Oz is a magical land, if not strictly a fairy land, surrounded by a "impassable" desert that can only be crossed by magic (or possibly airflight in extreme weather -- not sure if magic is required in those cases, but there are a number of detailed magical crossings). I believe Ozma is actually a fairy, with a backstory something like "a/the fairy queen found this boring land surrounded by an impassable desert, thought that a terrible waste, and assigned someone from her court to take charge of the place".
The forest as a (wild) place of transformation is certainly a recurring theme in european fairy tales. One doesn't necessarily get to fairy lands via the woods, but one goes into the woods and learns or is changed before returning. (One of my books talks about this idea in a modern fairy tale context, need to find/review it.)
Getting to fairy land by way of an unremarkable garden gate is also a trope that leaps to mind -- there being places that exist both here and there where one can cross, some by accident and some only if one knows what one is doing.
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regna
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Date: 2013-07-14 06:17 am (UTC)Oz is a magical land, if not strictly a fairy land, surrounded by a "impassable" desert that can only be crossed by magic (or possibly airflight in extreme weather -- not sure if magic is required in those cases, but there are a number of detailed magical crossings). I believe Ozma is actually a fairy, with a backstory something like "a/the fairy queen found this boring land surrounded by an impassable desert, thought that a terrible waste, and assigned someone from her court to take charge of the place".
The forest as a (wild) place of transformation is certainly a recurring theme in european fairy tales. One doesn't necessarily get to fairy lands via the woods, but one goes into the woods and learns or is changed before returning. (One of my books talks about this idea in a modern fairy tale context, need to find/review it.)
Getting to fairy land by way of an unremarkable garden gate is also a trope that leaps to mind -- there being places that exist both here and there where one can cross, some by accident and some only if one knows what one is doing.