Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is a children's book by the American writer Lyman Frank Baum . The story was published in 1908 under the original title Dorothy and the Wizzard in Oz with illustrations by John R. Neill . This is the fourth volume of the Oz cycle, which is one of the most popular children's books in the USA and has also been published in German in part.
action
Dorothy takes the train and her cat Eureka to Hugson, California, where she wants to visit Uncle Bill Hugson, with whom Uncle Henry is currently staying. She is picked up from the train station by her second cousin, Zeb, in a carriage pulled by the rickety horse Jim. While driving to the Hugson Ranch, they are caught in a severe earthquake and engulfed in a crevice. They plunge slowly and indefinitely into the depths, where surprisingly they land in a glass city. This belongs to the underground magical land of Mangaboo, where they are received in a rather unfriendly manner. The residents blame Dorothy, Zeb, the horse Jim and the cat Eureka for the fact that stones fell on the city during the earthquake, causing severe damage. To find out whether they are really guilty, they are taken to the warlock Gwig. A new arrival is reported even before you can really start a conversation with him. It's a balloon that slowly descends towards the glass city. To her surprise, Oz, the former ruler of the Emerald City, whom Dorothy and her friends had exposed as a fraud in The Wizard of Oz, emerges from him . The two recognize each other immediately. Oz was also engulfed in a crevice during the earthquake as he was about to land. Because Dorothy and Oz utter the word wizard during their conversation, Oz is supposed to compete with the warlock Gwin. Oz is ready and amazes people with a sleight of hand and nine mini-pigs. Gwin, who cannot do anything about this, decides to take revenge by taking Oz's breath. With the last of his strength, Oz can pull several knives out of his pocket, put them together and make a sword. With that he divides Gwin's head in half. He is amazed to find that it is a vegetable tuber. The prince of the Mangaboos, as the underground people call themselves, now says that they are all vegetable tubers. And in order to bring in a new warlock, the remains of Gwin are to be buried in the gardens of Mangaboo so that a plant with new warlocks can emerge from it. Together you go to the gardens. There the prince shows them the plant on which his successor is already growing. Although this already seems ripe, he refuses to pick it because he would then lose his rule. After telling them this, he reveals to Dorothy and her friends that he intends to destroy them because they are only causing unrest in Mangaboo. Terrified, Oz suggests plucking the princess and thus putting the prince out of office.
But they soon find out that the princess is hardly better than her predecessor. Although she refrains from killing Dorothy, Zeb, and Oz, her animals should still be thrown into the Black Pit. A few days later, the mangabus attack the animals and drive them into the black pit, which they begin to close with glass rocks. They even take the carriage with them. The cat Eureka escapes and calls on Dorothy and her friends for help. Immediately they rush to the pit, but are also pushed into it by the superior strength of the Mangabus. It turns out that the Black Pit is a huge cave. The friends have no choice but to look for another exit. Jim, the horse, is harnessed to the carriage and you begin a journey into the unknown.
After a short time you will reach the Voe valley, an idyllic landscape with pretty houses and gardens. But nowhere seem to be people or animals. But these are only invisible. The dama fruit grows in the valley and makes everyone who eats it invisible. The friends learn from the inhabitants that if they want to return to the upper world, they have to go to the pyramid mountain, which is where the terrible horror heads live. Despite the dangers described, the friends set off for the pyramid mountain, which they reach after an unpleasant encounter with invisible bears. An arduous ascent begins that leads them into the land of the scary heads, terrible creatures made of wood, who immediately attack them and take them captive. But after a short time the friends manage to escape to another cave, which they hope will finally lead them to the upper world. Unfortunately, after a short time, they realize that they are in a dead end from which they can no longer escape.
Dorothy remembers her agreement with Ozma that she would check her miracle mirror every day to see how her little friend from Kansas is doing. When the appointed time approaches, Dorothy makes the appointed sign that she would like to see her friend. Ozma immediately puts on the nom king's magic belt and wishes Dorothy to the emerald city. Shortly afterwards, their companions are also requested.
The arrival of Dorothy and her companions in Oz is celebrated with a large festival lasting several days. While the former "Wizard" of Oz decides to stay in the Emerald City forever, Dorothy and Zeb are sent back home at their own request.
Who and what is Oz?
In the fourth volume of the Oz series it is finally clarified whether the wizard is named after the country or the country is named after the magic. The former "magician" says that he calls himself Oz because his real name is Oskar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaak Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs. This name had always been too long for him, which is why he named himself after the initials of his first two names O and Z. These letters were also very big on the balloon with which he landed in the magic land. He left out the initials of the other names P, I, N, H, E, A and D, as these read one after the other result in the word pinhead, which is a synonym for "fool". Coincidentally, the country itself was also called Oz , which is why they first thought the balloonist was a magician, believing he was a descendant of their former ruling family.
Continuity failure
As with the previous volumes, there are also minor errors in the fourth volume compared to the previous books. The "wizard" Oz is now again referred to as the builder of the Emerald City and he has never heard of Ozma, although, according to the volume In the Realm of the Wizard Oz , he brought her to the evil witch Mombi himself after he had visited the Emerald City had conquered. In Ozma von Oz , Dorothy and Ozma agree that Ozma looks in the miracle mirror every Saturday morning and shows Dorothy. In the fourth volume, however, Dorothy says that she does it every day at exactly four o'clock in the afternoon. Also in the fourth volume it is said that a ruler of the Emerald City is always called Oz and a ruler is always Ozma, but Ozma's father was named Pastoria according to the second volume. Ozma now also tells that Mombi was once the evil northern witch and overthrew Ozma's grandfather before she was ousted by a fairy godmother herself. While Oz was insulted as a swindler in the second volume by all the inhabitants of the country, there is no more talk of that in the fourth volume.
literature
First edition
- Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz . Chicago: Reilly and Britton Company 1908
German translations
- L. Frank Baum: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz . Übers. Esmy Berlt, LeiV Buchhandels und Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-89603-035-3
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