Oz is an imaginary magical monarchy, first introduced in L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). In all, Baum wrote 14 childrens’ books about Oz, presenting himself as the ‘Royal Historian’ of Oz. After his death, Ruth Plumly Thompson continued the series. Using clues in the series, fans have drawn up maps of Oz.
The Land of Oz is rectangular in shape, divided along the diagonals into four counties:
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Munchkin Country (east)
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Winkie Country (west)
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Gillikin Country (north)
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Quadling Country (south)
In the centre is Emerald City, the capital and seat of Princess Ozma. Oz is completely surrounded by deserts, insulating the country from invasion and discovery. The isolation may be splendid, it is not total: children from our world got through, as well as the Wizard of Oz and the more sinister Nome King. To prevent further incursions, Glinda created a barrier of invisibility around Oz.
Peculiar on some maps is that west is right, while east is left (while north is still top and south bottom). Some say this is because Baum looked at the wrong side of a glass slide while copying the map. Others believe the reversed compass rose simply reflects the ‘confusing’ nature of Oz, possibly due to Glinda’s spell. The reversal of east and west makes sense in that the Wicked Witch after enslaving the Winkies was called the ‘Wicked Witch of the West’ even though Winkie County is on the right hand side of the map. Robert A. Heinlein claims in his book The Number of the Beast that Oz is on a retrograde planet, spinning in the opposite direction of Earth.
Oz is the largest country on the continent of Nonestica, which also includes the countries of Ev, Ix and Mo (also known as Phunniland). Nonestica lies in the Nonestic Ocean – possibly a local name for the Pacific Ocean. In fact, some hints indicate that Oz is in the South Pacific: there are palm trees and horses are non-native. In Ozma of Oz, Dorothy is sailing to Australia when she is washed overboard and lands on the shores of Ev. Intriguingly, Oz is commonly used to refer to Australia, which borders the South Pacific Ocean.
The origin of the word ‘Oz’ is uncertain. One story holds that L. Frank Baum took it off a filing cabinet, which was divided into two alphabetical drawers: A-N and O-Z. Another holds that it is a corruption of Uz, the biblical homeland of Job. It could also be a reference to ounce (abbr. oz.) – with the story of Oz being an allegory for the populist struggle against the gold standard (personified by the powerless, frightened wizard in the books).Other theories state that ‘Os’ is and old English word for God, and in Wicked, a clever parody on the Oz material, it is proposed that Oz derives from ‘oasis’ or ‘ooze’, being a reference to the creation legend of a great flood.
(this map taken from this page).
Jack Vance’s story “Rumfuddle” postulates that, given a technology for easy travel to an infinite number of parallel timelines, millions of people have moved out to have a world to themselves (in timelines without humanity). The opening scene has the protagonist demolishing a suburb and dumping the debris in a lifeless world’s Nonestic Ocean. I never knew that Jack had borrowed the name!
Comment by Anton Sherwood — January 29, 2007 @ 1:20 am
Boboland? Presumably this is where the Straw Men that populate poorly-researched David Brooks NYT articles come from? ;)
Comment by aj — January 30, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
Obviously not “canonical”, but there’s a similar map in the book Wicked.
Comment by Adam Rice — January 30, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
[...] Map of the Land of Oz. “Oz is completely surrounded by deserts, insulating the country from invasion and discovery. The isolation may be splendid, it is not total: children from our world got through, as well as the Wizard of Oz and the more sinister Nome King. To prevent further incursions, Glinda created a barrier of invisibility around Oz.” (link) [...]
Pingback by Map of the Land of Oz. "Oz is completely surrounded… — January 30, 2007 @ 4:20 pm
[...] Map of the Land of Oz, and interesting discussion on it Permanent Link [...]
Pingback by Map of the Land of Oz » Ad Terras Per Aspera — January 30, 2007 @ 9:42 pm
[...] una gran colección de mapas para los aventureros más inconformistas y soñadores. Puede que el mapa número 69, correspondiente al país de Oz, les sea de buena utilidad en algún futuro [...]
Pingback by El Hombre Que Comía Diccionarios » Blog Archive » Oz — January 30, 2007 @ 10:40 pm
I tried my best to reconcile the maps of Oz from my “Encyclopedia of Imaginary Places” tome and the copy of “Wicked” – but it was impossible. Gregory Maguire took a number of liberties with the topography and settlements of Oz. I’d love to see an analysis of that map, though. I guess copyrights would prohibit it..
Comment by lasthome — February 2, 2007 @ 9:06 pm
OZ was one of my favorite places to visit when I was a kid. You’ve just answered the question I asked my father in all earnestness many year’s ago: “Where’s Oz?”
Regards
Comment by fencer — February 5, 2007 @ 7:16 pm
Important to know: this map appeared in all of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. This is one of only two or three in which Winkie is shown in the east; most maps have it correctly.
I’d be interested to see the internal map of Oz, which shows a great deal more detail from all 14 of the original Oz books, including where Cayke the Cookie Cook and Frogman live (lower right corner), the rolling mountains, the Hottentots’ land (in the south), where BunBury and BunnyBury are (also south), where Miss Cuttenclip lives (in the north)… :D
Comment by Jen — February 8, 2007 @ 3:14 pm
[...] mapmaking, each represents its creator’s view of an alternate reality, whether whimsical (a rendering of the Land of Oz), thought-provoking (the Armed Forces Journal’s re-drawing of the Middle-East), or somewhere [...]
Pingback by Information Design Watch » Strange Maps — February 9, 2007 @ 3:31 pm
You are all wrong about the real code meaning of OZ! It stands for Organization of Zionism (OZ). Now that you know that assuming you know the history of Theodor Herzl and the Zionist Movement, identify author Baum’s very interesting manipulation of a political movement into an engaging child’s story.
Comment by 87quig — February 13, 2007 @ 8:26 pm
Care to explain exactly how Baum was able to represent the Zionist dream with this story? I find that extremely far-fetched.
Comment by librariangirl — February 19, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
[...] 69 – Not Kansas, But Just As Rectangular: The Land… [...]
Pingback by STWALLSKULL » Recent Interesting Links: 02/27/07 — February 27, 2007 @ 6:17 am
I was looking for a map of Oz, and this is a pretty good one.
Comment by Marijane — March 7, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
[...] can’t I?” Στο χάρτη της χώρας του Οζ (τον οποίο βρήκα εδώ) βλέπουμε ότι η χώρα είναι απομονωμένη από [...]
Pingback by επέστρεφε (και όχι "επίστρεφε") « πολλές λέξεις — March 26, 2007 @ 12:32 pm
[...] Maps, Collection of Strange and Historical Maps with additional info. From The Land of Oz to Dutch Dreams of [...]
Pingback by Rxbbx Blog Strange Maps — June 29, 2007 @ 2:10 pm
[...] Otra página digna de mención es el blog Strange Maps, que como su nombre lo indica, se dedica a recopilar mapas extraños de todo tipo, constituyendo una lectura entretenida y (a veces) ilustrativa. Algunos ejemplos de este sitio son El mapa de Oz, [...]
Pingback by de mapas y formas de ver el mundo… - .:Trozos de Código:. — June 3, 2008 @ 5:19 am
what map is that? a made-up one from the wizard of oz? o_O
Comment by Tim Jobs — June 17, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
The compass is flipped because it’s a mirror image of the map he got the idea from. He had printing skills – he used that talent to conceal the original map’s identity, thru an old process called anti-type.
Comment by Ambitious Visionary — October 13, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
thanks
Comment by hero — October 15, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
thanks alot
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 2:29 am
thanks for this map
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:17 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 5:07 am
teşekkür ederim
Comment by yory — June 12, 2009 @ 8:22 pm
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 6:46 am