Masters of the Ozziverse

[vovat]

In addition to telling the life story of a holiday icon who's omnipresent at this time of year (although some of the details aren't exactly the ones that have since become common knowledge; for instance, Santa lives in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho instead of at the North Pole), L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus also gave the most thorough examination of the powers behind his imaginary universe. Jared Davis offers some thoughts on the subject here, and I thought I should offer some of my own as well. The book gives us Wood-Nymphs who care for trees, Ryls who help the flowers, Knooks who serve as the guardians of animals, and Fairies who are the guardians of mankind. In other works, however, Baum uses the term "fairy" (usually with a lower-case F, from what I can remember) in a general way that encompasses some of these other sorts of immortals. We also meet characters like Polychrome, Daughter of the Rainbow, who is consistently described as a sky fairy, but doesn't appear to have any responsibility for humans. Mermaids are also fairies, according to The Sea Fairies. Tik-Tok of Oz brings in an entire country of odd-looking fairies who support mankind in less direct ways. Some of Baum's stories also include animal fairies. In describing the King of the Fairy Beavers, Pittypat the Rabbit tells John Dough in John Dough and the Cherub, "All the animals have their fairies, just as you human folks do; and it is lucky for us that the Fairy Beaver lives on this very island." That would seem to make the Knooks superfluous, which could explain why Santa introduces them in The Road to Oz as caring for trees, not animals. If that's the case, though, then what happened to the Nymphs? The great meeting of the immortals in Santa Claus is attended by the rulers of the four groups I already mentioned, plus the leaders of the Water Sprites, Sleep Fays, Gnomes, Sound Imps, Wind Demons, and Light Elves. Oddly enough, although Jack Frost and his father the Frost King appear elsewhere in the book, and possibly represent another sort of immortals, they don't show up at this meeting. Also attending are "three others who possessed powers so great that all the Kings and Queens showed them reverence," these being the Master Woodsman, Master Husbandman, and Master Mariner of the World. The story also has some mentions of the Supreme Master, but he's always off-stage, and even these other powerful Masters don't appear to have any direct communication with him.

Most of these sorts of immortals are only mentioned in this book, but Gnomes appear quite frequently in Baum's body of work. In the Oz series, he drops the leading G from the word, and gives the Nome Kingdom an antagonistic relationship with Oz. We also catch occasional glimpses of other kinds of immortals, like the enormous Gigans of "Nelebel's Fairyland" (who are turned into tiny Rampsies during the course of the tale), the Governor of the Goblins in The Enchanted Island of Yew, and the Rain King. In their own Oz books, Ruth Plumly Thompson brings in the Sandman (who, if we use Baum's classifications, might count as a Sleep Fay), and John R. Neill works in the leprechauns and kelpies of his ancestral Ireland. Fortunately, the Oz universe is large and varied enough to accommodate these newcomers.

While the official Oz books never mention the great Masters, I've seen a few apocryphal works that utilize the Master Woodsman Ak. Ray Powell's crossover story, The Raggedys of Oz, presents us with all three Masters plus a new one, Aero the Master Airman. Since the role of the Masters largely seems to be to serve the needs of mankind, maybe Powell was thinking that humanity's increasing presence in the air would necessitate this new Master.

One oddity is that, while we see immortal representatives of various sorts of living things (trees, flowers, animals, and humans), and of three of the four classical elements (Nomes for earth, Water Sprites and mermaids for water, and sky fairies for air), fire is largely ignored. There's the fairy Firelight in Tik-Tok, but she appears to only represent the light of fire, not its other properties. Since Baum did give us both the Demon of Electricity and a maiden of electric light, however, perhaps he considered guardians of electricity to be twentieth-century equivalents of the old fire deities. We meet people made of fire in both the Thompson and Snow books, as well as a salamander (the fire lizard kind, not the amphibian sort) in Captain Salt in Oz, but with no indication that they're of the ranks of immortals. I've actually incorporated several jinn into my own Oz writings, with the Red Jinn serving as somewhat of a precedent for this.

I suppose that's about all I have to say on Ozian and Baumian immortals, aside from a mention that Santa himself had to be made immortal with a unique mantle, while Lurline could apparently do the same thing to everyone in Oz with no such assistance. There does appear to be a difference between simply being immortal and being AN immortal. I feel that, essentially, Santa has become a full-fledged member of the pantheon of guardians of the world, while the Ozites merely live forever due to the grace of Lurline. This Ozian immortality could potentially be removed, while I don't think Santa's could (unless perhaps the elusive Supreme Master were to intervene). Nor is Ozian immortality quite as thorough, as there are occasional mentions that Ozites can die (or at least become incapacitated to the point where it makes little difference) due to "total destruction." I wouldn't be surprised if it's impossible to totally destroy someone like Ak, Lurline, or Santa.

Wow, this post ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated, and most of my friends list probably isn't going to read it anyway. But if you ARE an Oz fan (or even if you're not and decided to read the entry anyway), let me know what you think.

Comments

[travspence.livejournal.com]

You should get an A on this book report, young man. :-)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I actually didn't do a very good job at summarizing the book. {g}

[graycardinal]

Indeed, Ozian immortality is decidedly fuzzy around the edges, especially in earlier stages of Oz history. There's the whole complicated matter of how people age and don't age (most notably Ozma, who's described as an infant when she's turned over to Mombi, but apparently grows up as Tip more or less in real time, even though Oz is clearly a fairyland for at least part of this period).

By way of introduction, incidentally, it was your (excellently compiled and reasoned) Oz posts that led me here; I'm presently engaged in a flurry of reading, rereading, and research on all things Ozian, and one of the trails of virtual breadcrumbs I was following pointed your way. That said, we appear to have additional interests in common, such that I'm definitely not just here for the parties in the Emerald City. :-)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Indeed, Ozian immortality is decidedly fuzzy around the edges, especially in earlier stages of Oz history.

Yeah, it seems to be a pretty common belief among Oz fans that the immortality didn't take full effect until after Ozma took the throne, although there are some contradictory references.

There's the whole complicated matter of how people age and don't age (most notably Ozma, who's described as an infant when she's turned over to Mombi, but apparently grows up as Tip more or less in real time, even though Oz is clearly a fairyland for at least part of this period).

I usually go by Thompson's explanation that people can age if they choose to. I don't think the system described in Tin Woodman, in which even babies never grow older, doesn't sound like it would be too pleasant for the parents of these infants.

Did you write "The Solitary Sorceress of Oz"? I liked the story, and it's true that Glinda's origins are never really explained. I do know of two apocryphal Oz books (The Enchanted Gnome of Oz and Cory in Oz) that give her sisters.

[graycardinal]

Did you write "The Solitary Sorceress of Oz"?

That would be me, yes. There apparently isn't much overlap between the dedicated Oz fandom and the Yuletide fan community, so I have had relatively little feedback from the Ozian camp on the story to date. I'm not familiar with either of the two titles you mention, so I'll have to reserve judgment on how "my" Glinda might or might not have siblings in Oz.

I'm currently tinkering with a theory that Ozian immortality is tied directly to the fairy rulers of Oz, so that when Mombi turned Ozma into Tip, it interfered with the underlying magic that kept aging at bay. A further possibility might be that when a fairy and a mortal produce a child, the child assumes the fairy parent's powers and the parent effectively becomes a mortal. That would more or less reconcile the fact of fairy immortality with the idea of a long line of fairy rulers of whom Ozma is the latest, and might help explain why Pastoria in Lost King doesn't seem to be a fairy at all.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm currently tinkering with a theory that Ozian immortality is tied directly to the fairy rulers of Oz, so that when Mombi turned Ozma into Tip, it interfered with the underlying magic that kept aging at bay.

That's possible. Of course, no one seems to comment on how everyone used to avoid aging back in the good old days.

That would more or less reconcile the fact of fairy immortality with the idea of a long line of fairy rulers of whom Ozma is the latest, and might help explain why Pastoria in Lost King doesn't seem to be a fairy at all.

Well, it could be Ozma's mother who's a fairy, but it seems most likely that Ozma was adopted anyway.

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

Actually, in DOTWIZ, Ozma explains that Mombi had imprisoned her grandfather, and her father, and then her. Since no female relations are mentioned, this does lend itself to the idea that perhaps Mombi is a blood relation to Ozma somewhere in that area. This was canned by the Su-Dic in "Glinda" who mentioned that Ozma was alive at the time Oz was established by Lurline all those years ago.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

True, no female relatives are mentioned, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist. But yeah, Mombi might have also been involved somewhere in her bloodline.

Do we know for sure that the Ozma who came with Lurline is the same as the current Ozma?

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

It is my opinion that the words of the Su-Dic were intended to establish that Ozma came over with Lurline, intentionally retconning the idea that Ozma was anything other than a True Fairy.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

And the beginning of chapter 22 of Magic says, "It seems odd that a fairy should have a birthday, for fairies, they say, were born at the beginning of time and live forever" when discussing Ozma's birthday, even though Mombi specifically stated that Ozma was a baby at the time of her transformation. It's pretty much impossible to come up with a take on Ozma's history that fits in with all the passages, but I think Jack Snow does a pretty decent job of it in Magical Mimics.

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

Wonderful and thoughtful post!

I think I agree with you on Santa's immortality - that it can't be taken away, and the level of "stewardship" that he has in the world.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Wonderful and thoughtful post!

Thank you!

I think I agree with you on Santa's immortality - that it can't be taken away, and the level of "stewardship" that he has in the world.

Yeah, I get the impression that being a full-fledged immortal carries with it a certain sense of responsibility, while Ozian immortality really doesn't.

[shadarko.livejournal.com]

I'd have to agree, Santa can't lose his immortality unless taken by the great Masters. Though it might be possible for other immortals of lesser importance to lose their immortality. I think Santa shot up past normal immortal to Patron Saint of Children style immortal. (though not canon) the Queen of the Wood Nymphs did take away immortality from one of her nymphs before.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true. I wonder if she'd be able to confiscate immortality from anyone who wasn't a subject of hers, though. Santa doesn't seem to have any immediate higher-ups, except possibly the Masters themselves.

[newwwoz.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

This is the best article on this topic EVER! You definitely did a better job exploring the details than I did! (I've been toying with a blog explaining with the idea that the Immortals Baum created were in fact a pantheon, with the minimal exception that they didn't consider themselves gods.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And even though Ak and his ilk don't want to be seen as gods, I'm not sure that would stop people from worshipping them if they found out about them.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Great job! Hm ... this makes me wonder: how power was Lurline, anyway, if she could make the entire population of a whole country immortal?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Pretty powerful, I would say. Queen Zixi of Ix does say that "the powers of fairies are boundless." If we're to believe Lost King, though, Lurline wasn't able to break Mombi's spell on Pastoria, so even she has her limits.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Characters with limitless powers get boring pretty quickly ... gotta have limits and flaws.

[(Anonymous)]

From what I recall, Michael Patrick Hearn (in ANNOTATED WIZARD) correlated this pantheon og Immortals with the theosophical beliefs that Baum espoused in his South Dakota newspaper.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I think they were also largely inspired by Paracelsus' elementals. (And, of course, "Paracelsus" is part of Button-Bright's full name.)

[yosef.livejournal.com]

Speaking of immortality and Oz, I wonder how much the regular Ozites who can't die worry about the chance of being destroyed. Does the chance seem so small that they count on living forever or is Lurline's spell perhaps too new to fathom such a thing? I guess if I found out tomorrow all Americans were going to live forever from now on, it wouldn't seem too weird, since being alive is all I know. I also haven't had too many people in my life die to make it feel like a normal thing (although I know it is obviously). I guess it'd probably be a lot different for an 80-year-old finding out he'd be the same age forever than a 23-year-old. Anyway, good post! As always, your posts remind me I really need to read the Baum non-Oz fantasies still.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

As there are scattered references in the series to Ozites discussing death, I would imagine that the people aren't totally complacent about their deathlessness. If children are still being born, though (and Thompson certainly suggests they are), it's possible that the younger generation is more used to immortality, and more likely to take it for granted.

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

Quite true. Even though the Army of Oogaboo (from Tik-Tok) knew they were unkillable, they were still very afraid of being torn to pieces.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they'd still be conscious after being torn to pieces. Maybe only the pieces of the face would be.

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of Ozites as simply being unkillable, while "True Fairies", typically nature fairies, were actually invulnerable. Santa's Mantle of Immortality might have provided one or the other, I'm not sure which. Since it seems that the fairies only had one Mantle to give, it's likely that Santa got promoted directly to the ranks of the True Fairies.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, although Nomes are apparently True Fairies, and they can be destroyed by eggs.

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

Nomes, actually, are probably just fairies. Not only are they vulnerable to eggs, but to injury as well. Remember, in "Emerald City", Ruggedo orders a number of his generals destroyed by ordering them into a slicing machine. I don't think a True Fairy would be able to be sliced.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

That would make sense, although the Nomes do have a function in protecting part of nature, as the other True Fairies seem to. Maybe they're right on the verge between the two sorts of groups.