1.
Neck (water spirit)
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The neck, nicor, nixie or nokken are shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore who usually appeared in forms of other creatures. Under a variety of names, they were common to the stories of all Germanic peoples, the related English knucker was generally depicted as a wyrm or dragon, although more recent versions depict the spirits in other forms. Their sex, bynames, and various transformations vary geographically, the German Nix and his Scandinavian counterparts were males. The German Nixe was a female river mermaid, the names are held to derive from Common Germanic *nikwus or *nikwis, derived from PIE *neigw. They are related to Sanskrit nḗnēkti, Greek νίζω nízō and νίπτω níptō, the form neck appears in English and Swedish. The Swedish form is derived from Old Swedish neker, which corresponds to Old Icelandic nykr, in Finnish, the word is näkki. In Old Danish, the form was nikke and in modern Danish, the Icelandic nykur is a horselike creature. In Middle Low German, it was called necker and in Middle Dutch nicker, the Old High German form nihhus also meant crocodile, while the Old English nicor could mean both a water monster like those encountered by Beowulf, and a hippopotamus. The Norwegian Fossegrim and Swedish Strömkarlen are related figures sometimes seen as by-names for the same creature, the Scandinavian version can transform himself into a horse-like kelpie, and is called a Bäckahästen, whilst the Welsh version is called the Ceffyl Dŵr. In the English county of Sussex, there are said to dwell water-wyrms called knuckers, the Word knucker is derived from the Old English nicor. English folklore contains many creatures with similarities to the Nix or Näck and these Necks include Jenny Greenteeth, the Shellycoat, Peg Powler, the Bäckahästen-like Brag, and the Grindylow. The Scandinavian näcken, näkki, nøkk were male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, nøkker are said to grow despondent if they do not have free, regular contact with a water source. The Norwegian Fossegrim or Grim, Swedish strömkarl, is a figure who, if properly approached, will teach a musician to play so adeptly that the trees dance. It is difficult to describe the appearance of the nix. Perhaps he did not have any true shape and he could show himself as a man playing the violin in brooks and waterfalls but also could appear to be treasure or various floating objects or as an animal—most commonly in the form of a brook horse. The modern Scandinavian names are derived from an Old Norse nykr, thus, likely the brook horse preceded the personification of the nix as the man in the rapids. Fossegrim and derivatives were almost always portrayed as beautiful young men. The enthralling music of the nøkk was most dangerous to women and children, especially pregnant women and he was thought to be most active during Midsummers Night, on Christmas Eve and on Thursdays
2.
Theodor Kittelsen
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Theodor Severin Kittelsen was a Norwegian artist. He is one of the most popular artists in Norway, Kittelsen became famous for his nature paintings, as well as for his illustrations of fairy tales and legends, especially of trolls. Kittelsen was born in the town of Kragerø in Telemark county. His father died when he was young, leaving a wife, Theodor was only 11 years old when he was apprenticed to a watchmaker. When at the age of 17 his talent was discovered by Diderich Maria Aall, because of generous financial support by Aall he later studied in Munich. However, in 1879 Diderich Aall could no longer manage to support him, so Kittelsen had to earn his money as a draftsman for German newspapers, in 1882 Kittelsen was granted a state scholarship to study in Paris. In 1887 he returned to Norway for good, when back in Norway, he found nature to be a great inspiration. He spent the two years in Lofoten where he lived with his sister and brother-in-law at Skomvær Lighthouse. Kittelsen also started to write texts to his drawings there, Theodor Kittelsen and his family settled in a home and artist studio which he called Lauvlia near Prestfoss during 1899. Kittelsen spent his best artistic years here, during this period, Kittelsen was hired to illustrate Norwegian Folktales by the Norwegian folklore collector Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. In 1908 he was made Knight of the The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, however, he was forced to sell and leave Lauvlia in 1910 due to failing health. He was granted a stipend in 1911 but died in poverty in 1914. Kittelsens style could be classified between Neo-Romantic and naive painting, Lauvlia, his home from 1899-1910, is located north of Prestfoss along Route 287, with scenic view of Lake Soneren. The surrounding area, in particular Mount Andersnatten which overlooks the lake a few kilometres north, today Lauvlia is a private museum featuring an exhibition of Kittelsen’s original work. Lauvlia is decorated with Kittelsens own woodcarvings and murals, a new exhibition of original Kittelsen works is opened each year with painting and drawing activities arranged for children. The paintings exhibited are rotated each year, the national Theodor Kittelsen Museum at Blaafarveværket is at the Skuterudhøyden ridge by the Cobalt Mines. Kittelsen’s poetical interpretations of nature, the forest, the mountains and trolls are presented in the form of carved furniture, oil paintings, watercolours, in 2014 are Blaafarveværket in charge of arranging the biggest exhibition held ever in modern times. The house were the artist grew up in Kragerø is also currently a museum devoted to his legacy, black metal and folk metal bands such as Burzum, Empyrium, Otyg and Satyricon have used some of his pictures as album art, notably illustrations taken from Kittelsens book Svartedauen
3.
History of fantasy
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Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning. Such authors as George MacDonald created explicitly fantastic works, in addition, the rules, geography, history, etc. of this world tend to be defined, even if they are not described outright. Traditional fantastic tales take place in our world, often in the past or in far off and it seldom describes the place or the time with any precision, often saying simply that it happened long ago and far away. The second difference is that the supernatural in fantasy is by design fictitious, by one standard, no work created before the fantasy genre was defined can be considered to belong to it, no matter how many fantastic elements it includes. But even by the more limited definition a full examination of the history of the fantastic in literature is necessary to show the origins of the modern genre, traditional works contain significant elements which modern fantasy authors have drawn upon extensively for inspiration in their own works. The history of French fantastique literature is covered in detail under Fantastique. With increases in learning in the medieval European era, literary fiction joined earlier myths, among the first genres to appear was romance. This genre embraced fantasy, and not only simply followed traditional myths and fables, during the Renaissance, romance continued to be popular. The trend was to more fantastic fiction, the English Le Morte dArthur by Sir Thomas Malory, was written in prose, this work dominates the Arthurian literature, often being regarded as the canonical form of the legend. Arthurian motifs have appeared steadily in literature from its publication, though the works have been a mix of fantasy and non-fantasy works, ariostos tale, with its endlessly wandering characters, many marvels, and adventures, was a source text for many fantasies of adventure. With such works as Amadis of Gaul and Palmerin of England, one English romance is The Faerie Queene of Edmund Spenser. The poem is allegorical and allusive. Leaving allegory aside, however, the action is that of a knightly romance, involving knightly duels. That is probably the first work in which most of the characters are not men, there are mentioned also the wars between goblins and elf, which were destined to have a great future in fantastic fiction. The tale of Don Quixote deeply satirized the conventions of the romance, nevertheless, large subgenres of the field of fantasy have sprung from the romance genre, either directly or through their imitation by latter fantasy writer William Morris. Literary fairy tales, such as were written by Charles Perrault, many of Perraults tales became fairy tale staples, and influenced latter fantasy as such. Indeed, when Madame dAulnoy termed her works contes de fée, she invented the term that is now used for the genre. This would influence later writers, who took up the folk tales in the same manner
4.
Magician (fantasy)
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A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, warlock, witch, wizard, or wizardess is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural or occult sources. Magicians are common figures in works of fantasy, such as literature and role-playing games, and enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction. In medieval chivalric romance, the wizard often appears as an old man and acts as a mentor. Other magicians, such as Saruman, from The Lord of the Rings series, villainous sorcerers were so crucial to pulp fantasy that the genre in which they appeared was dubbed sword and sorcery. Le Guins A Wizard of Earthsea explored the question of how wizards learned their art and this theme has been further developed in modern fantasy, often leading to wizards as heroes on their own quests. Such heroes may have their own mentor, a wizard as well, wizards can be cast similarly to the absent-minded professor, being foolish and prone to misconjuring. They can also be capable of magic, both good or evil. Even comical wizards are often capable of feats, such as those of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride, although he is a washed-up wizard fired by the villain. Wizards are often depicted as old, white-haired, and with white beards majestic enough to occasionally host lurking woodland creatures. This depiction predates the modern fantasy genre, being derived from the image of wizards such as Merlin. In the Dragonlance Dungeons and Dragons setting, wizards show their moral alignment by their robes, terry Pratchett described robes as a magicians way of establishing to those they meet that they are capable of practicing magic. To introduce conflict, writers of fiction often place limits on the magical abilities of wizards to prevent them from solving problems too easily. In Larry Nivens The Magic Goes Away, once an areas mana is exhausted, a common limit used in role-playing games is that a person can only cast a specific number of spells in a day. Magic can also require various sacrifices or the use of materials, such as gemstones, blood. Even if the magician lacks scruples, obtaining the material may be difficult, a. K. Moonfire combines these limits in his book The Aubrey Stalking Portal. The magician expends power to fuel his spells, but does not replenish that power naturally, therefore, the extent of a wizards knowledge is limited to which spells a wizard knows and can cast. Magic may also be limited by its danger, if a powerful spell can cause harm if miscast. Other forms of magic are limited by consequences that, while not inherently dangerous, are at least undesirable
5.
Early history of fantasy
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Though the fantasy genre in its modern sense is less than two centuries old, its sources have a long and distinguished history. Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning, in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, John Clute and John Grant separated the concept of fantasy as such from that of taproot texts, works that are sources for fantasy, but not themselves fantasy. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written over generations following the reign of King Gilgamesh. This figure is sometimes an influence and, more rarely, a figure in modern fantasy, some scholars believe The Epic of Gilgamesh is a source used by the authors of the Bible, specifically the story of Noah and the flood. India has a tradition of fantastical stories and characters, dating back to Vedic mythology. Several modern fantasy works such as RG Veda draw on the Rig-Veda as a source, the Panchatantra was influential in Europe and the Middle East. It used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate the central Indian principles of political science, talking animals endowed with human qualities have now become a staple of modern fantasy. The Baital Pachisi is a collection of fantasy tales set within a frame story about an encounter between King Vikramāditya and a Vetala, an early mythical creature resembling a vampire. Classical mythology is replete with stories and characters, the best known being the works of Homer. The philosophy of Plato has had influence on the fantasy genre. In the Christian Platonic tradition, the reality of other worlds, chinese traditions have been particularly influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie, including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, the epic took form in the tenth century and reached its final form by the fourteenth century, the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. This epic has been influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, many imitations were written, especially in France. Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad, a number of elements from Persian and Arabian mythology are now common in modern fantasy, such as genies, bahamuts, magic carpets, magic lamps, etc. When L. Frank Baum proposed writing a fairy tale that banished stereotypical elements, he included the genie as well as the dwarf. The Shahnameh, the epic of Iran, is a mythical. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story, which has influenced some modern works of fantasy fiction, medieval European sources of fantasy occurred primarily in epic poetry and in the Fornaldarsagas, Norse and Icelandic sagas, both of which are based on ancient oral tradition. The influence of works on the German Romantics, as well as William Morris
6.
Harry Potter fandom
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By the fourth Harry Potter book, the legions of fans had grown so large that considerable security measures were taken to ensure that no book was purchased before the official release date. Harry Potter is considered one of the few four-quadrant, multi-generation spanning franchises that exist today, pottermania is an informal term first used around 1999 describing the craze Harry Potter fans have had over the series. Fans held midnight parties to celebrate the release of the four books at bookstores which stayed open on the night leading into the date of the release. In 2005, Entertainment Weekly listed the release of Harry Potter. Diehard fans of the series are called Potterheads, some even theme their weddings around Harry Potter. A Bridal Guide featured two real weddings soon before the release of the movie, which quickly spread through the fandom via Facebook, Twitter. The craze over the series was referenced in Lauren Weisbergers 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada as well as its 2006 film adaptation, there are many fan web sites about Harry Potter on the Internet, the oldest ones dating to about 1997 or 1998. J. K. Rowling has a relationship with her fan base. In 2004, after Immeritus, Rowling bestowed the honour upon four sites, the next site was the Harry Potter Lexicon, an online encyclopedia Rowling has admitted to visiting while writing away from home rather than buying a copy of her books in a store. She called it for the obsessive, my natural home. The third site of 2004 was MuggleNet, a web site featuring the latest news in the Potter world, among editorials, forums, and a podcast. The last site was HPANA, the first fan site Rowling ever visited, faster off the mark with Harry Potter news than any other site Rowling knows, in 2005, only The Leaky Cauldron was honored. On another occasion, Rowling has called the Leaky Cauldron her favourite fan site, in 2006, the Brazilian website Potterish was the only site honoured, in recognition of its style, Potter-expertise and responsible reporting. In May 2007, Harry Potter Fan Zone received the award, Rowling recognized the insightful editorials as well as praised the site for its young and dedicated staff. Rowling called the extraordinary and most inspirational, and paralleled its mission to the values for which Dumbledores Army fought in the books. In an article about her in Time, Rowling expressed her gratefulness at the successful work raising awareness. At one time, Warner Bros. which owns the rights to Harry Potter and its affiliates, tried to shut down the sites. The unsuccessful attempt led to their inviting the webmasters of the top sites to premieres of the films and tours of the film sets
7.
History
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History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory and it is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians and their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In Asia, a chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd-century BC texts survived. Ancient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history which have evolved over the centuries, the modern study of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the study of certain topical or thematical elements of historical investigation. Often history is taught as part of primary and secondary education, the word history comes ultimately from Ancient Greek ἱστορία, meaning inquiry, knowledge from inquiry, or judge. It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his Περὶ Τὰ Ζῷα Ἱστορίαι, the ancestor word ἵστωρ is attested early on in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions. History was borrowed from Latin into Old English as stær, and it was from Anglo-Norman that history was borrowed into Middle English, and this time the loan stuck. In Middle English, the meaning of history was story in general, the restriction to the meaning the branch of knowledge that deals with past events, the formal record or study of past events, esp. human affairs arose in the mid-fifteenth century. With the Renaissance, older senses of the word were revived, and it was in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the sixteenth century. For him, historia was the knowledge of objects determined by space and time, in an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like Chinese now designates separate words for human history and storytelling in general. In modern German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, which are synthetic and highly inflected. The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669, Historian in the sense of a researcher of history is attested from 1531. Historians write in the context of their own time, and with due regard to the current dominant ideas of how to interpret the past, in the words of Benedetto Croce, All history is contemporary history. History is facilitated by the formation of a discourse of past through the production of narrative. The modern discipline of history is dedicated to the production of this discourse. All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the historical record, the task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can most usefully contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the constitution of the archive is a result of circumscribing a more general archive by invalidating the usage of certain texts and documents
8.
Parallel universe (fiction)
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A parallel universe is a hypothetical self-contained reality co-existing with ones own. A specific group of parallel universes are called a multiverse, although this term can also be used to describe the parallel universes that constitute reality. The term parallel universe is more general, without any connotations implying a relationship, or lack of relationship, the actual quantum-mechanical hypothesis of parallel universes is universes that are separated from each other by a single quantum event. Fantasy has long borrowed an idea of world from myth, legend. Heaven, Hell, Olympus, and Valhalla are all alternative universes different from the material realm. Plato reflected deeply on the realities, resulting in Platonism. The lower reality is similar but with flaws, modern fantasy often presents the concept as a series of planes of existence where the laws of nature differ, allowing magical phenomena of some sort on some planes. This concept was found in ancient Hindu mythology, in texts such as the Puranas. S. Lewis or even the beyond-the-reflection travel in the two works of Lewis Carroll. P. Lovecraft and the Doom computer game series, or Warhammer/40K miniature, in such stories, the nature of this other reality is often left mysterious, known only by its effect on our own world. One of the first Sci-Fi examples is Murray Leinsters Sidewise in Time, while this is a common treatment in Sci-Fi, it is by no means the only presentation of the idea, even in hard science fiction. One motif is that the way time flows in a parallel universe may be very different, picking a genre becomes less a matter of setting, and more a matter of theme and emphasis, the parts of the story the author wishes to explain and how they are explained. Narnia is clearly a fantasy, and the TV series Sliders is clearly science fiction, while technically incorrect, and looked down upon by hard science-fiction fans and authors, the idea of another dimension has become synonymous with the term parallel universe. The usage is common in movies, television and comic books. The idea of a world was first introduced in comic books with the publication of The Flash #123. In written science fiction, new dimensions more commonly – and more accurately – refer to coordinate axes. By proposing travel along these axes, which are not normally perceptible. Abbott wrote the seminal novel exploring this concept called Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions, isaac Asimov, in his foreword to the Signet Classics 1984 edition, described Flatland as The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions
9.
Earth
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Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun
10.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
11.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
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The story chronicles the adventures of a young farm girl named Dorothy in the magical Land of Oz, after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their Kansas home by a cyclone. The novel is one of the stories in American literature and has been widely translated. The Library of Congress has declared it Americas greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale and its groundbreaking success and the success of the Broadway musical adapted from the novel led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books that serve as official sequels to the first story. Baum dedicated the book to my good friend & comrade, My Wife, in January 1901, George M. Hill Company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sold three million copies by the time it entered the domain in 1956. The book was published by George M. Hill Company and its first edition had a printing of 10,000 copies and was sold in advance of the publication date of September 1,1900. On May 17,1900, the first copy of the book came off the press, Baum assembled it by hand, the public saw the book for the first time at a book fair at the Palmer House in Chicago, July 5–20. The books copyright was registered on August 1, full distribution followed in September, by October 1900, the first edition had already sold out and the second edition of 15,000 copies was nearly depleted. In a letter to his brother Harry, Baum wrote that the books publisher George M. Hill predicted a sale of about 250,000 copies, in spite of this favorable conjecture, Hill did not initially predict that the book would be phenomenally successful. He agreed to publish the book only when the manager of the Chicago Grand Opera House Fred R. Hamlin committed to making The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into a stage play to publicize the novel. The play The Wizard of Oz debuted on June 16,1902 and it was revised to suit adult preferences and was crafted as a musical extravaganza, with the costumes modeled after Denslows drawings. Hills publishing company became bankrupt in 1901, so Baum and Denslow agreed to have the Indianapolis-based Bobbs-Merrill Company resume publishing the novel, Baums son Harry Neal told the Chicago Tribune in 1944 that L. Frank told his children whimsical stories before they became material for his books. Harry called his father the swellest man I knew, a man who was able to give a decent reason as to why black birds cooked in a pie could afterwards get out, by 1938, more than one million copies of the book had been printed. Less than two decades later in 1956, the sales of his novel had grown to three million copies in print, Dorothy is a young girl who lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and her little dog Toto on a Kansas farm. One day, Dorothy and Toto are caught up in a cyclone that deposits her farmhouse into Munchkin Country in the magical Land of Oz, the falling house has killed the Wicked Witch of the East, the evil ruler of the Munchkins. The Good Witch of the North arrives with the grateful Munchkins, the Good Witch tells Dorothy that the only way she can return home is to go to the Emerald City and ask the great and powerful Wizard of Oz to help her. As Dorothy embarks on her journey, the Good Witch of the North kisses her on the forehead, on her way down the yellow brick road, Dorothy attends a banquet held by a Munchkin man named Boq. The next day, Dorothy frees the Scarecrow from the pole on which he is hanging, applies oil from a can to the connections of the Tin Woodman
