silver Shoes and puts them in her bag, to not dirty them. As a result, she gets captured by an Ogre who lives in the dark forest they travel. The Ogre lives in a castle on a hill, deep in the forest, surrounded by a high wall and a moat filled with water. The Ogre used to devour the travelers who came by the Yellow Brick Road or the woods, but as a result people stopped taking the road or the woods. So the Ogre devoured his own servants, then his horses, his cows and his sheep, until he was all alone. He has since been hunting small animals all across the forest, and finding a little girl is a true delight for him. He is so joyful he chats with the girl and spends an awful long time sharpening his big cooking knife, to the point of tiring himself out of sharpening it (yep) and falling asleep. During this time, Ellie’s companions rescue her but they make so much noise they wake up the Ogre, who tries to attack them… until the Iron Lumberjack cuts him in two with his axe. Ends of the story.

The description of the Ogre is quite interesting: not tall, but very stout, with a head like a cauldron and a body like a barrel. He has long arms like those of a gorilla, and tall, thick-soled boots. He wears a shaggy cloak made of animal skins, has a large saucepan on his head as a helmet, and is armed with a gigantic mace covered in sharp nails.

The incident actually has an utility – Ellie realizes that the Shoes have a strong protective charm and that without them, dreadful dangers threaten her (in this book the Shoes replace the Good Witch’s kiss), so she decides to always wear them, even when she sleeps. (And it is mentioned over times that Ellie has nightmares about her being tied up in the Ogre’s kitchen).

# No more Kalidahs here! Oh no, here, the beasts our heroes have to face in the forest are saber-toothed tigers. The Cowardly Lion also mentions that once they leave the forest, they will be safe, since the saber-toothed tigers never leave the woods, being afraid of open spaces.

# The Queen of the Field Mice is given a name, Ramina. Volkov also corrected one of Baum’s mistake – here Ramina gives Ellie a whistle that can invoke her when she blows three times in it. In Baum the whistle appeared at the end of the story mysteriously.

# The Guardian of the Gates of the Emerald City is called Famarant, and the Soldier with a Long Green Beard is also given a name – Din Gior. He is also given a bit more personality: he is the guardian of Goodwin’s Palace, the same way Faramant is the guardian of the city gates. Din Gior’s role is to help people cross the moat filled with water and high wall surrounding the Palace. The thing however is that Din Gior is very proud of his beard, unique in all of Magic Land by its incredible length, and he often arranges it and prepares it – with such dedication and cares he becomes deaf and blind to the world around him. Our protagonists arrive precisely when he is arranging his beard “strand by strand” and all their screams, shouting and banging from the other side of the moat don’t get his attention – only the powerful roar of the Lion can get him out of his trance.

# As you might have noted before, the Wizard of Oz is here called the Great Goodwin, or Great Wizard Goodwin, or Goodwin the Great and Powerful. Real name, James Goodwin. Volkov keeps the idea of Goodwin appearing under different shapes to people – the only alteration he makes is that the beautiful lady/angel the Scarecrow saw in Baum’s book is now replaced with a beautiful mermaid welcoming Strasheela.

# Volkov keeps the Winkies as not valorous or brave people, with master tinkers among them – but expands that a bit by explain that, before their wicked witch took over, they were renowned the best clockmakers, jewelers and mechanics of all the Magic Land.

# The Wicked Witch of the West is here named Bastinda, and stays quite faithful to Baum’s depiction as a one-eyed old hag obsessed with enslaving people and afraid of water. However there is a few changes: here Bastinda is said to be the sister of Gingema, and her fear of water is actually well-known to her subjects. In fact, during her time as a slave, Ellie purposefully “pranks” the Witch by leaving some rooms of her palace with wet floors. Her fear of the dark is also exaggerated – here, when night falls, she locks herself in her own room, with iron bars on the doors, and does not leave until the sun has risen. When she melts, Bastinda only leaves behind her umbrella, her dress, and strands of her grey hair.

# Volkov adds another character called Fregosa. She is a Winkie, and the cook at the Violet Castle, the place where Bastinda lives. She acts motherly towards Ellie, being very kind to her, easing her hard chores and bathing her. In fact, Ellie and Fregosa work together to try to undermine Bastinda – by convincing the Winkies to prepare a revolt against the wicked witch (especially since the two women learn that Bastinda exhausted nearly all of her magic by attacking Ellie's group - all her armies of magical minions are dead, and she wasted her last Golden Cap wish, so her greatest strenghts are gone).

# The road from the Emerald City to the Rose Land of the South is much shortened: no wild beasts or giant spider, no China Country, all of this is replaced by a great river the heroes have to cross through boat and almost drown in (the same way they had to cross a river when coming from the East). As for the Hammer-Heads, they are turned into the Marrans or Leapers (because they can leap inhumanly). They do not extend their heads, but are stocky little men with large heads, and thick arms with enormous fist – all containing an inhuman force.

# The Good Witch of the South is here named Stella. Like Glinda, she is noted to be an ever-youthful sorceress who still looks fresh and beautiful despite ruling over the Chatters/Quadlings for centuries now. However, Volkov mentions one… strange incident which to the reader might question the “goodness” of Stella. Remember when I said the Chatters talked all the time? Well, apparently this annoyed deeply Stella, who one day tried to stop their bad habit by… turning them all mute. But it did not help, since they all learned sign language and chatted just as much. So she gave them back their voice.

And yes, she is one of the two GOOD witches of Magic Land.

# Oh yes, and I forgot to add - in the book, Totoshka immediately starts speaking when arriving in Magic Land (and the little dog's main trait is that he keeps saying he is the most courageous dog there is and all other are cowards - and it is tied to how he keeps attacking all the threats or enters first in all the creepy places). This was Volkov correcting one inconsistency of the Baum books - if all animals start to speak in Oz, why not Toto?

- - - - -

Other interesting details: # In Baum's book it is strongly implied that what the Wizard gave the Lion to drink was alcohol, but never outright stated. In the Volkov's writing, it is explained that what he gave him was a mix of carbonated kvass (a mild alcoholic beverage) and valerian extract (a powerful cat stimulant). # Despite having a strong presence as secondary characters in the first book, future Magic Land books make the two Good witches incredibly rare. There is always a good excuse for them not getting involved in the threats to the country, be it an invading army of wood soldiers, or a GIANT SPIDER WITCH TRYING TO KILL THE WORLD WITH A POISONOUS FOG! The inhabitants of the land, as a result, need to rely on their own technology, ingenuity and abilities to help their country survive. The Yellow Land is never visited or described, and whenever Villina appears, it is always in the beginning of a book, to tell a prophecy through her Magic Book, and then she disappears again. Stella also disappears - one book mentions her sending Strasheela a magic television set, but that's it. It is later explained that the Good Witches rarely act outside of their country because when the four witches arrived in Magic Land, to avoid a magical war, they made a vow to each stay in their own corner of Oz and not interfere in the other withces' business. Villina only broke the deal for a short time, and because Gingema had gone mad and was trying to destroy everything. This supposedly explains why the Good Witches are so passive and not present much. But still, many readers tend to see them as actually no better than the Wicked Witches, or just as bad, the difference being that the Good Witches do not admit their misdeeds and put on a "good" act.

#land of oz #l. frank baum #alexander volkov #volkov's magic land #witches #differences #russian oz #volkov lore

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