Langwidere (Novels)

"I do not know what the Princess Langwidere truly looks like," replied the head Wheeler. "Although I have seen her numerous of times, Langwidere is a different person every time I see her. For the only way her maids and subjects can recognize her at all is by means of a pretty little key made out of solid ruby; which she always wears on a dainty chain attached to her left wrist. So when we see the key we know we are beholding the Princess." "That is strange," said Dorothy, in astonishment. "Do you mean to say that several different princesses all share the same title and take turns wearing the key?" "Not exactly," answered the head Wheeler. "There is, of course, but only one princess. Yet she appears to us in many forms, which are all extremely beautiful." "She must be a powerful Witch," exclaimed Dorothy. "I do not think so," declared the head Wheeler. "But there is some mystery connected with her, nevertheless. She is a very vain and reclusive creature. It is rumored she dwells in a private boudoir surrounded by many mirrors. "

―Ozma of Oz (1907)

Princess Langwidere-as seen in the Marvel Comic Oz adaptations by Skottie Young and Eric Shanower.

"Princess Langwidere looked at Dorothy and said, as if talking to herself: You are rather attractive, not at all beautiful you understand...but, you have a certain style of prettiness, that is different from that of any of my other thirty heads. I believe I'll take your head, and give you number twenty-six for it! "

―Ozma of Oz (1907)

Princess Langwidere switches heads by John R. Neill.

"Will you exchange heads with me?" demanded the Princess. "NO INDEED!" cried Dorothy! "

―Ozma of Oz (1907)

Princess Langwidere is a fictional character who is first introduced in L. Frank Baum's third Oz book titled Ozma of Oz, published in 1907. Langwidere is not the protagonist nor necessarily the antagonist in Baum's Oz novel. She is portrayed as an arrogant and pampered character of annoyance with a distasteful personality to entertain the reader for the plot of the story involving the return of Oz's main heroine and child protagonist named Dorothy Gale from Baum's first Oz book titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900.

Princess Langwidere and Dorothy Gale by Skottie Young.

Langwidere is the highly narcissistic, spoiled, vain and conceited niece of King Evoldo who lives in a tiny Kingdom in the magical Land of Ev, which is a very small enchanted land with little population, that happens to neighbor the magical Land of Oz. Ev is a very desolate place, inhabited only by the Royal Family of Ev, their subjects and the gang of bad-mannered creatures known as the Wheelers, who inhabit the country also.

*Langwidere*

• Elements from the book Ozma of Oz and the land of Ev were both used in the 1985 Disney cult classic film Return to Oz. Specifically the "Lunch and Dinner Pail Trees", that are said to grow on the grounds of Ev and the Deadly Desert which surrounds Ev, and Oz, cutting both lands off from the rest of the world as well as the Nome King's Mountain which is located in the same continent as these two "undiscovered" countries.

How do I look?

Appearance, Personality & Lifestyle

"There is no ruler," was the answer the head Wheeler gave."Because every member of the Royal Family is currently imprisoned by the Nome King. But the Princess Langwidere, who is a niece of our late King Evoldo lives in a part of the family palace and takes as much money out of the royal treasury as she is allowed to possibly spend. The Princess Langwidere is not exactly a ruler, you see, because she doesn't rule; but she is the nearest approach to a ruler we have at present. "

―Ozma of Oz (1907)

Princess Langwidere in the Marvel Comic.

"In the center of this lovely vale, about a mile from where our friends were standing, rose the tall spires of the Royal Kingdom of Ev which glittered like gold brightly against the background of blue sky. The palace was surrounded by charming grounds, full of flowers and trimmed shrubbery. Several tinkling marble fountains could be seen, and there were pleasant walks bordered by rows of white marble statuary. "

―Ozma of Oz (1907)

Ozma rescues Dorothy from Langwidere's captivity in the Marvel Comic series of Oz.

"Princess Langwidere's sitting chamber was an elaborate paneled boudoir with great giant mirrors, which started at the floor and reached all the way up to the high ceiling. Infact, every inch of the room was constructed and composed of spotless mirrors, and the floor was of polished gold and silver that reflected every object upon it. So when Langwidere sat in her vanity-chair and played beautiful soft-sweet melodies upon her little Mandolin, her reflection was mirrored hundreds of times, in walls, ceilings and floors. And which ever way the vain Princess turned her head, she could see and admire her own features of the head she was wearing at the time. This she loved to do, and just as her maid entered the chamber Langwidere was too distracted as she was off saying to herself in a dream like voice: "Hmmmm.... this head with the dark auburn hair and light hazel eyes is quite attractive indeed. I must remember to wear it more often than I have done lately. Although it may not be the best of my Head-Collection, I do admit, this look is a fair one..."

―Ozma of Oz (1907)

The only company Langwidere allows to have is usually just from her maids and ladies in waiting. Langwidere does not like to socialize with commoners or even other royalty or people of noble blood. She rarely interacts with others too much and prefers to simply seclude herself much of the time to keep from being interrupted from her daily rituals of pampering or being disturbed and awaken when she is catching her beauty sleep or having one of her many daily naps. Langwidere lives a life of luxury and privilege. She wants little to nothing to do with the outside world and isn't bothered by her reclusive reputation.

Princess Langwidere and her maid.

In her life of nearly complete isolation, Langwidere entertains herself as she has thirty young heads that are interchangeable on her neck. All are described to be very striking and all are very beautiful, having nice eyes, rich hair and flawless skin. Instead of changing her outfits or jewelry every day, such as wearing different crowns, gowns or tiaras like other princesses, she simply changes her head to accessorize or match her current state of mood, rather it be a good mood she is in or a bad one. The heads are said to all be safely kept in a vast bejewelled boudoir known as her "cabinet" in her sleeping chambers. These precious heads are described as being very attractive in bone structure with soft features that run and vary through all combinations of hair and eye colors (except for gray hair and red, tired eyes), skin tones, and even noses of different shapes to represent different ethnicities. And the heads of this collection can never age of become worn out as they are all preserved to keep young forever.

Princess Langwidere wants your Head!

Langwidere herself, is very vain, conceited, selfish and ultimately lazy as she generally spends every waking moment of her life indoors admiring whichever head she's currently wearing in her large mirrored chambers and napping in the day for hours at a time. She highly enjoys constantly changing heads whenever she pleases and adopts a new look when she is tiresome of sitting on her vanity-chair admiring her reflections or simply bored with playing music on her Mandolin.

Since she can change her face at will, she has no interest in fashion or beautiful clothing. She always wears a simple white silk gown that falls gracefully to the floor like a wedding dress. Langwidere is said to wear only white because the color white suits any of her heads and goes with anything. Because her appearance changes so frequently, even Langwidere's loyal maid Nanda can only recognize her by a ruby-red key which she wears on a chain attached to her left wrist, and which opens up all of her bejeweled cabinets.

Princess Langwideres' History:

After King Evoldo sold off his family to the infamous Nome King, and threw himself into the deep sea and committed Suicide after realizing what he had done; his Niece, Princess Langwidere by default became regent of the Royal Kingdom in the country of Ev. She spent a lot of money from the Royal-Treasury and the family fortune, vainly on herself. She also only spent ten minutes of every day actually governing and tending to matters of state which was not enough. But much so as she did not care about the people of her land. Furthermore, she admitted that she would rather spend those ten minutes admiring her beauty in a mirror.

When the little girl named Dorothy Gale of Kansas met Langwidere, the Princess was wearing No. 17, which is her most beautiful head but comes with a terrible temper in return. Langwidere curtly told Dorothy that she was boring and stupid, and dismissed her. Then, after closely inspecting Dorothy's face, she changed her mind and said that Dorothy should stay so that Langwidere could take her head and add it to her collection, offering Dorothy one of her less attractive heads, No. 26, in exchange. Dorothy was indignant at this and refused; she was then imprisoned by the Princess's guards until she would consent to Langwidere's demands.

Princess Langwidere's Head Collection.

The next day, Dorothy was rescued by Princess Ozma of Oz, who along with the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and other Oz creatures, was passing through Ev on a mission to rescue the Royal Family from the Nome King. At first, Langwidere was furious that Ozma and her assembly had stormed her palace, but when the Oz party explained the nature of their mission, Langwidere completely calmed down and said she supported them because if the Royal Family was restored to rule the kingdom, she could finally devote all her time toward admiring herself in the mirror. Langwidere then freed Dorothy, provided room and board for Ozma's people, and told them where to find the Nome King's kingdom.

When the Oz people returned successfully from their mission, the Queen of Ev graciously allowed Langwidere to keep her rooms and her cabinet of heads. (Ozma of Oz)

In Return to Oz--1985

"I think I'll put on something more appropriate to wear, come with me, your friends can stay here..."

― Princess Mombi #1 in Return to Oz.

Some of Princess Mombi's heads.

The character of Princess Langwidere is combined with another character from the Oz books--the Witch Mombi in the Disney cult classic 1985 film Return to Oz. The film was an adaptation of two of Baum's Oz books titled The Marvelous Land of Oz, published in 1904 and Ozma of Oz, published in 1907. Return to Oz combined these stories together for the live-action non musical version of the books which stayed very close to what Baum most likely envisioned.

The original head of Princess Mombi.

"DOOOORROOOTHYYYYY GAAAAAAALLLE!!!! "

―Princess Mombi

In Return to Oz, this character is called Princess Mombi. Mombi is a Wicked Witch with thirty beautiful heads kept in a long hallway of solid gold-glass cabinets. These heads were harvested from the dancing slave girls of the Emerald City. These attractive ladies were decapitated and all magically turned into stone statues with the rest of the city citizens by the wrathful Nome King, who took over all of Oz with the help of Mombi and the power of the stolen Ruby Slippers. Princess Mombi was an underling of the Nome King and was responsible for keeping Princess Ozma a secret and imprisoned in the enchanted mirrors of her palace chambers in the only standing building in the ruins of the Emerald City. After escaping Mombi, Dorothy Gale and her companions Billina, Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, and Gump made a journey to the Nome mountain across the Deadly Desert, to rescue the King Scarecrow whom the Nome King had kidnapped and wrongly accused of stealing his emeralds that decorated the city. Dorothy was able to restore the Land of Oz back to normal once again and the Nome King was defeated. Mombi's life was spared but as harsh punishment for her crimes, Mombi was forever stripped of her title and was also stripped of her magic powers for good. When the curse over Oz was broken, Ozma was released from the mirrors and revealed to the Ozians as the official child Queen of Oz.

Princess Langwidere in Dorothy and the Witches of Oz

Princess Langwidere is after a grown up Dorothy Gale!

Mia Sara as Langwidere from The Witches of Oz.

In Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, Langwidere teams up with the Wicked Witch of the West to destroy Dorothy Gale who is now a children's author in New York City.

As Langwidere, she attacks Dorothy in her home in Kansas, leading her to realize that her Oz stories are more than just stories. Later, as Ilsa Lang, she tries to take the role of Dorothy in the movie version of Dorothy's Oz book, corrupting it in the process.

She also takes on the role of Ev Locast with another of her heads. (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz)

Background

Langwidere was created by L. Frank Baum, and appears only in Ozma of Oz, the third book in the Oz series. As depicted in an illustration by John R. Neill, Langwidere's looks are styled on the Gibson girl standard of beauty which was popular at the time of this novel's publication.

The theme of interchangeable or detachable heads appears to have been a recurring motif at this point in Baum's writing career. Other examples of this appear in his fifth Oz book, The Road to Oz, in the form of the Scoodlers, and the transformations of Button-Bright and the Shaggy Man.

In the 1985 movie Return to Oz, the character of Princess Mombi is largely based on Princess Langwidere.

Credits

• Jean Marsh, Sophie Ward and Fiona Victory as Princess Mombi (Return to Oz, 1985)
• Mia Sara as Langwidere (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, 2011)
• Sasha Jackson as "Ilsa Lang" (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, 2011)
• Jessica Sonneborn as "Ev Locast" (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, 2011)

Notes

• The character of Princess Mombi is actually Langwidere. Her name and the fact that she is more evil and has powers is based on Mombi.

References

Was the inspiration for one of the knitting patterns published in What Would Madam Defarge Knit in 2011, a reversible cowl.