Who wrote Ellie in the Emerald City. Emerald City -=Books=. Screen adaptations and productions

Plot

Wizards

Gingema (evil)
Villina (kind)
Bastinda (evil)
Stella (kind)
Goodwin (mysterious)

Other positive characters

Prem Kokus
fregosa

Other negative characters

cannibal

Version difference

There are many editions of the tale, and their texts often do not match. The book has been revised many times by the author, and if the early versions are a translation of Baum's fairy tale with the replacement of some episodes, then in the later versions both the images of the characters and the explanations of events are significantly changed, which creates its own, noticeably different from Oz atmosphere of the Magic Land.

Three most known versions and their main features:

Edition of the year - closest to Baum's text:
- Ellie is an orphan living with her uncle and aunt;
- sorceresses and secondary characters do not have names;
- tiger bears live in the forest between ravines;
- in the mountains north of the Pink Country live short, armless men with elongated necks.
Edition of the year:
- Ellie has parents;
- sorceresses get familiar names;
- tiger bears are replaced with saber-toothed tigers;
- armless shorties were replaced by Jumpers - high-jumping little men, hitting the enemy with their heads and fists.
Third version:
- The Scarecrow at first speaks with many reservations, gradually moving to the correct speech;
- before meeting with the Cannibal, Ellie takes off her shoes, thus losing her magical protection;
- get the names of Fleet, Lestar, Warr;
- The Leapers call themselves the Marrans;
- Tin Woodman does not say that he will bring his bride to the Purple Country;
- removed all references to elephants in the territory of the Magic Land;
- it is mentioned that the appointment of the Scarecrow as the ruler of the Emerald City caused discontent among some courtiers.

The latter differences seem to be designed to better connect the book with the sequels already written by this time. In addition to the major changes listed above, there are many minor textual differences between these editions, such as the replacement of individual words. We can say that the fairy tale was completely rewritten several times.

The book is included in the program for students pedagogical universities on academic discipline Children's literature .

Differences from the original

Plot discrepancies

Although you can retell the plot of The Wizard of Oz and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the same words if you wish, the differences between these books are numerous and go far beyond retelling in another language and replacing proper names, as it might seem from the first glance. Here is short list main differences:

The main character's name is Ellie, not Dorothy, and she has parents (John and Anna Smith), while Dorothy Gale is an orphan living with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em.
Volkov's description of the girl's Kansas life is less gloomy than Baum's.
The hurricane that brought Ellie to the Magic Land is caused by the evil sorceress Gingem, who wants to destroy the world (for Baum, this hurricane is a common natural disaster).
Toto, once in the Magic Land, begins to talk like a human, like all the animals of the country. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, he remains speechless, and only in one of the continuations of the tale does Baum explain and correct this discrepancy.
Totoshka at Volkov's wants to deal with the neighbor's dog Hector.
The orientation of the parts of the Magic Land to the cardinal points is a mirror image of Oz: if Baum has the Blue Land, where Dorothy begins her journey, is in the east, then Volkov has it in the west.
Names of countries have been changed by color: Baum's Yellow Country corresponds to Volkov's Purple Country, and vice versa. The arrangement of countries by Volkov is generally less logical, the pattern according to which the intermediate color of the spectrum - green - is between the extreme ones, is lost.
In The Wizard of Oz, the witches are not named, with the exception of Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. Volkov's name is Stella, the good sorceress of the Pink Country, and the sorceresses of the North, East and West are named Villina, Gingham and Bastinda, respectively.
Baum's Oz is both the name of the country and the name of the wizard. Volkov does not use this name at all, the wizard is called Goodwin, and the country is called Fairy (sometimes Goodwin's country).
Ellie receives a prediction about three cherished wishes that must be fulfilled so that she can return to Kansas.
According to Baum, the crow that advised the Scarecrow to get brains taught the rest of the birds not to be afraid of him. Volkov does not directly mention this. The crow itself is described by Volkov as “big disheveled”, by Baum it is “old”.
The woodcutter in Volkov's books (and - by tradition - in most subsequent Russian translations of the Oz tales) is made of iron. In the original it is tin.
Between meeting the Woodcutter and meeting the Cowardly Lion, Volkov inserts an additional chapter in which, while the Scarecrow and the Woodcutter argue about the advantages of brains and hearts, Ellie is kidnapped by the Ogre. The Scarecrow and the Woodcutter manage to free the girl and kill the Cannibal.
According to Baum, not Saber-toothed tigers live in the forest between the ravines, but Kalidas - creatures with the body of a bear and the head of a tiger.
Volkov is told the name of the queen of field mice (Ramina) and it is clearly indicated that when parting, she left Ellie a silver whistle with which she could be summoned. In Baum, the mouse queen simply says that Dorothy can call her at any time when she goes out into the field, although later Dorothy calls the mouse queen with a whistle, which did not appear in the story before.
In Baum, the guard guarding the wizard's palace immediately lets travelers through, he is simply called "a soldier with green sideburns", Volkov gives him a name - Din Gior and introduces a scene with combing his beard.
Goodwin, sending Ellie and her friends to the Purple Land, orders them to depower Bastinda, no matter how. Oz explicitly orders Dorothy to kill the evil sorceress.
The scenes in the throne room are described slightly differently, as are the scenes in which the evil sorceress sends her animals against Ellie and her companions. The words of the spell that summons the Flying Monkeys are also changed - like all the spells in Volkov's books, they are more melodic and do not require strange accompanying gestures, such as standing on one leg, as Baum did.
The Flying Monkeys do not harm Ellie for fear of the silver slippers. According to Baum, the girl is protected by the kiss of the good sorceress of the North, which Volkov does not mention at all. Added a conversation where Bastinda, in particular, tells Ellie that Gingema was her sister.
Ellie's stay in captivity at Bastinda is described in much more detail, the image of the cook Fregosa appears, the motive for preparing an uprising against Bastinda is added.
Although Ellie did not assume that water was deadly for Bastinda, she was aware of her fear of water. Sometimes Ellie even used water spilled on the floor to get rid of the sorceress for a while.
In order to take away the silver slipper from Baum, the sorceress used a rod, which she made invisible. At Volkov's, Bastinda lost all magical tools and took advantage of the outstretched rope.
Bastinda, when Ellie pours water on her, explains that she has not washed her face in centuries because she received a prediction of death from water. In Baum, the Witch of the West simply states that the water will kill her, and then informs Dorothy that she remains the mistress of the castle, and admits that she was very evil in life.
Volkov's history of the Flying Monkeys is described in much less detail than Baum's.
At Volkov's, Totoshka discovers Goodwin hiding behind a screen by smell. According to Baum, Toto unmasks the wizard by accident when he jumps to the side, frightened by the Lion's roar. There are many minor differences in the subsequent scenes, up until the fake wizard takes off in a balloon.
Goodwin, like Ellie, is from Kansas. Oz is from Omaha, near Kansas. Goodwin, before becoming an aeronaut, was an actor, playing kings and heroes, while Oz was a ventriloquist.
According to Baum, the path to the good sorceress of the south passes through a forest with warring trees and Chinaland. In Volkov, these countries are completely absent, but a chapter with a flood has been added.
Volkov's final obstacle to the Roseland is not the Hammerheads. Hammer Heads), they are also armless short men who shoot with their heads, and Jumpers (Marrans).
Back in Kansas, Ellie meets Goodwin in a nearby town. Baum does not have this episode.

Differences in the emotional and semantic dominant

Comparison of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and "The Wizard of the Emerald City" showed significant differences between these works in terms of emotional and semantic dominant. While the text of the original can be considered neutral or polydominant (with elements of "beautiful" and "cheerful" text), Volkov's arrangement is a "dark" text. This is manifested in the references to Baum's missing shifts. emotional states, vocabulary with the semes "fear", "laughter", detailing of descriptions (with an excessive transfer of the size of objects and external characteristics of characters), more vocabulary with the component "sound", onomatopoeia. Water is a very frequent semantic component: rain and the flood of the river are the main events of the chapter "Flood" added by Volkov, ponds, fountains, a moat with water are found in the description of Goodwin's palace - details that are not in the original, the mention of the stream also appears when describing the ravine, crossing the road. Another feature of Volkov's text is frequent exclamatory sentences, especially in passages that were not in the original.

Translations

Despite the fact that the book itself is a translation, it has been translated into many languages, including English and German, and published in almost all former socialist countries.

The first German edition of the Wizard was published in the GDR and the FRG in the mid-1960s. For 40 years, the book has gone through 10 editions; even after the reunification of Germany, when the original books of Baum became available to East Germans, translations of Volkov's books continue to come out invariably sold out. Some changes were made to the text of the 11th edition, which was published in, and subsequent ones, and the book also received a new design.

In Germany, two radio plays based on the book were staged:

, Director: Dieter Scharfenberg, LITERA junior 1991, MC.
Der Zauberer der Smaragdenstadt, Director: Paul Hartmann, Deutsche Grammophon - Junior 1994, MC.

In May, an audio version of the book was released on two . The text was read by the famous actress and director Katharina Thalbach:

Der Zauberer der Smaragdenstadt, Jumbo Neue Medien, 2CD, ISBN 3-8337-1533-2

Screen adaptations and productions

Summary of the book "The Wizard of the Emerald City"

The events of Volkov's book "The Wizard of the Emerald City" unfold around an ordinary girl, Ellie, and her dog, Totoshka. By the will of the evil sorceress Gingema, the girl's house is thrown into fairyland. But thanks to the good sorceress Villina, the house falls right on Gingema's head and crushes her. And Ellie inherited from Gingema her shoes. According to Villina, only the wizard Goodwin, who rules the Emerald City, can help her return home, and the girl sets off on a journey.

Along the way, she makes friends - the Scarecrow, who wants to ask Goodwin for brains. The Tin Woodman, who wants to ask Goodwin for a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who wants to ask Goodwin for courage. Overcoming many obstacles on their way, they get to the Emerald City, but Goodwin demands that the Purple Land be freed from the evil sorceress Bastinda first. In contrast, they manage to achieve the goal with the help of friendship and mutual assistance. And although Ellie and her friends manage to liberate the country from Bastinda, Goodwin is in no hurry to fulfill his wishes.

It turns out that Goodwin is not a magician, but an ordinary person who got into a magical land in a balloon. To fulfill his promise, he decides to fix his balloon and return home with Ellie. But a gust of wind takes Goodwin home alone on a balloon, and Ellie is left with friends who, in the process of traveling, received brains, hearts and courage. But Ellie wants to return home and, on the advice of a soldier, friends go to the Pink Country to the sorceress Stella. Having overcome many dangers, Ellie learns from Stella that in order to return home, it is enough to wish this and the shoes from Gingema will take her home. And after saying goodbye to friends, Ellie returns to her parents.

The book "The Wizard of the Emerald City" in the ratings of the site Top books.

The popularity of reading Volkov's "The Wizard of the Emerald City" is so great that this allowed the book to get into our rating. At the same time, interest in the book at the time of its first publication was so great that it forced the author to write a sequel to the book and create a whole series of books about the adventures of Ellie and her friends. Over the years, reading the book "The Wizard of the Emerald City" is still popular, and in the following ratings we will certainly also meet this kind and interesting book.

And some other heroes. In Baum's books own name the scarecrow (eng. Scarecrow) does not. As Volkov writes his own continuations of the fairy tale series, his Scarecrow becomes less and less like his American prototype.

Character history

In "The Wizard of the Emerald City"

straw scarecrow Scarecrow- the first of three creatures that the girl Ellie met, according to Villina's prediction, on her way to the Emerald City. He “worked” as a scarecrow of the Scarecrow for only a couple of days, but during this short period he managed to understand that his main difference from a normal person is the absence of brains. The crow Kaggi-Karr prompted him to this idea, after which the Scarecrow began to dream about how to acquire brains. Therefore, when Ellie took him down from the pole, he happily went with her and Toto to the Emerald City to the wizard Goodwin. The Scarecrow hoped that it would not be difficult for Goodwin to fulfill his cherished desire. The Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion soon joined the company, both of whom also had their own dream.

Along the way, the friends endured many dangerous adventures. And although at that time the Scarecrow did not yet have brains, he constantly gave valuable ideas and performed courageous deeds: he threw himself at the feet of the Cannibal; offered to cross the abyss along a felled tree, and swim across the Great River on a raft; saved his friends from the Saber-toothed tigers with his advice; gave the idea of how to take the Lion out of the poppy field, etc. When Goodwin refused to fulfill the wishes of the petitioners for free and sent them to fight against the evil Bastinda, the Scarecrow performed several more feats: remembering the skills of the scarecrow, he coped with the forty ravens of Bastinda, and then defended his straw Ellie, Leo and Toto from black bee stings.

The road to Stella was also not easy. The Scarecrow was seriously damaged during a flood on the Big River. But his friends did not leave him in trouble, and, in the end, the journey ended happily. Stella managed to send Ellie home, and the Scarecrow, the Woodcutter and the Lion, who became the rulers of different parts of the Magic Land during their wanderings, were delivered by the Flying Monkeys to their subjects.

In the book Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers

The Scarecrow ruled the Emerald City wisely and fairly. But he did not have the reputation of Goodwin, whom everyone feared. Nobody was afraid of the Scarecrow, and therefore, soon after he came to power, a wooden army moved to the Emerald City under the command of the envious carpenter Oorfene Deuce. Greedy for power, Deuce, in whose hands a magical life-giving powder accidentally fell into, by that time managed to cut out several dozen wooden soldiers, revive them and capture the Blue Country with this army. Deuce's appetites were not limited to this, and now his army laid siege to the Emerald City.

The Scarecrow personally led the defense of the city and even himself was on duty at night on the city wall, helping the defenders repel the attacks of the wooden soldiers. However, among the townspeople there was a traitor - a petty courtier named Ruf Bilan, who himself aimed at Goodwin's heirs. Bilan opened the gates to the soldiers of Urfin, the Scarecrow was bound and arrested, the city fell. And soon the Woodcutter was also captured, hurrying to the rescue of the Scarecrow and falling into a trap.

The Scarecrow and the Woodcutter flatly refused to cooperate with the conqueror, and Deuce imprisoned them at the top of a high tower, on the condition that if they did not submit to his will in six months, they would both die. However, the Scarecrow did not sit idly by. He came up with the idea of writing Ellie a letter asking for help. The faithful friend of the Scarecrow and the Woodcutter, the crow Kaggi-Karr, delivered the letter.

Having received the letter, Ellie begged her parents to let her go back to the Magic Land, this time under the supervision of her uncle, an experienced sailor Charlie Black. Ellie, Black, Toto and Kaggi-Karr, overcoming many dangers, managed to reach the goal and free the Scarecrow and the Woodcutter. By that time, the Scarecrow's health had seriously deteriorated, because for the fiery speeches he read from the top of the tower, Oorfene Deuce ordered him to be put in a damp and dank punishment cell. However, being at large among kind and caring friends, the Scarecrow quickly recovered.

The freed captives successfully escaped the chase, and moved to the Purple Country, where they managed to overthrow the cruel viceroy Enkin Fled. The general battle that took place soon with the main forces of Oorfene Deuce decided the outcome of the war: Deuce's power fell, and the Scarecrow was reinstated as the Ruler of the Emerald City. At the same time, the straw thinker figured out how to re-educate blockheads: city craftsmen carved smiling faces instead of evil faces, and blockheads turned into peaceful gardeners. For this truly ingenious decision, the enthusiastic townspeople awarded the Scarecrow with the title of Thrice Wise.

After the magnificent celebrations, Ellie, Charlie Black and Toto left for their homeland, and the Scarecrow began to establish a peaceful life in the Magic Land. On his orders, the blockheads exterminated almost the entire population of bloodthirsty saber-toothed tigers, making the path through the forest safe along the road paved with yellow bricks.

In "Seven Underground Kings"

A few months later, the Scarecrow received the devastating news that Ellie, along with her second cousin Fred, was languishing as a prisoner of underground miners who live in a huge Cave right under Fairyland. The children were brought to the miners by chance - they examined one cave in their homeland, but a collapse cut off their way back, and after long wanderings among the underground labyrinths they ended up in the possession of the miners. There, they were detained by the seven local kings, in the hope that Ellie could recover the lost Sleeping Water, vital to the existence of the entire Underworld. Shortly before this, the source of miraculous water was destroyed by the traitor Ruf Bilan, who fled after the overthrow of Urfin in the dungeon; and he inspired the kings with the idea that Ellie is a fairy, capable of returning Soporific water by witchcraft. The news of these events was brought by the Scarecrow and his friends Totoshka, who managed to escape from captivity.

Filled with anxiety for the fate of Ellie, the Scarecrow threatened the underground kings with war (in which he was warmly supported by the Woodcutter and the Lion). However, Ellie, through the mediation of the fled Fred, managed to dissuade the Scarecrow from a dangerous decision, and the mechanic Lestar figured out how to settle the matter amicably. Delegation upper world led by the Scarecrow, with the consent of the seven kings, descended into the Underground Country and organized work to restore the destroyed source, in exchange for the success of which Ellie was promised freedom.

While the renovations were going on and the kings were conspiring to seize sole power, the Scarecrow came up with another revolutionary idea: he suggested that the Keeper of Time, Rugero, put everyone to sleep. underground kings at once, and along with them and other parasites, and then inspire them that they have lived all their lives by honest work. The plan worked brilliantly. millennial royalty in the Cave fell without a single shot, the former freeloaders turned into kind, hardworking people, and the people of the miners breathed freely. Soon, the miners generally began to move upstairs, to empty lands in the neighborhood of the country of the Munchkins.

Also, the Scarecrow, to whom the climate of the Cave was harmful, left the gloomy dungeon together with the rescued Ellie and with his other friends.

In "The Fiery God of the Marranos"

When Ellie, Fred and Toto went to Kansas on the dragon Oyhho, the Scarecrow, in order to overshadow the bitterness of separation, conceived a new large-scale business: he decided to turn the Emerald City into an island. According to the drawings drawn up by the Ruler, the stone-breaking workers dug a huge pit around the city and let water into it from the Affira River. The foundation pit turned into a canal where boats could float and children could swim; but the main purpose of the canal was to increase the defenses of the Emerald City in case a new enemy swooped in.

A few years later, life proved the Scarecrow right: Oorfene Deuce again moved to the city, who managed to stand at the head of the backward, but warlike people Marranov. Unfortunately, even the canal could not save the city from capture, although it delayed the attackers for a long time. The Scarecrow and the Woodcutter were again captured by Jusu, and again refused the cooperation he offered with the dictator. They were not even seduced by Deuce's offer to give them freedom and appoint them governors of their countries under his supreme dominion. The refusal of the Scarecrow and the Woodcutter, like last time, was categorical. The angry Oorfene Deuce wanted to destroy the recalcitrant captives, but this time he was held back by another circumstance: he wanted to find out from the Scarecrow the secret of the magic box, with which the usurper could restore the shaken discipline in his army. This box (more precisely, a magic TV) was presented to the Scarecrow by Stella a few years before the second rise of Deuce. At that time, work on the canal ended and the Scarecrow was again exhausted from boredom and idleness; Stella's gift, which allowed at any moment to see what this or that person was doing in the Magic Land, no matter how far away he was, entertained the Scarecrow for a while, but here's a promise to look after Deuce, who in those years did not pose any danger , Scarecrow quickly forgot. Now Oorfene has seized power and the life of the Scarecrow with the Woodcutter was directly connected with the secret of the magic box.

It is not known how this confrontation would have ended if guests from Kansas had not come to Magic Land again - now it was no longer Ellie, but her younger sister, like two drops of water, Annie, with her friend Tim and doggie Artoshka. The children took an active part in the fate of the Scarecrow, the Woodcutter and other prisoners. They obtained the Soporific Water, drugged the guards guarding the prisoners, and took them to freedom. Again, as ten years before, their path lay in the Purple Country. And again Oorfene sent his army against them, this time consisting of Marranos, in order to rectify the situation with one blow. But times have changed and it didn’t come to a battle: on the approaches to the Purple Country, the Marrans discovered that Deuce had deceived them in the most cynical way, and the power of Oorfene came to an end, now irrevocable.

In "Yellow Mist"

However, although the Fairyland would have to go through two more armed conflicts in the coming years, already after the war with the Marranos, it became noticeable that the individual role of the Scarecrow in the ongoing events gradually decreased. The course of events no longer depended so much on his decisions, and the defense of the Magic Land from enemies began to be more and more successfully carried out together, through the joint efforts of many characters.

Nevertheless, when a year later the giantess-sorceress Arachne woke up from a centuries-old sleep, the Scarecrow remained at the “battle post”. He again led the defense of the Emerald City, as a result of which the sorceress, who tried to swim across the canal at night and get into the city, was fired upon with cobblestones; Arachne almost drowned and was forced to flee.

The Evil Fairy did not calm down on this and sent a poisonous Yellow Fog to the Fairyland, which prevented people from breathing, seeing and talking. Moreover, the Fog did not pass the sun's rays well, and because of this, for the first time since its creation, autumn and then winter came to the Magic Land. The inhabitants of the country were threatened with mass starvation and death from frost. In these unprecedented conditions for the magical land, the Scarecrow led the further struggle against Arachne and took all possible measures to limit the harmful effects of the Yellow Mist. The straw sage came up with a way to provide protective filters for animals and birds, organized mass medical care for the population. But this was clearly not enough to defeat Arachne, and then the Scarecrow decided to send a messenger to Kansas for help.

Annie, Tim and Charlie Black, who arrived at his call, energetically joined the common struggle. Under the leadership of Charlie Black, an iron self-propelled giant Tilly-Willi was created, designed to destroy Arachne, and a mobile fortress wagon was equipped. The Scarecrow became one of the members of the crew of this fortress, which, together with Tilly-Willi and a detachment of blockheads, advanced to the refuge of Arachne. The path was full of dangers, but the Scarecrow and his friends won: Arachne found her death among the rocks, and the Yellow Mist disappeared from the Fairyland forever. The tribe of gnomes, previously subordinate to Arachne, swore allegiance to the Scarecrow, promising him to keep a chronicle of the Magic Land as a "tribute".

In the book "The Secret of the Abandoned Castle"

Two years later, the Scarecrow again had to deal with defense issues, now against Aliens from the distant planet Rameria, who flew to Earth in order to annex it to their possessions. In this war, mainly positional, the Scarecrow coordinated the actions of the "scouts" - Mentaho, Castallo and Arzak Ilsor, who had gone over to their side. In addition, at the request of the Scarecrow, Annie, Tim, and Fred, who had become an engineer, flew in from Kansas. Fred armed the residents of the Emerald City with real guns, which, fortunately, were not needed. The Scarecrow also came up with the idea to protect the blockheads with mirrored shields so that they could not be harmed by the Aliens' beam pistols. The raid of blockheads on the enemy camp ended in complete success. Before the raid on the Emerald City of the Ramerian helicopter squadron, the Scarecrow competently built a defense, providing an air barrier and reserve detachments of the city's defenders, but the squadron did not reach the target: on the approaches to the city it was attacked and scattered by the giant eagles of Carfax. When they managed to bring pipes with Sleeping Water to the alien camp, the Scarecrow personally, riding on Oikhho, brought the news to his friends that "the mice fell asleep" (that is, Sleeping Water was delivered and it is not necessary to blow up the Ramerian starship with the help of Fred's mine).

In addition to conducting military operations, the Scarecrow did a lot for the improvement of the life of the Magic Land. In particular, on his orders, lanterns were installed along the entire road paved with yellow brick; through big river threw a bridge; and a library appeared in the Emerald City.

Borrowing an image by other authors

He is a character in the fairy tale by Leonid Vladimirsky "Pinocchio in the Emerald City".

Character

By nature, the Scarecrow is smart, charming, resourceful, at first a little shy. He is good-natured, loves to show off, but also to rejoice, like a child, to sing songs if there are no subjects nearby. He has read many books from the library of the Emerald City and likes to insert "smart" and long words into his speech from time to time, flaunting "encyclopedic knowledge"; usually pronounces such words in syllables. Touchy, but outgoing. Sometimes he is careless and intemperate in his language: in the second book he blurted out to the enemies that Ellie was already in the Magic Land, which is why he ended up in a punishment cell and made it difficult for his friends to fight Oorfene Deuce.

Volkov himself admitted that the Scarecrow was his favorite hero.

Individual characteristics

Doesn't need food or water.
Doesn't need sleep.
Not subject to fatigue and pain.
Able to see in the dark as well as during the day.
Loses the ability to see, hear, and speak if his eyes, ears, and mouth are washed away by dampness or water. However, it can easily restore lost abilities, it is enough just to touch up the face with fresh paint.
He also easily returns to life, even if his "body" was torn apart (as was the case with the Flying Monkeys) - you just need to put all the parts together and stuff them with straw again.

Alexander Volkov

In the mid-thirties, I happened to read on English language famous American fairy tale by Frank Baum "The Wise Man of Oz".
Baum's fairy tale attracted me with the originality of its characters, their amazing fate. The girl Ellie, brought to Fairyland by a hurricane, finds her future friends in the most distressed situation: a straw scarecrow of the Scarecrow sits on a stake in a wheat field, and impudent crows laugh at him; The Tin Woodman, bewitched by an evil sorceress, rusts in the deep forest; The lion, who, according to all fairy-tale laws, should rule the animal kingdom, is afraid of everyone and everything.
And how unusual are their desires! The scarecrow needs brains: with brains in his head, he will become like all people. The woodcutter wants a heart that can love. A lion without courage cannot become the king of beasts; if he achieves this, he will rule wisely and justly.
Everything was conceived by Baum very well, and, however, to present the fairy tale to Soviet children, a lot of revision was required. And I came up with the prediction of Villina's magic book: "Let Ellie help the three creatures achieve their cherished desires, and then she will return home."
The heroes walked briskly along the road, the friends go to the Emerald City: only there can their wishes come true. But their path is long and difficult, there are many dangers and obstacles on it. And, overcoming these obstacles, the heroes of the fairy tale acquire the qualities they aspire to. The Scarecrow becomes smart, the Woodcutter becomes kind, the Lion becomes bold.
The fairy tale wisely says: do not try to get happiness from the wrong hands, achieve it in the struggle, in mutual assistance, help each other, and victory will be yours!
The tale is over, the last page of the book is turned. But the guys do not want to part with Ellie and her friends. Letters fly to me: what happened next?
I could not remain indifferent to the requests of readers and decided to continue the story of the amazing creatures that inhabit the Magic Land, which I studied so well, as if I traveled through it and traveled it from end to end. I wrote the stories "Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers" and "Seven Underground Kings", which was supposed to be the last in the cycle of fairy tales about the Fairyland. The path to retreat was cut off by Ramina, the queen of field mice. She predicted Ellie that she would never return to her friends the Scarecrow, the Woodcutter, and the Lion.
But the will of the readers turned out to be stronger than the will of the author. Many letters of protest poured in. And many readers ask to make the fairy Ramina make a mistake, so that her prediction turns out to be wrong and Ellie returns to the Magic Land more than once...

My heart could not stand it - I began to write the fourth fairy tale. But to undermine the authority of fairies, even if they are like little Ramina, is a dangerous business for a storyteller.
The cycle of fairy tales about the Fairyland continues, but Ellie no longer crosses the Great Desert, she was replaced by her younger sister Annie, the following tales tell about her and her friend Tim O'Kelly: "The Fiery God of the Marrans" and "Yellow Mist".
Note that in the first tale it was only about the fulfillment of the cherished desires of the Scarecrow, the Woodcutter and the Lion, and Ellie returned to her homeland.
In the second, the peoples of the Magic Land have to fight for their independence with the wooden soldiers of Oorfene Deuce, in the third, the Underground Miners rebel against the order that has weighed heavily on people for millennia. And in the fourth tale, over the course of many months, the Marrans go through the path of human history, on which the peoples of the big world took many years. The fairy tale "Yellow Mist" is not only about the freedom of the inhabitants of the Magic Land - the spell of the evil Arachne threatens its very existence...
Maybe you ask me: what will happen next? Where will all this end?
Read - find out.
Will there be more Fairyland tales?
Maybe...

Books about Volkov's Magic Land.

Our page will introduce you to all Russian books about Magic Land. The first books were written by A.M. Volkov. Then a large series of books was written by S.S. Sukhinov. Also here you will find other authors who wrote about the same Magic Land.

Click on the author's last name to see his series of books: the cover of the book and a brief description of it. And in the "Links" section you can find links to Internet resources where you can read some of these books.

series A.M. Volkova

The Wizard of Oz
(1939)

Girl Ellie and her faithful dog Totoshka from Kansas end up in Magic Land. To return home, Ellie must go on a journey through the Magic Land. She must help the three creatures in the fulfillment of their cherished desires. Having met the revived Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, they all go together to the Emerald City to the great wizard Great and Terrible Goodwin to ask him to fulfill their cherished desires. But, having experienced a lot of adventures, they expose Goodwin, who turned out to be a simple aeronaut from Kansas, brought here by a hurricane. But still, he manages to fulfill the wishes of all three friends, and silver shoes help Ellie return home.

Oorfene Deuce and his wooden soldiers
(1963)

The evil and cunning carpenter Oorfene Deuce, who lived in the Blue Country, gets a life-giving powder. The envious carpenter made wooden soldiers and led them to conquer the Emerald City. Goodwin's successor the Scarecrow the Wise, the Long-bearded Soldier Din Gior, the Keeper of the Gates of Faramant, and the armed townspeople bravely defended their beautiful city. But nevertheless, there was a traitor Ruf Bilan, who opened the gates to the enemies. Once in captivity, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman send their familiar crow Kaggi-Karr to Ellie for help. Ellie, her one-legged sailor uncle Charlie Black and Toto go to Magic Land to help their friends. With adventures, having reached the Fairyland, freeing the captives of Ufin Deuce, the friends defeat the wooden army, and Oorfene is made an exile and left alone with himself to think about his actions. Ellie and her uncle return home.

(1964)

The traitor Ruf Bilan, having fled from justice, enters the Underground Country through an underground passage, where he accidentally breaks the Sacred Spring with soporific water, thereby breaking the centuries-old way of the country, where seven kings rule, six of which sleep, and the seventh rules for one month. At this time, Ellie and her second cousin Alfred, traveling through the caves, end up in the Underground Country, and Ellie's adventures in the Magic Land begin again. The kings hoped that Ellie was a fairy and would return the soporific water to them. Toto makes his way upstairs with a letter and friends from the Emerald City rush to the rescue of the guys. With the help of a water pump, a team of Winkies, led by a mechanic Lestar, pump out Sleepy Water from the depths and put all the kings to sleep at once. After that, friends offer the underground inhabitants to move upstairs. After all Ellie, Fred and Toto go home on a huge dragon Oyhho. Before returning, Ellie summoned the fairy and field mouse queen Ramina, who told her that she would never see her friends again.

Fire God Marranos
(1968)

After the unsuccessful capture of the Fairy Land and expelled by its inhabitants, Oorfene Deuce lived in seclusion with the bear Toputon and the wooden clown Eot Ling for ten years in his old hut, cultivating a garden, but did not give up his dream of becoming the ruler of the Fairy Land. Once, near his dwelling, the giant eagle Carfax, wounded in battle, fell. Oorfene cured the noble bird. Then, with the help of Carfax and a lighter (accidentally dropped by Charlie Black), he appears before the backward people of the Marrans (Leapers) in the form of a Fire God. He led them to fight with their neighbors. The Marranos first conquered the Purple Country, and then the Emerald Isle (as the Emerald City became known after a canal was dug around it). But Ellie's younger sister Annie and her friend Tim came to the aid of the inhabitants of the Magic Land. They rode on mechanical mules powered by solar energy. With the help of a magic all-seeing box, a magic hoop and a volleyball, they defeated the self-proclaimed god, who fled in disgrace.

(1970)

Five thousand years ago, when the creator of the Magic Land, Gurrikap, was still alive, the evil sorceress-giantess Arachne appeared there. She harmed the inhabitants of the Magic Land in every possible way (except for her dwarf subjects): hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, which she knew how to cause. Gurrikap decided to rid the country of such a pest and put her to sleep for a long time. And now five centuries have passed, Gurrikap is gone, and Arachne woke up all the same angry and envious. Having learned from the annals of the gnomes, everything that happened during her dream, she decided to seize power in the Magic Land. But it turned out that the peoples of the Magic Land do not want to part with their freedom. Then Arachne let loose a poisonous yellow mist. Again people came to the rescue from behind the mountains. Annie, Tim, sailor Charlie and dog Artoshka. They built a huge iron giant, Tilly Willy, who defeated the sorceress. The yellow fog disappeared and the inhabitants Magic Land again saw the blue sky and the bright sun.

Mystery of the abandoned castle
(1975)

Approaching the earth spaceship from the distant planet Rameria in order to capture and enslave. Aliens, having examined the planet, find a safe place, in their opinion. It turns out to be Fairyland, but the aliens don't even know that it's magical. They are divided into Menvits (lords) and Arzaks (slaves). Menvits have a hypnotic gaze with which they enslave people. So, the Menvits seek to take over our planet, and decide to start with the Magic Land. People come to help big world: Annie, Tim and Alfred. And new adventures begin. In the end, with the help of mice, to the castle of Gurrikap (where the aliens settled), they conduct a water pipe with soporific water and put the Menvits to sleep. The Arzaks are supplied with emeralds, which, as it turns out, free from the hypnotic gaze of the Menvits, and are escorted home.