Oz Wiki
Register
Advertisement
"Make yourself perfectly at home," said the pretty green girl, "and if you wish for anything at all, just ring the emerald bell. Oz will send for you tomorrow morning, take care. "
―Jellia Jamb to Dorothy

Jellia Jamb is a very young and attractive girl who lives in the magical Land of Oz. She works as a full time servant in the Royal Palace of Oz in the Emerald City. She is first introduced in L. Frank Baum's first Oz book titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900, but is only known therein as the pretty, sometimes beautiful "Green Girl " and is not given an actual name until the second Oz book written by Baum titled The Marvelous Land of Oz, published in 1904. Throughout the Oz series, Jellia Jamb becomes Princess Ozma and Dorothy Gale's favorite female attendant out of the Emerald City's staff administration.

Baum's Description[]

"The Soldier with the Green Whiskers now blew upon a green whistle, and at once a young girl, dressed in a pretty green silk gown, with green satin sashes entered the room. She had lovely green hair and green eyes, and she bowed low before Dorothy as she said, "Follow me and I will show you your room.""
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
IMG 20140429 082500

Jellia Jamb in the Marvel Comic Oz series illustrated by Skottie Young.

Jellia Jamb is very sweet and modest, when on duty she is always humble, polite and kind to everyone around her. However, she is at times, known to be a bit mischievous, especially when off duty. She is described to have a very pretty, plump face, big eyes and thick curly green hair. She often wears a dainty green silk knee-length skirt, silk stockings embroidered with pea-pods, and green satin slippers with bunches of lettuce for decorations instead of bows or buckles. Upon her silken waist clover leaves are embroidered, and she wears a jaunty little jacket trimmed with sparkling emeralds of a uniform size. That she continues as a maid even after money is abolished in Oz may mean that she serves Princess Ozma and the Emerald Palace purely of her own free will. She seems to genuinely enjoy her job.

Oz History:[]

Believe

Jellia Jamb in The Marvelous Land of Oz.

Jellia was born in the northern quadrant of Oz known as the Gillikin Country. Many readers identify her as the "Green Girl " who waits on Kansas orphan Dorothy Gale during the girl and her dog Toto's first visit to Oz's Imperial Capital, but Jellia is not introduced by name until she is called upon to translate between the King Scarecrow and Ozian Jack Pumpkinhead before they realized that everyone in Oz speaks the same language which is english. Later, Jellia was forced by the old Witch Mombi to take her place; Glinda saw through the trick, and took Jellia under her protection until Princess Ozma of Oz was finally found and revealed and established in her rightful place as ruler of Oz. (The Marvelous Land of Oz)

Jellia was briefly elevated to royalty, becoming the "starina" (like "tsarina") of the skyland of Stratovania. However this was against her will, and so she ultimately escaped to Oz with her friends. (Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz)

Book appearances[]

Background[]

Illus73

Jellia in her maid outfit

In non-canonical works[]

Jellia is the protagonist in David Hardenbrook's Jellia Jamb, Maid of Oz. She is influential in making things come out right in John Bell's story "Jack Pumpkinhead's Day in Court." She is a victim of hostile magic in Rachel Cosgrove Payes's short story "Percy and the Shrinking Violet", and has her rescue Dorothy from paralysis as a statue in The Wicked Witch of Oz. And she is important in the collaborative novel Fwiirp in Oz and in Chris Dulabone's The Fairy Circle in Oz.

In Danielle Paige's alternate Oz book Dorothy Must Die, she was Dorothy's head maid who secretly plotted against her as a member of the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked. A prequel story reveals that Jellia had distant fairy ancestry, and Glinda wanted to try to use her to power a device that would drain Oz's magic; when she proved not strong enough, however, Glinda left her for dead. She was then rescued by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, where she became an undercover agent. Jellia was sentenced to death for pleading guilty for letting the flying monkey Maude escape and setting fire to the Scarecrow's lab, which Amy actually did, in order to protect her. The Cowardly Lion killed her, but she was gruesomely reanimated with her eyes taken out.

In The Chronicles of Oz, Jellia Jamb is an Emerald City government official, holding the title "Guardian of the People" and functioning as a Press Secretary.

Adaptations[]

Jellia appears in the Shirley Temple's Storybook episode, The Land of Oz.

Advertisement