Under the Influence: Rinkitink in Oz

 

With the tenth book of the Oz series, we reach one of the most important books to my writing of Polychrome, and also one of my favorite books in the series. Thus, rather than a mere On My Shelves, this book gets an Under the Influence all to itself It is worth noting that. Rinkitink began existence as another of Baum's non-Oz fantasies, but Baum repurposed it as an Oz novel and that is how it has become known.

 

On the idyllic tropical island of Pingaree in the Nonestic Ocean (the ocean that surrounds the lands of Faerie) lives young prince Inga, son of the wise and kindly King Kitticut and his wife, Queen Garee. Their small island country is wealthy due to the vast number of high-quality pearls that can be fished from its reefs, and the mild climate and fertile land make it self-sufficient and a very pleasant place to live. The only real fear of the people is invasion; years ago, the warrior nations of Regos and Coregos invaded Pingaree, and were only driven out by some mysterious force.

 

One day, King Kitticut decides it is time that Inga know the secret that protected the island, and reveals that Pingaree's rulers were given three magical Pearls of Power by the Sea Fairies. It was none other than Kitticut himself, wielding the Pearls' mystical powers, who drove out the invaders. The Blue Pearl provides superhuman strength upon the bearer; the Pink Pearl provides invulnerability; and the White Pearl can speak and provides tremendous wisdom and advice to the bearer. Kitticut shows his son where the Pearls are hidden and how to access them in case of emergency.

 

A brief moment of alarm at an approaching ship turns out to be an occasion for celebration; the old, jolly, fat King Rinkitink, of the eponymous country, has come to pay a visit to Pingaree and see the land from which come the pearls that Rinkitink and his people value so highly. Rinkitink, accompanied by his grouchy but startlingly strong goat Bilbil, remains on the island for a long time, admitting candidly that he'd really rather avoid returning to the duties of kingship as long as possible.

 

Without warning, just after a dense fog has lifted, the warriors of Regos and Coregos invade again; but this time they manage to capture the King before he can reach the Pearls. Inga, who was spending the night in a small treehouse, escapes the notice of the invaders, who otherwise capture apparently everyone else on the island, loot every building, and then destroy the buildings, even the palace, until scarcely one stone stands atop another.

 

This is one of the most powerful sequences Baum has written; we feel Inga's fear and isolation as he realizes his home has been invaded and there is nothing he can do, and his shock and loneliness when, descending from his treehouse, he finds nothing but devastation and silence everywhere.

 

By good fortune, however, there are two other survivors of the attack: Bilbil the Goat, who wasn't considered worth taking by the invaders, and King Rinkitink, who fell down a well in an attempt to escape and by great fortune didn't break his neck in the mishap. With some difficulty they manage to get Rinkitink out of the well and gather as much food as they can find.

 

Inga realizes that his father must never have gotten the Pearls, and – after getting Bilbil and Rinkitink to help move a massive fallen block of stone that lies atop their hiding place – retrieves the precious gems secretly. The White Pearl advises him to wait and watch a particular location, and – sure enough – a mysterious and magical boat shortly appears, a boat more than able to carry all three of them.

 

Rinkitink thinks they should go to his country for refuge, but Inga is determined to rescue his people, including of course his parents, and believes he can do so with the power of the Pearls. After demonstrating that he can row even this large boat with great ease and speed (using the power of the Blue Pearl of Strength) while Rinkitink can barely make it move at all, Rinkitink concedes that Inga has the right to decide their course.

 

So a young boy on the edge of manhood, a fat old King, and a goat set out to conquer two warlike nations and liberate their oppressed peoples…

 

Rinkitink in Oz is one of the best of the Oz novels. This is a straightforward, powerful adventure story, with one of the few male main characters in Oz novels and possibly the only one who really remains an active force throughout his adventures. Prince Inga is nowhere near fearless, but he is courageous, determined, and wise enough to know when he doesn't know enough to understand his problems; this means that he consults others, including Rinkitink and Bilbil as well as the White Pearl, when needed. This stands him in good stead throughout his adventures.

 

Given that this is a children's book, and an Oz novel, we know that Inga will succeed in rescuing his people and his parents, but his journey is a long and dangerous one, in which even the powers of the Pearls are none too much. It is true that with all three Pearls, Inga is very nearly an unstoppable force, but he is also a very young man and can be tricked, or make mistakes. But the Wisdom of the Pearl apparently takes such things into account, or can at the least adjust its advice accordingly; even when he temporarily loses the two other Pearls, Inga relies on the advice of the White Pearl to show him the way to eventual triumph.

 

The character of Zella, a woodcutter's daughter who happens to end up with the Pearls, is also an important one; she only shows up in a relatively few chapters of the book, but she has her own adventures and assists Inga at crucial junctures. The way in which their interactions were written also made me – even as a very young man – wonder if eventually Zella and Inga would be an item – probably my first encounter with what is now called "shipping" characters. In Polychrome I assumed that they did, in fact, marry.

 

Even after defeating Regos and Coregos, however, Inga's quest is not done; King Gos of Regos and Queen Cor of Coregos have already fled, taking the King and Queen of Pingaree with them as hostages, whom they place in the custody of Kaliko, the current Nome King. Inga tracks them down, but Kaliko has promised Gos and Cor that he will keep the King and Queen of Pingaree prisoner, and he keeps his promises. Inga finds that Kaliko is a man of honor… and a deadly foe, who has a truly diabolical trap set for the young prince…

 

Multiple elements from Rinkitink in Oz are important in Polychrome. The Three Pearls are the obvious goal that Erik Medon seeks in his trip to Pingaree, and even though he does not – technically – take one, they remain tremendously important to the plot. King Rinkitink, with the slight name change of Rin Ki-Tin, is present, and Inga and Zella's daughter Zenga becomes Erik's companion as he sets out on the middle portion of his quest. Kaliko, too, is well characterized in this Oz book, and his portrayal and behavior here were strongly influential in my design of Kaliko as seen in Polychrome.

 

One area in which my interpretation differed drastically from what I suspect Baum envisioned, and certainly what John R. Neill drew, was that I saw Pingaree and its people as being dark-skinned Polynesians. This fit with what I knew about the world, and in particular with the image of Pingaree itself, which, aside from the Palace, was described in terms that brought to mind Hikueru from Call It Courage. Thus, my vision of Pingaree actually clashed somewhat with the pictures in the book. Additionally, there is one short sequence which shows Baum's completely unself-conscious racism, when it has been discovered that (rot-13 for spoiler protection) Ovyovy vf npghnyyl gur genafsbezrq Cevapr Obob bs Obobynaq, naq va beqre gb haqb gur genafsbezngvba ur vf onfvpnyyl punatrq frdhragvnyyl vagb qvssrerag sbezf gung ner "pybfre" gb uhzna, vapyhqvat "gbggraubg" qrfpevorq nf "n yrffre sbez bs zna". Fortunately this is only one paragraph in the whole book.

 

As I have already said, this is one of the best of the Oz novels; if you have any interest in Oz at all, this is one of the three or four you should read!