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The Nome King: Tik-Tok of Oz

The Nome King makes his third apparition in the book “Tik-Tok of Oz”, the eighth of the Oz series. This novel is quite particular because it has a… complicated history. Remember “Ozma of Oz”, the third Oz book? It was published in 1907. Immediately, Baum wanted to adapt it into a musical play – he had done this with both of the first Oz books, and it had always been a great success. And so appeared the third Oz musical – however, this play, called “The Tik-Tok Man of Oz” and published in 1913, was actually a very loose adaptation of the book, mixing up elements of another short story he wrote called “Tik-Tok and the Nome King”. And when I say loose, I mean that there was no Ev, Ozma is now the queen of a “Rose Kingdom”, Tik-Tok is now from Oz…

Anyway, the novel “Tik-Tok of Oz” was published in 1914, and is actually a reinterpretation/remake of the musical play, whose plot was taken back and then extended. As a result you could say it is a remake of a remake of “Ozma of Oz”. And this explains why this book can feel… quite strange.

Now, the novel follows a bunch of people who find themselves outside of Oz, exploring the wild territories of the outer continent. Ann Soforth, the queen of the small kingdom of Oogaboo, who wanted with her army to conquer Oz but was sent out of the country by Ozma’s magic ; Betsy Bobbin and her pet mule Hank sent to the Ozian continent by a sea storm (yeah, she was basically here to replace Dorothy) ; and the Shaggy Man. And it is with the latter that the Nome King’s part begins. The Shaggy Man had already been introduced a few books prior.

This time, the Shaggy Man explains that he went out of Oz to find his missing brother – he just learned through Glinda’s Book of Records that his brother has been lost for ten years. He was a miner, a gold digger more precisely, living in Colorado (which is the Shaggy Man’s original state), and one day he disappeared entirely as he went deep into a mine – the Shaggy Man is convinced that the Nome King took him away. [Note here that Baum decided to extent the Nome King’s reign to ALL of the underground, including the underground under Earth/the United-States. Which enters into contradiction with Ozma of Oz, where it was specified even Nome magic couldn’t work in non-fairy lands.] The Shaggy Man also gives an… interesting description of the Nome King, similar but different: basically Baum did a reboot here. The Nome King is not called Roquat anymore, but now he is Ruggedo the Metal Monarch, a being believing he owns all the metals hidden in the earth. He probably took the Shaggy Man’s brother away because he was a gold digger, and Ruggedo explodes in rage whenever he learns someone took his precious gold. Now, the Shaggy Man is searching for the “hidden passage” leading to the “underground kingdom of the Metal Monarch”. Shaggy (I’m going to call him Shaggy, no confusion with Scooby-Doo) plans on using his “Love Magnet” to charm the Nome King into accepting his demand (the Love Magnet is an item which forces those who see it to “love dearly” its wielder. Long story.)

Later, the group meets Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow, who fell (once more) to Earth because she was not careful. She warns the group that they will need help if they take on Ruggedo, because the Metal Monarch has been “trouble” for a lot of people before, be them mortal or fairies – though she explains that she doesn’t him personally since the Rainbow cannot enter his underground caverns. She doesn’t know where the entrance to his realm is, but she also says that she is certainly not afraid of him because “no one can harm a Daughter of a Rainbow”, whatever that means.

Even later, the group of Shaggy-Betsy-Polychrome meet Ann Soforth, her army, TIk-Tok and basically the rest of the cast. The Shaggy Man tells Ann of the riches of the Nome King – saying he owns all the metals under the earth, be them gold, silver, copper, brass or tin. So, according to Shaggy, he legitimately owns everything under the Earth – but the Nome King’s greed and folly is to believe he also owns all metals located above the earth, by claiming that since they originated from his kingdom, they are all his. As a result, Ann and her army decide to invade the Nome kingdom instead of Oz, to gain all the riches in the world. They ultimately discover the way to his realm by having the Rose Princess (a rose humanoid, and a cousin of Ozma, long story) ask a few flowers on the way. It leads them to a range of low mountains and rugged hills – the entrance to the Nome realm.

Now, we finally get to see back our favorite villain.

While his palace is, like previous books, a set of caverns and grottos carved under the mountains and with glittering jewels on the walls and ceiling, now instead of a throne of stone, the King has a throne of solid gold, and dresses in “splendid robes” while wearing a crown “cut from a single blood-red ruby”. Now, you might have doubted the fact that this King is the same as the previous one – indeed, they wear different names (Roquat VS Ruggedo), the last time we saw Roquat his mind had been erased by the Waters of Oblivion, and even the title here is different (“Monarch of all the Metals and Precious Stones of the Underground”). But his description makes clear that they are supposed to be the same character: a round little man with flowing white beard, a red face and bright eyes, as well as a scowl covering all of his forehead. Despite his jolly appearance and enormous wealth he is unhappy – because humans and mortals dug deep into the earth and stole from him his metals and jewels (and it is mentioned that Ruggedo and the Nomes have apparently no power on the surface of the Earth, since as soon as the metals as above the ground they can’t recover them – which contradicts their plan to attack Oz in previous books but anyway). It is also mentioned that he hates all fairies living on or above the earth – for not apparent reason.

Like in “The Emerald City of Oz”, the Nome King invokes his servants by hitting on a heavy and very loud gong. Kaliko is still here, though now he is the “High Chamberlain” of the King. Ruggedo invokes Kaliko because he feels in his bones that mortals are closing near to his kingdom – he apparently can always feel it when “earth-crawlers” get near his kingdom. Kaliko uses a magic spyglass to confirm that – it is basically like a submarine spyglass, a tube that goes through the earth and ends up at the side of one of the mountains. When hearing the description of the visitors, the Nome King is not afraid (even mentioning the other day he threw Tik-Tok down a well). He gets scared upon hearing there are little girls, but since they are not Dorothy nor Ozma he is relaxed. He is however quite surprised upon hearing Polychrome is among them (it is mentioned no Nome can harm her), and he ends up concluding it is not a peaceful errand (though he also admits that nobody ever comes to his kingdom on a peaceful errand, since he hates everybody and everybody hates him).

Now, to repel them, the Nome King uses one of his defense tactics: the Rubber Country. Apparently, when you take this precise stretch of road they are in, before reaching the mountains you cross a dull gray landscape with a soft and springy road. There, everything, from the rocks to the trees, is actually made of rubber, and when the Nomes activate “magnetic rubber wires”, the rubber starts to stretch and bounce, going up and down, throwing the visitors in all sorts of directions. That might remind you of something… That’s right. The Emerald City of Oz: the “Ripple Land” Gruph had to cross. This is the exact same thing, that Baum simply re-used under a different name and in different conditions. The only way to cross safely is to avoid the road and the rocks – in fact you have to walk in the stream of water that crosses the country. A water… that is dry water. Yep, it exists in Oz – basically when you walk in this water it doesn’t soak you up in anyway. Don’t ask me how it works precisely.

The Nome King, angry at his obstacle being defeated, walks around his throne room, kicks Kaliko in the shins, keep walking around, and ultimately decides to throw the visitors down the “Hollow Tube”. Kaliko warns him: last time he did that, the Tititi-Hoochoo whose powers are great threatened with retaliation, but the Nome King doesn’t care. Kaliko ultimately convinces the King to at least consider things – of the two imminent threats, better to choose the lesser, and apparently whatever is at the end of the Tube is very dangerous. So Ruggedo calls “the Long-Eared Hearer”, a Nome with enormous hear who can listen to what the travelers are saying above ground while staying near the Nome King. Upon hearing that the Shaggy Man wants his brother, the Nome King is more than happy – the brother is called the “Ugly One”, and he is “too lazy to work” and always getting in the Nome King’s way (apparently, Ruggedo doesn’t turn people into ornaments like Roquat and keeps literal slaves). The Ugly One is currently in the “Metal Forest”, an underground forest the Nome King created out of gold and silver “to keep the precious metals out of reach of mortals”. In fact he hid it so well half of the time he can’t even find it back in his dominions. However, the Hearer also hears that the Oogaboo people want to take the King’s riches – and there he becomes mad with rage. He dances around, bellowing, clicking his teeth, rolling his eyes, swinging his arms. He twists horribly the Hearer’s ears, so furious Kaliko has to use the King’s scepter to hit him on the knuckles – but this only turns his rage towards the Chamberlain, which he starts chasing around. When finally the King calmed down, he decides to throw the invaders down the Hollow Tube, no matter what – and asks his Chief Magician, to twist the path of the invaders so that it ends up on the Hollow Tube, and to turn invisible the tip of the Tube so they can fall in it [an interesting addition, since in previous books without the Belt the Nomes had no magic]. As this is done, Kaliko thinks to himself that he better begins to search out for a new job, because when the Tititi-Hoochoo will learn of that, the Nome King is sure to be no more.

To put it simply, because it would be too long to explain in details: the Hollow Tube is a tube that crosses over the entire planet. It starts at one end in the Dominions of the Nome King, and on the other it ends in an unnamed land at the other side of the world. The Hollow Tube was built “in the year of the world 19625478 by a Magician named Hiergargo. He lived on the unnamed land at the other side of the world, and was a great traveler who explored the planet, so he built the Hollow Tube as a shortcut to go from one side of the world to another (the tube is not a straight one, but forming an angle, so that, thanks to the gravity, the people don’t truly fall in the Tube but merely slide in it). However, you have to be careful with the sliding – indeed you might end up like poor Hiergargo, who went down the Tube too fast and was shot out of it so strongly he went to the sky and was thrown on a star, which exploded on the impact and that was the end of him.

The realm at the other side of the Tube is one of the “Fairylands”. In fact it is literally a Fairyland: it is inhabited by fairies. Each inhabitant of the this realm is a fairy who rules over a specific aspect of the human world – literally ruling. Each fairy has the title of “queen” or “king” of something and wears a crown alongside a tunic with a dragon’s head on it. For example, our heroes spend the night there are the palace of Erma, the Queen of Light, who rules over light in the mortal world with the help of her six servants: Sunlight, Moonlight, Starlight, Daylight, Firelight and Electra (the spirit of electricity). In a similar way, upon arriving the group meets Tubekins, who is the King of the Tube (as in his task is to watch and take care of the end of the Tube arriving here). All the inhabitants here are described as tall and beautiful people with large blue eyes, white perfect teeth, bushy and curly black hair ; as well as a multicolored skin (yellow on one arm, vivid green on the other, a leg blue, another pink, and jet-black feet). In fact they are said to look so much alike it is difficult to differentiate them. The only one truly different is their leader – Tititi-Hoochoo, also known as the “Great Jinjin”. Though his exact position is actually… Private Citizen. Because you see, in a kingdom where regular citizens are kings and queens, the leader is bound to be a citizen. While the other wear scarlet tunics, he wears a white robe, with the same dragon emblem ; he doesn’t have a crown or blue eyes, but his eyes are deep-black, with pupils like “sparks of red fire”. The Great Jinjin does not rule over any part of the world, he merely rules over his fellow fairies, and he is said to have the most power out of them all. He has no heart, and thus can feel no emotions, but he is said to have a “high degree of reason” and to be “full of justice” – while he is merciless, he never punishes without a good reason. [People suggest that Baum inspired himself of Hiti-Hiti, an 18th century king of Tahiti]

Now the thing is that the Great Jinjin got tired of people using the Tube to basically throw stuff away, or to come visit his reclusive and powerful kingdom, so he put up a law: anyone who reaches his realm by willingly using the Tube should be tortured for nine days and ten nights before being sent back up the Tube. And he plans to do so to the poor travelers, until they prove that Ruggedo threw them down the Tube and that they did not want to come here. The Great Jinjin then forgives them, promises them to help return home, and vows vengeance upon the Nome King – it isn’t the first time Ruggedo threw people down the Tube, but the other time the Great Jinjin warned him of dire consequences. And so, Tititi-Hoochoo unleashes his Instrument of Vengeance upon the Nome Kingdom: Quox. Quox is a “young” dragon (only 355 years old), very large, with sharp teeth, a light-blue body with silver scales the size of serving trays, eyes so big it takes him a long time to blink, wide nostrils, a brimstone-smelling breath, a gruff but no unpleasant voice… oh yes and an electric light attached to the end of his tail. Quox is actually a friendly young creature. If he was made the “Instrument of Vengeance” of the Great Jinjin, it was only as a punishment for his recklessness. You see, in this realm lives the “Original Dragon”, who is not just the ancestor of all dragons in the world, but also the first creature that was ever created in the world, and thus the oldest living being of the universe. He is extremely wise, and remembers everything that ever happened since the beginning of times – but Quox insulted him by calling him a senile old dragon, and thus he was forced into basically the equivalent of community service.

The Great Jinjin sends Quox up the Tube, with on its back, strapped to chairs, our protagonists

When the dragon goes out of the Tube, the Nome army is here, hundreds of Nomes led by General Guph (strange, in previous books they were thousands…). The nomes throw their spears, that merely bounce over the dragon’s scale (though, being magic spears, they return to the hands of the nomes).

The protagonist enter the Nome King’s kingdom – and Ruggedo manages to trap Ann and her army of Oogaboo in a secret pit, laid as a trap before the entrance of his throne room. However, others such as Tik-Tok or Betsy Bobbins, don’t fall in the trap. And the Nome King is particularly impressed by how Betsy is not afraid of him and merely asks to eat something – it has been noted in previous books that the best way to impress the Nome King was to not be scared of him. All might be wall, until Betsy asks for an egg sandwich. The nomes, hearing egg, try to capture the girl to lock her in the “Slimy Cave”, but Hank the Mule basically saves her by kicking everyone.

In the confusion, Betsy escapes thanks to Kaliko, the chamberlain, who turns out to be an “honest and good-natured” Nome. He puts Betsy in a secret room, and gives her the key, telling her to not open until she hears three raps on the door. He also gives her Nome food: broiled mushrooms, a loaf of mineral bread, and petroleum-butter. Betsy can eat all of it, and it is quite good – except the petroleum butter, which is inedible for humans.

Note that during this time the Shaggy Man, Polychrome, Quox and the Rose Princess are all waiting outside. Only Ann, her army, Betsy/Hank and Tik-Tok entered. They talk of the Love Magnet, and the Hearer hears this. Despite not liking the Nome King, especially since he likes to twist his ears, he still recognizes him as his master and tells him about it. This news horrifies Ruggedo: he abhors love and is very proud of his hatred. In fact, he says that he would rather lose his wealth and throne than to have his hate turned into love by a magic amulet. The group outside of the grotto decides to enter, to see what became of their friends, but the Nomes attack and tie Shaggy in ropes so that he cannot use the Magnet. Polychrome manages to flee outside and tries to warn Quox to act… but Quox is sound asleep, and waking a dragon is a VERY difficult thing to do, not even hitting him with rocks is enough. Desperate, Polychrome enters the Nome palace herself, and finds Ruggedo with around him all his prisoners. And there…

Something strange happens. Ruggedo feels love. For Polychrome. He does not hate her, but finds her beautiful and lovable. So he offers her to become his Queen – though actually it is not love that moves him, but just her beauty. You see, when she is here, all the jewels of the palace glitter with new shades and colors, and that’s what the King truly loves. He offers Polychrome to release all her friends – if she agrees to live with him forever as his “daughter or wife or aunt of grandmother – whichever you like”. (PedoBear theme song, return!) Polychrome does not want to leave her friends, but she refuses to stay with Ruggedo under the earth. So at first the Nomes (Guph and Ruggedo) try to capture her by force, but since she keeps flying and eluding them, the Nome King calls his “executioners” to have “fun”. Here come evil-looking Nomes with great golden pincers, prods of silver, and various clamps and chains of precious metals incrusted with diamonds and rubies. Their leader is named Pang. The Nome King plans to melt Tik-Tok in their gold crucible (and when Kaliko tries to save the creature by saying how an interesting machine it is, Ruggedo threatens to throw Kaliko in the furnace with him). Ruggedo also turns the Shaggy Man into a dove [Now that’s even more curious, since previous books stated the Nome King had no magic without the belt] by waving his hands, palm downwards, in seven semi-circles while reciting “Adi, edi, idi, odi, udi, oo-i-oo! Idu, ido, idi, ide, ida, woo!”. Polychrome, horrified, flees, and returns to the sleeping Quox, who she ends up waking up by hitting him with a pearl locket of hers.

Quox decides to attack the Nome King, by slipping his body into the entrance/tunnel of the palace, his head appearing in the throne room – but the Nome King was actually ready for this, and manages to tie a heavy iron chain held by hundreds of Nomes around the Dragon’s head, preventing him from loving. Satisfied, Ruggedo turns the Rose Princess in a fiddle, and plans to turn Quox into a chameleon. Quox answers calmly that Ruggedo will not – and when asked why, he asks “Do you see this ribbon around my neck?” The King says that yes, he sees it, and it is quite ridiculous on a dragon. Quox asks “Do you really, truly see it?”. Ruggedo annoyed, answers again that yes, he sees it perfectly well. “Then you are as helpless as a clam.” Quox explains. Indeed, the ribbon has been enchanted by the Great Jinjin so that when Ruggedo sees it, he will lose all his knowledge of magic and forget all the magic formula he ever performed. Ruggedo is sad to find out it is true, but still says he has “fire and the sword” and is still King of the Underground – to which Quox explains that the vengeance of the Great Jinjin is not done. Tititi-Hoochoo condemns, through Quox, Ruggedo to be exiled from his kingdom and live at the surface of the earth, where he will wander forever without any friend or follower, without any home or country, and with no more riches than what he can put in his pocket. Though the Great Jinjin is merciful, and allows the King to fill his pockets with jewels and gold before leaving. The Nome King of course says he refuses to listen to this nonsense, and will be King of the Nomes until the end of times.

That’s when Quox smiles (a cold, cruel, terrifying smile) and a locket around his neck opens – letting a dozen of enchanted eggs out. The Nomes are so terrified at their sight they leave the throne room, and slam its door in their King’s face. The King ends up climbing on his throne to escape the eggs, but they roll towards him, and then defy gravity to roll upward alongside the throne. He keeps escaping them by running and jumping around the room, throwing at them his ruby crown, his golden scandals and his scepter, but they are unbreakable. He ultimately rans out of his palace, by squeezing himself alongside Quox’s body, and once outside realize that the curse of the Jinjin took effect – he was banished. Before, he could have used his magic to make the eggs non-poisonous to Nomes (he knows a charm of nine passes and six verses), but now he is powerless. The eggs now guard the entrance of the Nome Kingdom, barring it and preventing the King from entering. Ruggedo was now cursed to be an eternal wanderer.

Now with Ruggedo gone, the pink ribbon that stripped the King of his powers is used to reverse the transformations inflicted upon the heroes, and Quox officially names Kaliko the new Metal Monarch. Kaliko is happy, and so are the Nomes, because they like him better than Ruggedo. When the Shaggy Man asks for his brother, Kaliko explains he begged Ruggedo to let him go but the stubborn King always refused – and Kaliko also proposed the Ugly One to escape, but he refused. They describe again the Metal Forest, located in the largest Nome dominion (The Great Domed Cavern) – being in the forest is like being outdoor except trees are made of gold and silver, and the floor is covered in precious stones. Ruggedo made three secrets ways to access the Forest, but he changed those ways every week, so that no one could go there without his permission. The Shaggy Man is not sure why the Nomes call his brother The Ugly One, in fact he says he actually can’t remember what he looks like at all since they haven’t seen each other in a very long time. Anyway, the heroes and nome start to search the Metal Forest.

But Ruggedo is also nearby, and he also remembers the secret ways to the Metal Forest, that only he knows and that is certainly not guarded by eggs. He opens a secret stone-door in the mountains to enter in his underground world, but Polychrome sees him. So the heroes find the Metal Forest, where the Ugly One has been living for two or three years, feeding of some real fruit-bearing trees hidden behind the fake ones. They also find there Ruggedo, who is arrested. He claims he just came to fill his pockets, as the Great Jinjin promised, and so he is allowed to do that before being escorted out – and the former King fills all of his pockets with so much gems he ends up barely able to walk on his own and needs to be carried out. As for the Ugly One he is found in a small hut he built himself out of twigs and golden branches, however he refuses to go out of it or be rescued. He explains that when he was captured he was very handsome (the Shaggy Man explains he cannot remember if he was, since he left home at a young age, but their mother clearly said his brother was the prettiest of the two), but the cruel Ruggedo enchanted him, turning him into a man so ugly he terrifies himself when looking in a mirror. At first, Ruggedo had the Ugly One parade in front of his Nomes for him to be publicly mocked and humiliated, but since it distracted the Nomes from their job, Ruggedo locked him up in the Metal Forest. The Ugly One only agrees to come out and join his brother out of the Nome realm by wearing a mask hiding his face – and Kaliko explains that sadly he can’t break the enchantment because Ruggedo was “fond of magic” enough to learn all sorts of enchantments that the regular nomes know nothing of.

The Ugly One points out that the real trees in the Metal Forest are most curious. There is a tree with “three-course nuts”, basically coconuts, but divided in three: the upper part contains soup, the middle part meat, potatoes, vegetables and salad, the last part a dessert, either pie, cake or cheese, when not crackers, nuts or raisins. Other are “Breakfast Nuts” which are like the previous ones, but with coffee in the upper part, oatmeal in the middle and fruits at the bottom.

As they are leaving the Cavern, they see a trail of jewels, leading to Ruggedo, who actually still isn’t out of the Dominions. The weight of all he took was so heavy he walked at the speed of a slug – and anyway his pockets burst, resulting in the trail of gems he left behind him. Now Ruggedo is said to be “humble” and “meek”, having lose all ferocity and cruelty, and he sadly explains that he cannot revert the spell of the Ugly One, since his mind got erased of all magic – even though every charm has its antidote. However, after being asked several times, he vaguely remember that a kiss can break the spell, though he does not remember if it is the kiss of a mortal maid or a fairy or even a mortal maid who was once a fairy. So the three ladies of the group try: first Betsy, the Mortal Maid, then the Rose Princess, Mortal Maid and former Fairy, and finally Polychrome, the Fairy. It is the last that break the spell. Though Shaggy and the others are a bit disappointed to find that his real face isn’t immensely beautiful, though Betsy finds him good-looking (and there was previously hints that the Ugly One was simply extremely vain and blowing his beauty out of proportions). But Kaliko assures them that, compared to what he once was, the Ugly One is now magnificient.

Ultimately, strangely, Ruggedo is now a sad and sorry creature, even crying when Betsy shows him kindness. Betsy pleads with Kaliko about how Ruggedo is now harmless and they shouldn’t be hard on him, so Kaliko decides to let Ruggedo stay in the Nome palace as long as he likes – but if he ever misbehaves, he will be driven out in the wilderness to wander forever as the Great Jinjin said.

And so our heroes leave a now peaceful and benevolent Nome King with a reformed and humble Ruggedo.

… as you can guess, it won’t last.

And no, it is never explained why Roquat became Ruggedo or how Roquat/Ruggedo regained his memory after it being wiped by the Water of Oblivion – especially since all the other evil spirits tribes are never mentioned again.

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It is quite fascinating to see that Tik-Tok of Oz was released the same year World War I began... A book about peace being settled with an old enemy, coinciding with the beginning of one of the most dreadful and terrifying conflicts of human history. What an irony.

#what we know of oz #the nome king #ruggedo #roquat #tik-tok of oz