Ellie Smith

In the 1st book (The Wizard of the Emerald City , 1939 ), Ellie is the most common girl of about 8-9 years old from Kansas (USA), brought to the wizarding country by the will of fate.

In the 2nd book (“ Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers ”, 1963 ) Ally again goes to the Magic Country, this time on foot and in the company of her uncle, sailor Charlie Black , to take part in the fight against the evil Uorfin Juace , who enslaved her friends

In the 3rd book ( Seven Underground Kings , 1964 ), Ally and her second cousin Fred accidentally fall into the darkest region of the Magic Country - the largest Underground Cave, where children become captives of the seven kings. This journey to the Magic Country was her last.

In the subsequent books of Volkov about the Magic Country, the role of Ellie is episodic: the girl has already grown and works as a teacher. Now the fabulous adventures fall to her younger sister Annie .

Traveling through the Magic Country, Ellie meets three fairy-tale creatures who become her best friends. it

• Scarecrow - the revived straw scarecrow, dreaming to get brains.
• The Tin Woodman is a living man, made of iron, seeking to get a heart.
• The Cowardly Lion is a real forest beast, suffering from its own cowardice and willing to get courage.

Together with her friends, Ellie goes to the Emerald City to the Great and Awful wizard Goodwin , who, according to the prediction, must fulfill the cherished desires of the three friends of Ellie, after which the girl will be able to return home, to her father and mother.

• Dog Totoshka (Toto) - a small funny black animal, accompanies Ellie in all three of her travels to the Magic Country. Dreams of defeating neighbor dog Hector.
• Fred Canning is Ellie's second cousin, a boy 2 years older than her, Ellie's companion during her last journey to the Magic Country.
• Charlie Black - Uncle Ellie, an inventive and skillful sailor who took it upon her to help the girl free her friends in the 2nd book.
• Kaggi-Karr crow - elderly, wise, slightly grumpy, but generally a kind bird; The envoy of the captive Fears and the Tin Woodman helps Ally, Charlie Bleck and Totoshka to get to the Magic Country in the 2nd book.

• John Smith is the girl's father, a poor Kansas farmer.
• Anna Smith - the mother of Ellie, a housewife.
• Annie Smith - the youngest sister Ellie, appears since the 4th book of Volkov. Ellie is ten years younger.
• Charlie Black - Uncle Ellie and Annie, brother of Anna Smith. One-legged sailor, captain, lover of adventure.
• Alfred (Fred) Canning is Ally's second cousin, two years older.
• Bill Canning - Fred's father, Uncle Ellie. He lives in Iowa.
• Kat Canning is Fred's mother, Aunt Ellie.

Fairy Tale "The Wizard of the Emerald City"

In the book The Wizard of the Emerald City , Ally and her dog Totoshka were carried away by a hurricane to the Magic Country , where her house, falling on Gingema's head, crushed an evil witch. For getting rid of the power of Gingema, the Chewers nicknamed Ellie the Fairy of the Killing House Dreaming of returning home, Ally and Totoshka, on the advice of Villina, went to the Emerald City to ask for help from the Great and Horrible wizard Goodwin . On the way, according to the prediction of the magic book of Villina, the girl met a living straw figure , Scarecrow , Tin Woodman and the Sneaky Leo - three creatures who had cherished desires. Along the way, Ally and her new friends went through quite a few dangerous adventures: the girl was held captive by the Ogre , overcame the ravines and the Great River , and almost fell asleep forever in a poppy field. Having received an order from Goodwin to overthrow Bastinda , she went with friends to the Violet country , where she found herself held captive by an evil witch. She worked as an assistant to the cook Fregosa and inadvertently destroyed Bastinda, poured water over her in the heat of an argument with a sorceress when she tried to take possession of the silver shoes that Ellie got from Gingema. The blinkers gave Ellie the nickname Fairy of Saving Water. After the death of Bastinda Ellie became the owner of the Golden Caps and got the opportunity to command the Flying Monkeys . When Ally and her friends returned to the Emerald City, Goodwin showed no desire to meet with them and fulfill his promises. But after the exposure, the alleged wizard agreed to deliver Ally in a balloon to Kansas, from where he was born. However, by chance, the rope holding the ball broke, and Goodwin flew off alone, and Ellie was forced to go to the Pink country to seek advice from the fairy Stella . The road was not easy: Ellie and her companions almost died during a flood, and then they were forced into conflict with the militant Jumping tribe. Ellie returned to Kansas with the help of silver shoes, the secret of which Stella revealed to her - and the shoes were lost in the third and last step.

Fairy tale "Urfin Jus and his wooden soldiers"

A year later, Ellie again went to the Magic Country with her uncle Charlie Blek and faithful Totoshka to save the Scarecrow and the Tinman from Uorfin Juce and his blockheads. The news that Ellie's friends got into trouble was brought to Kansas by the quick-winged crow Kaggi-Karr , the messenger of the Scarecrow. The great desert that separated the Magic Country from the Big World, Ellie, Charlie and Totoshka crossed on a land ship. Not far from the World Mountains mountains, the ship hit the attraction field of the sorcerous Black Stone Gingema. Ellie, Charlie Blek and Totoshka spent a week in captivity at the Black Stone, and would inevitably have died of thirst if Kaggi-Karr crow had not brought them the saving branch of the magic grape that had destroyed Gingham's spell. After that, Ally and her companions moved across the mountains, liberated the Blue Country from the power of the greedy governor, Cabra Gwin , called upon the Brave Lion to help them and managed to penetrate the watchtower, at the top of which, the Scarecrow and the Woodsman were imprisoned. Dressing up in an elderly farmer, Ellie snuck into the Emerald City, where she handed over to Din Gyor and Faramant , who was also under arrest, the Charlie Blah saw, with which the prisoners escaped. Then Ellie, together with her freed friends, went to the Violet country. In the decisive battle that followed soon, the army of Urfin Jus was defeated, and Ellie, Charlie Black and Totoshka, having celebrated the victory, returned to their homeland.

Tale "Seven Underground Kings"

For the third time, Ellie traveled to the Magic Country along an underground river with Totoshka and a second cousin Fred . This adventure was not planned in advance: the children just went to inspect the underground cave in Iowa, where Fred lived, but the way back was cut off by the collapse. In search of a way out, the guys went a long way through the underground labyrinth, and finally the river carried them directly into the possession of the Seven underground kings. The kings captured travelers in order to force Ellie, whom they considered to be a powerful fairy, to return the Earing Water to them. The source of the Sleepy water shortly before this was destroyed by the traitor Ruff Bilan, who had escaped from the upper world. Ellie managed to notify the Scarecrow, the Woodman and Lev about her plight, and then dissuade them from a bloody war with underground miners. Bold and resolute - despite her young age - Ellie adequately held out before the seven kings and gave a wonderful rebuke to Ruf Bilan: “... And we, up there, thought that you were devoured by the Six-Hosts , after you had fled from the anger of the people to the dungeon. But, here, it seems, you do not flourish? ” ^[1] . The upper rulers reached agreement with the underground kings, descended into the Cave and found a way to jointly restore the ruined source. Instead, Ellie found freedom, and soon the power of kings fell. After the return of the Sleepy Water, Ramina predicted Ellie that she would never return to the Magic Land: “... you will have a long and bright life in your native country. But you will never see your friends ” ^[2] . In Kansas, Ally, Fred and Totoshka returned to the dragon Oiho .

The following Volkova tales

At home, Ally was waiting for a surprise - during her wanderings, she had a younger sister, Annie . Ellie graduated from school and began working as a rural teacher, and managed to convey her love for the Magic Country to her younger sister. When Annie grew up, she and her friend Tim also had a chance to visit the Magic Country three times. Moreover, the way to overcome the witchcraft of Black stones Annie and Tim helped Ellie herself to come up with ^[3] . She gave the names to the mechanical mules, on which Annie and Tim made their first trip to a wonderful country ^[4] .

Meanwhile, Ellie's friends, despite Ramina’s prediction, still hoped to see Ellie again in the Magic Country. In particular, the Scarecrow conceived to build in the Emerald City "for the Hellenistic school such a building, which has never been seen in the world" ^[5] and invited Ellie to come to the Emerald City as a teacher after she graduated from college. But the construction had to be postponed due to the war with the giantess Arakhna . The news of these plans The terrifiers brought to Kansas Faramant. “Ellie smiled and promised to think about such a flattering offer” ^[5] .

The image of Ellie was borrowed by Volkov from LF Baum, as well as the images of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Sneaky Leo ^[6] . True, in the books of Bauma the girl was called differently - Dorothy. By the nature of Ellie also differs markedly from Dorothy. In all its qualities, Ellie looks more like the heroes of cartoons from the Soviet period, rather than just the greatly surprised American Dorothy, who looks more like Alice from “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll .

It is curious that the name Ellie - Smith (apparently meaning the English. Smith - "blacksmith") - was named Volkov not immediately. It was first mentioned only in the third book of the fairy-tale cycle. Before that, both Ellie herself and her parents, John and Anna, were known only by personal names.

Despite the fact that after the third book of his fairy-tale cycle, Volkov practically excluded Ally from further plot, her popularity was already so great that many admirers of Volkov ’s work categorically did not accept the girl Annie who had replaced her and began to dream about "Return" Ellie to the Magic Country .

So, for example, entered the writer Sergey Sukhinov , author of a new cycle of books about the Magic Country. In his many works, written essentially in the fantasy genre , Ellie not only returns to the Magic Land, but also becomes a real fairy.

Yuri Kuznetsov , who wrote several peculiar sequels to the books of Volkov , made the main character of his story a son who grew up Ellie, a boy named Chris Tall (see the story Emerald Rain , etc.).

In the film P. Arsenov " The Wizard of the Emerald City " ( 1994 ) Katya Mikhailovskaya starred as Ellie. However, this film in popularity is much inferior to the book. There are also two versions of the cartoon “ The Wizard of the Emerald City ” ( TO “Ekran” ) and “ Adventures in the Emerald City ” (“NTV-Cinema”, the “Mill” studio ), as well as the animated cartoon “ Urfin Joes” and his wooden soldiers ".

• Forum "Emerald City"