Glinda of Oz

infobox Book |
name = Glinda of Oz


image_caption = Cover of "Glinda of Oz"
author = L. Frank Baum (posthumously)
illustrator = John R. Neill
cover_artist = John R. Neill
country = United States
language = English
series = Oz books
genre = Children's novel
publisher = Reilly & Lee
release_date = 1920
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 279 pp (first edition, hardcover)
isbn = ISBN N/A (first edition, hardcover)
preceded_by = The Magic of Oz
followed_by = The Royal Book of Oz

"Glinda of Oz" [The full title of the first edition is "Glinda of Oz; In Which Are Related the Exciting Experiences of Princess Ozma of Oz, and Dorothy, in Their Hazardous Journey to the Home of the Flatheads, and to the Magic Isle of the Skeezers, and How They Were Rescued from Dire Peril by the sorcery of Glinda the Good."] is the fourteenth Land of Oz book written by children's author L. Frank Baum, published on July 10, 1920. Like most of the Oz books, the plot features a journey through some of the remoter regions of Oz; though in this case the pattern is doubled: Dorothy and Ozma travel to stop a war between the Flatheads and Skeezers; then Glinda and a cohort of Dorothy's friends set out to rescue them.

The book was dedicated to Baum's second son Robert Stanton Baum.

Plot summary

On a visit to the castle of the sorceress Glinda in the Quadling Country, Ozma and Dorothy discover a reference in Glinda's Great Book of Records to a war about to begin between the Skeezers and the Flatheads, two peoples of the Gillikin Country of Oz. Glinda's magic can find out very little about them. Ozma decides that it is her duty as ruler of Oz to stop the fighting if she can, and she and Dorothy choose to travel there after being supplied from the Emerald City. Glinda anticipates trouble, so she gives Dorothy a ring to signal her if she and Ozma are in great danger.

On their journey Ozma and Dorothy escape giant purple spiders who had captured them in a magic web by befriending a crab to let them out. The two then arrive at Flathead Mountain where the inhabitants are, in keeping with the name, flat-headed. The Su-Dic (Supreme Dictator) explains that each Flathead carries their brains in their pockets. (The text and illustrations establish that each Flathead's brains exist as a quantity of powder, kept in a sealed cylinder.) The Flatheads are going to war with the Skeezers because their queen, Coo-ee-oh, used magic to transform the Su-Dic's wife, a witch named Rora, into a golden pig and refuse to allow the Flatheads to catch fish in their lake. The Su-Dic's belligerence prompts Ozma to turn herself and Dorothy invisible so they can escape north to the glass island of the Skeezers. A steel bridge magically extends from the island on the lake and Dorothy and Ozma are ushered into the presence of Queen Coo-ee-oh, who seems to welcome war with the Flatheads as much as the Su-Dic does with the Skeezers. Since the steel bridge has been retracted, Dorothy and Ozma cannot leave the island and Coo-ee-oh keeps them in the care of the Queen's chambermaid Aurex intil the war is over.

Dorothy and Ozma learn from the Queen's chambermaid Aurex that the trouble really began when Coo-ee-oh, who had been taught the rudiments of magic by three Adepts at Magic who ruled the once-friendly Flatheads, used what she'd learned to transform the Adepts from women into fish in the Skeezer lake. The Su-Dic and Rora saw their chance to take over the Flatheads themselves, stealing brains from their fellows. Coo-ee-oh also used the magic of the Adepts to institute a reign of terror over the Skeezers; as she can hear everything spoken on the island and can swiftly punish any sedition.

The next morning, Coo-ee-oh magically lowers the Skeezers' island beneath the surface of the lake and sends soldiers in submersible boats to attack the invading Flatheads. But the Su-Dic catches Coo-ee-oh by surprise and transforms her into a swan with no memory of her past life. In his joy, the Su-Dic knocks over the poison he intended to use on the Skeezer lake (which would have killed the Adepts, the remaining threat to his rule). But he leaves victorious because he knows that the Skeezer soldiers are stranded on the lake's surface and the Skeezer people in the city can't raise it to the surface without Coo-ee-oh's magic. Dorothy twists the ring Glinda gave her and the sorceress calls a Council of State to go with her from the Emerald City to the Skeezer island.

One of the queen's soldiers, a boy named Ervic, is whispered to by the Adepts at Magic in their fish forms and encouraged to take them to Reera the Red, an isolationist witch who specializes in transformations. Through cunning and reverse psychology, the Adepts succeed in having Reera restore them to their rightful forms. Meanwhile, Glinda and the party from the Emerald City try to dredge the lake and raise the island by magic, but their attempts fail until some of the party are actually lowered within the city to examine it and its intricate machinery. The machinery can only be moved by magic, and Glinda discovers that Coo-ee-oh used a magic powder to perform some of her greatest feats. Dorothy deduces that the former Skeezer queen would have needed three magic words regarding the island: one to release the submersible boats, one to extend the bridge, and one to raise and lower the island. And her name, Coo-ee-oh, has three words. So through trial and error, the party raises the island by burning some of the magic powder and uttering "Oh."

The Skeezers along with the Oz people celebrate their victory (in the first documented celebration that doesn't take place in the Emerald City) and name Aurex queen, who appoints Ervic Prime Minister on the recommendation of the restored Adepts. The party from the Emerald City and the Adepts return the Flathead mountain, where they are warmly welcomed by all except the Su-Dic — but once his extra cans of brains are removed, he's harmless. Glinda performs an enchantment on each Flathead that allows the tops of their heads to grow around their brains, thus giving them round heads. They rename themselves Mountaineers and accept the rule of the Adepts once again. Both they and the Skeezers pledge themselves henceforth to be loyal subjects of Ozma.

It is an often-observed truism that Baum's Oz is dominated by powerful and attractive female figures. This is even more true of "Glinda of Oz" than the other books: Dorothy, Ozma, Glinda, the Mist Maidens, Lady Aurex, the Three Adepts...even Red Reera the Yookoohoo, who at first appears as an ape, transforms herself into a "quite attractive" woman. The printed text of the book features one significant change from Baum's manuscript. In the manuscript, Red Reera first appears as a skeleton, its bones wired together, with glowing red eyes in the sockets of its skull. The printed text makes Red Reera first appear as a gray ape in an apron and lace cap — a comical sight rather than a frightening and disturbing spectre. The change was most likely made by Baum at the suggestion of his editors. Other changes in the manuscript, made by an unknown editor at Reilly & Lee, are relatively trivial, and do not always improve the text. [Katharine M. Rogers, "L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz," New York, St. Martin's Press, 2002; pp. 236-7.]

The submerged city of the Skeezers in this book may have been suggested to Baum by the semi-submerged Temple of Isis at Philae in Egypt, which the Baums had seen on their trip to Europe and Egypt in the first six months of 1906. [Rogers, p. 154; see also pp. 142-4 and 152-3.]

Notes

External links

*gutenberg|no=961|name=Glinda of Oz

oz books
before=The Magic of Oz
after=The Royal Book of Oz
title=Glinda of Oz
year=1920