Land of Ev


The Land of Ev is a fictional country in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum and his successors. Its exact location is unclear between text and maps. The Road to Oz states that Ev is to the north of the Land of Oz, and in Ozma of Oz, Princess Ozma of Oz and her procession enter the Munchkin Country and meet the King of the Munchkins upon leaving the palace at Evna, the capital city. Subsequent books place Ev nearer to the Winkie Country, and the map on the endpapers of Tik-Tok of Oz shows the Munchkin Country as having no northern border with the desert that surrounds Oz, as a thin strip of the Gillikin Country extends even farther east than most of the Munchkin Country. This map depicts Ev as a small country to the northwest of Oz, with the Dominions of the Nome King as a separate area. James E. Haff and Dick Martin's map, following the text, place the Nome Kingdom under an Ev that takes up the entire portion allotted to the Nome King's dominions on Baum's map.

Classic books

King Evoldo of Ev sold his unnamed Queen and their ten children, Princess Evanna, Prince Evardo, Princess Evedna, Princess Evella, Prince Evington, Princess Evirene, Prince Evring, Prince Evrob, Prince Evroland, and Princess Evrose, to Roquat, the Nome King, whose dominions are underneath Ev, in exchange for a long life. Evoldo regretted it and destroyed the life that King Roquat had provided him. Believing that Roquat had simply stolen the royal family, the Ozites entered the kingdom on a diplomatic mission to free them. When Roquat informs them of the fair deal, they play by his rules, and thanks to Billina, win back the family of Ev and the Nome King's Magic Belt.
During the time that the family was enslaved, Princess Langwidere, Evoldo's niece, took the throne as regent, but was too vain to do many administrative tasks, and spent most of her time admiring her 30 interchangeable heads. She had three wings of the palace demolished in order to direct visitors to the left wing, which is to one's right, but is the only wing left. She is relieved to give up the throne to her cousin, King Evardo, the eldest of Evoldo's children.
Also in Evna is the factory of Smith and Tinker, who created Tik-Tok and the Giant with the Hammer, the latter to the specifications of King Roquat, the former a unique and prototypical gift to King Evoldo. Tik-Tok reports that Smith drowned in his own painting while Tinker built a ladder to the moon, so they are no longer in Evna. Later stories, such as Mr. Tinker in Oz and "Button-Bright and the Knit-Wits of Oz" from Oziana 1987, reveal them alive and well.
In most subsequent books, visits to Ev are primarily under Ev, and few of its inhabitants or towns are ever seen. Known unusual creatures consist only of the Wheelers who claim the Royal Family's Lunch Box Trees and Dinner Pail Trees and defend them through scaring travelers, though they are scrawny and have wheels made of keratin rather than hands or feet.
The Royal Family of Ev again appears in The Road to Oz, having changed but little from its initial disenchanted appearance. The family, without cousin Langwidere, are honored guests at Ozma's birthday party.

In later books

made a major addition to Ev in the form of Jinnicky the Red Jinn, Wizard of Ev, who has a red glass palace nearer to the edge of the Land of Ix, which compasswise is either northeast or northwest. Sometimes Thompson implies that Jinnicky is the ruler of Ev, though she included a mention of Evardo briefly in The Wishing Horse of Oz that regarded him as a boy king, though if he is still a boy king at this point, Evoldo would have had no motivation for trading his family.
Thompson's The Hungry Tiger of Oz introduces Rash, a small principality within Ev ruled by Prince Evered, as well as Down Town and Immense City. The Wishing Horse of Oz introduces Bitty Bit, the Seer of Some Summit.
Jack Snow's The Shaggy Man of Oz includes a visit to the Valley of Romance in Ev, ruled by King Ticket and Queen Curtain, and the underground Kingdom of the Fairy Beavers.
In Out of Oz, the fourth and final volume of "The Wicked Years", Gregory Maguire's revisionist Oz series, Tip mentions that Mombey took him across the sands to "one of the duchy principalities, I think it was Ev" to visit "some second-rate duchess" who knew how to change the appearance of her head and body.

Points of interest