with his
interest in the kinds of things the people d .
> I wonder, too, how much he may have been influenced by the MGM film--the
inhabitants there are all pretty interesting and seem to have specific jobs.
<
Maybe, although they still stay pretty much in the background (no individual
names, and more in the way of choral than individual action). The
resemblance between the MGM & Neill use of disguises for the Wizard that you
mention seems stronger.
Nathan DeHoff and "John W. Kennedy" mentioned the sentient trees in
Dante's DIVINE COMEDY. Myths of people turned into trees (such as Daphne
into Apollo's laurel) and beings who are the spirits of trees (such as
dryads) are found in many cultures. In Norse myth, the first man and woman
were Asch and Embla (ash and elm). Less common areland.
"I no sooner clear my land of trees,
when another horde comes," shouted the farmer.
He shook his fist at the forest. "Get along,
you drifters!"
The forest had no course but to go on. . . . [245]
This farmer treats the trees just as earlier farmers in the series treat a
flock of crows or a hungry rabbit: he shoos them away. He doesn't act as if
something extraordinary has happened. And while we may take his "no sooner"
complaint as exaggerated, the passage still tells us that moving forests
are only to be expected in that area.
Ozma puts these trees to work for her firefighters with the understanding
that they'll continue to move: "Each will be responsible for one tree, lead
it to water whenever it is thirsty, and hold a monthly reunion" [283]. Even
though she's