Everything about Soldier With The Green Whiskers totally explained
The Soldier with the Green Whiskers is a major character in
the Oz books of
L. Frank Baum and his successors. His name is
Omby Amby, but this was so obliquely stated that he also became known briefly as
Wantowin Battles.
Early appearances
He is introduced in
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, to escort the four protagonists to the
Emerald City palace, where he appears to be one of its tallest citizens, and is often described as "very tall" at any rate, and his long green beard flows nearly to the ground. He also is the one who informs King
Scarecrow of
Glinda being the most likely person to know how to get
Dorothy Gale home.
His appearance is largely for show. When attacked by General
Jinjur's Army of Revolt, he admits that his gun, which was usually drawn containing flowers, isn't kept loaded for fear of accidents. He tells her to "wait right here" while he looks for the powder and shot that he's misplaced.
After his ineffectual attempts to save the Emerald City from invasion, which the Scarecrow chastizes, he vows to disguise himself by shaving his beard.
Omby Amby
In
Ozma of Oz, we're introduced to the Royal Army of Oz, consisting of twenty-six officers and one private. This private, Omby Amby, proves to be the only brave solider in the Army, so
Princess Ozma promotes him to
Captain-General and makes him her personal
Body Guard. He has a fierce moustache (not noted in the text until
The Emerald City of Oz, but shown in the illustrations from the beginning), but is capable if gentle-natured, unlike the pompous officers, who come up with excuses not to fight and act very cowardly when facing the
Giant with the Hammer. Omby Amby gets inadvertently flung onto the arm of the Giant and must jump down onto the soft body of the Scarecrow, and the officers more outwardly show their fear than the private. An officer mentions that they've a few other privates, but Omby Amby is the only one we ever see. He is cleaning the
barracks when Ozma calls him into the banquet for his promotion.
When the
Wizard returns, he recognizes Omby Amby, who greets him accompanied by
Jellia Jamb, but wonders what happened to his "green whiskers." Omby Amby admits to have shaven them off.
As Omby Amby, he appears briefly in
The Road to Oz and is
tour guide to
Aunt Em and
Uncle Henry in
The Emerald City of Oz. It is he who informs them of the "Defensive Settlements of Oz" such as
Rigmarole Town and
Flutterbudget Center, where people are exiled for talking to much or worrying too much, respectively.
Tollydiggle, Wantowin Battles, later books, and Jack Snow
When next we see him, in
The Patchwork Girl of Oz, he's again referred to as the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, is the only soldier in the Army, and his beard is back to its normal length, and is now said to make him look taller than he really is, and he's referred to as the Emerald City Police Force. This may explain why
Jack Snow described Oz's jailer,
Tollydiggle, as his wife--in
The Magical Mimics in Oz,
Betsy Bobbin is shown giving Omby Amby flowers and asking them to give them to his wife, Tollydiggle. No indication of any such relationship is found in Baum's books. Indeed, Baum does state that the Soldier has a wife, but she's one with a "terrible temper"--at least according to Jinjur--something not in evidence in Tollydiggle. Two lines may indicate where this interpretation comes from--he addresses Tollydiggle as "my dear" (fairly commonly used with friends in Oz books, especially from the Wizard), and that he says, "I know that very well," when Tollydiggle says, "it is impossible for anyone to escape from this house." In context, it's a stretch to read between the lines, but these two are the most conducive to such a reading-in.
While he continued to appear in most Oz books, his next major appearance wasn't until
The Wishing Horse of Oz, in which his beard turning red was the fist indication of the magic of
Skamperoo in his bid to conquer the Emerald City. It is initially suspected to be the red magic of
Jinnicky, but
Gloma, the Witch of the Black Forest implicitly the Good Witch of the West, assures Dorothy that it's green magic at work. With Ozma and many of her advisers, he's imprisoned at the bottom of Lake Lightning.
In
Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz, which centers on the protagonists of
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with Baum's statements that the Soldier is Omby Amby being all indirect, author
Ruth Plumly Thompson constructed an elaborate family history around him under the name Wantowin Battles, and John R. Neill's editor picked up on the name and used it once in the rewritten portion of
The Wonder City of Oz, too. In this book, Thompson portrays Wantowin as a pompous coward with bad aim who loves to eat
pickles. Jack Snow gave Wantowin, without a surname, his own entry in
Who's Who in Oz as a result.
Snow also described him as Keeper of the Gates and Royal Army of Oz, and omitted an entry from
Who's Who in Oz of the
Guardian of the Gates, who is clearly not the same person, as they speak to each other in
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,
The Marvelous Land of Oz, and
The Patchwork Girl of Oz. Although it appears that Snow didn't read any post-Baum Oz books until researching
Who's Who in Oz, in
The Scalawagons of Oz, Omby Amby offers to take the Guardian's place so that he can take a Scalwagon to see his cousin, Oompa. Thus, this claim becomes easy to reconcile
in-universe.
James E. Haff did a major analysis of the character in
The Baum Bugle #63 (Winter 1978) titled "The Man Nobody Knows." He notes that he doesn't seem to have any real friends, although Haff doesn't note that he's shown playing
checkers with
Pastoria in
The Yellow Knight of Oz, and in Neill's books he appears to be good friends with the Guardian of the Gates, and is even shown
waltzing with him in
The Scalawagons of Oz after getting up from a game of
marbles when the music begins to play and having no one else around. Ironically, although Neill both wrote and illustrated, the Soldier is shown in illustration dancing with a woman in spite of the text.
Portrayals
The Soldier with the Green Whiskers appears in many adaptations, though he often lacks that description for a lack of green whiskers.
The following films have featured a version of the character:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Soldier With The Green Whiskers'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://soldier_with_the_green_whiskers.totallyexplained.com">Soldier with the Green Whiskers Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
