Kaggi Carr

By the nature of Kaggi-Karr, “a little talkative and quarrelsome, but generally good-natured bird” ^[2] . Prone to some boasting - in particular, Strashila blabbed out that she had led Ellie to the Magic Land , although this information should for some time be kept secret ^[3] .

In general, Kaggi-Karr is distinguished by sharp behavior, but accurate judgments. A certain amount of revenge is also characteristic of her - so Kaggi-Karr turned the return of the ousted Urfin Juce to his homeland in a kind of “protracted march to execution”: along the road along which the exile went, local residents lined up to escort the former ruler with icy, hateful glances ^{[4 ]} .

Kaggy-Carr took over some of the catchwords from Charlie Black . Also, like the Scarecrow, the crow likes to insert smart words into his speech, but, unlike the Scarecrow, he often pronounces them with errors.

Giving Scary Council some wise advice, Kaggi-Karr had no idea what the consequences for the whole country would be. At that moment, she was more interested in the harvest from the field, which the Scarecrow left to the mercy of fate. However, after some time, the crow heard that a scarecrow had become the ruler of the Emerald City instead of Great Goodwin . Kaggi-Karr reasoned that this was probably the very scarecrow with which she had a chance to talk about brains. Then the crow, without hesitation, went to the Emerald City, appeared to the court of Strashila as his "oldest friend", "teacher and mentor" and met the warmest welcome there ^[2] . The grateful Scarecrow did not forget to whom he owed the appearance of his cherished dream, so successfully realized. He appointed the Kaggi-Karr raven as the first taster of the palace cuisine and at the same time gave her the possession of a whole wheat field in the vicinity of the Emerald City.

During an offensive throw of the wooden army of Oorfene Deuce , approaching the Emerald City with hostile intentions, Kaggi-Karr organized an attack on the blockheads of a bird flock ^[5] . In the ensuing turmoil, some damage was caused to the brawlers, and their advance slowed down.

However, Kaggi-Karr is best known as the creator of the bird relay ^[6] . Thanks to this innovation, the transmission of important messages across the country has accelerated significantly and has become systematic. Kaggi-Karr herself became the General Director of Communications of the Fairyland ^[7] . For the invaluable services rendered to people by bird mail and personally by Kaggi-Karr, the brave crow was subsequently awarded the Golden Wreath Order ^{[8] [9]} . In addition, as a sign of special respect for the merits of Kaggi-Karr, the Ruler of the Emerald city of Strashila the Wise solemnly promised to render "any raven that appears within the city limits, <...> the most cordial welcome" ^[8] .

Also, Kaggi-Karr - the only one of all the inhabitants of the Magic Land - has visited the Great World three times around the World around the world . The first flight there she made at the request of the Scarecrow and the Lumberjack , imprisoned at that time in the tower on the orders of Oorfene Deuce, who captured the Emerald City ^[10] . Kaggi-Karr, despite her considerable age (she was already one hundred two years old ^[10] ), managed to deliver a letter to Kansas to Ellie asking for help for her friends ^[11] .

When Ellie, her uncle, the sailor Charlie Black and the doggie Totoshka , who went to the rescue of friends, were stuck in the middle of a hot desert captive at the Black Stone of Gingema, Kaggi-Karr got for her companions a wonderful grape that allowed him to overcome the charms of the stone ^[12] .

The crow made the second and third journeys to Kansas together with Faramant on the back of the dragon Oihho ^{[13] [14]} .

She flew as a parliamentarian to Enkin Fled , Viceroy of the Purple Country ^[15] . She was later a Scarecrow scout in the Violet Land when Marrana Oorfene Deuce seized power there ^[16] .

During the second accession of Oorfene Deuce, the raven Kaggi-Karr acted as the Ruler of the Emerald Isle ^[17] while the Scarecrow was in captivity. She took an active part in the fight against Arachne and the Menvites .

The prototype of Kaggi-Karr’s Volkov raven was the nameless old raven from the tale of L. F. Baum “The Amazing Wizard of Oz” ( 1900 ) ^[18] . In Baum, it was the old raven who advised the Scarecrow to get brains. In general, the scene of Kaggi-Karr and Scarecrow meeting with Volkov reproduces an episode with the dialogue between Scarecrow and the old raven at Baum; however, the further development of the image of Kaggi-Karr in the next five tales of Volkov has no analogues in Baum's books, where the old raven is never mentioned again.

In The Wizard of Oz, the name Kaggi-Karr is not directly called anywhere. According to T. V. Galkina, the name of the crow was only assigned in 1958 during the work of Volkov on the second tale from the series about the Magic Land - “Urfin Djus and His Wooden Soldiers” ^[19] , which was published as a separate publication in 1963 . And already in 1959, in the updated edition of “The Wizard of the Emerald City”, the raven, who advised Strashila to get brains, appeared the characteristic cry “kaggi-karr”, which was not in the editions of 1939 and 1941 .

As T.V. Galkina points out, in the original plot of the tale “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” there were significant differences from the final version. In particular, the book was supposed to begin with the chapter “An Extraordinary Messenger”, where Ellie and Toto are walking around the field and Toto is catching a crouched crow, on whose neck a figure depicting the Scarecrow and the Lumberjack behind bars is found. Subsequently, it should have been revealed that this drawing was sent by the Scarecrow, who, being imprisoned together with the Lumberjack at the top of a high tower, catches a raven, hangs notes on their necks and throws them into the air when the hurricane blows in the right direction. And only one of the many such ravens, according to the author's plan, was supposed to eventually fall into the hands of Ellie ^{[20] [21]} . While working on the tale, Volkov changed the initial plan, rearranged the introductory chapter to the beginning of the second part, and many raven caught by the Scarecrow, unconsciously carrying the request of friends for help to all corners of the world, replaced with one clever crow Kaggi-Karr, who consciously assumed the role of the scarecrow envoy.

The image of the Kaggi-Karr crow was borrowed from A.M. Volkov by several authors. In particular, Kaggi-Karr acts in the books of Yu. N. Kuznetsov (“ Emerald Rain ” and others), as well as in the tales of N. Bakhnov (“Trapped in a Sea Monster” and others), L. V. Vladimirsky (“ Pinocchio in the Emerald City ").

The image of Kaggi-Karr crow was repeatedly considered in the works of literary critics, including in the books of T. V. Galkina ^[22] , B. A. Begak ^[23] , in the article by N. V. Latova ^[24] and others. A characteristic for fairy-tale literature, the ability of crows to speak the human language, dedication, willingness to help friends.

The Alexander Volkov Museum, opened at Tomsk State Pedagogical University, envisages a student project “Kaggi-Karr Magic Mail”. ^[25]

• Volkov, Alexander Melentievich. The Wizard of Oz; Oorfene Deuce and his wooden soldiers. - Chisinau: Literature of Artistry, 1985. - 301 p. - (Fairy tales about the Fairyland). - 400,000 copies.
• Volkov, Alexander Melentievich. Seven Underground Kings; The fiery god Marranov. - Chisinau: Literature of Artistry, 1986. - 319 p. - (Fairy tales about the Fairyland). - 400,000 copies.
• Volkov, Alexander Melentievich. Yellow fog; The mystery of an abandoned castle. - Chisinau: Literature of Artistry, 1987. - 316 p. - (Fairy tales about the Fairyland). - 400,000 copies.
• D.K. Pelageychenko. Encyclopedia of characters of Volkov's fairy tales about the Magic Land. (A - P) (unspecified) . Archived February 14, 2012.
• Überall ist Zauberland. Die Märchenreihe von A bis Z. - Leiv Buchhandels - U. Verlagsanst., 1998 .-- ISBN 978-3-89603-007-8 .
• Galkina, Tatyana Vasilievna . Unfamiliar Alexander Volkov in memoirs, letters and documents [Text]: [monograph] / T. V. Galkina; Federal Agency for Education, GOU VPO TSPU. - Tomsk: TSPU publishing house, 2006. - 268 p., [11] p. Portr. - ISBN 5-89428-214-4 : 343.58.
• Archive of A.M. Volkov. A diary. Prince ten.
• Galkina, Tatyana Vasilievna . The history of the creation and functioning of the museum complex of Tomsk State Pedagogical University (2002-2005) // Vestnik TSPU. 2007. Issue 3 (66). - Tomsk, TSPU, 2007.S. 99-105.
• Begak, Boris Alexandrovich . True tales. M .: 1989.
• Latova N.V. What does a fairy tale teach? (On the Russian mentality) // Social sciences and modernity. 2002. No. 2. P. 180—191.

• The list of characters in Volkov’s books about the Magic Land is a general list with brief descriptions.

• Bird race at the Emerald City Forum