Mayre "Trot" Griffiths is a little girl who has had many adventures with her constant companion Cap'n Bill. She later moved to the Land of Oz where she became one of Dorothy Gale and Princess Ozma's best friends.
Description[]
Mayre Griffiths is the daughter of Charlie Griffiths and his wife. She has big solemn eyes and an earnest, simple manner.
History[]
She was born in California and since her father was a sailor, she was raised by her mother and Cap'n Bill, a family friend. It is said that she had been marked on the forehead at birth by fairies with their invisible mystic signs. When she began to walk, she took so many steps that she was nicknamed "Trot", and has been called that name ever since. All her life she was accustomed to depend on Cap'n Bill, and rarely did anything without him.
One day, Trot and Cap'n Bill were discussing mermaids. Though the Cap'n warned her how dangerous the creatures were, Trot expressed a wish to meet a mermaid. Princess Clia heard her wish and transformed the girl and her guardian into mer-people, Trot having a tail with irridescent pink scales. The mermaids gave their guests a tour of their underwater kingdom. They were captured by the evil Zog, but managed to escape with the help of King Anko. The mermaid queen, Aquareine, gave Trot a golden ring which she could use to summon help at any time. (The Sea Fairies)
When Button-Bright arrived in California with his Magic Umbrella, Trot and Cap'n Bill joined him on a picnic trip that ended up at Sky Island. They landed in the Blue Country and were captured by the Boolooroo, who took the Magic Umbrella and made Trot a servant of the Six Snubnosed Princesses. She and her companions escaped through a Fog Bank and found themselves in the Pink Country where Polychrome saved them from being thrown over the edge of the island. Polychrome also reminded the Pinkies that their Great Book of Laws required the person with the lightest skin to rule the Country, and Trot was immediately made Queen of the Pinkies. She led an invasion into the Blue Country, and when Cap'n Bill was captured by the Blueskins, Trot entered the city in search of him with the help of Rosalie's magic ring, which made her invisible. She found the Cap'n, and through an unusual string of events, conquered the Boolooroo and became "Booloorooess" herself. She and her companions set things to right in both kingdoms, recovered the Magic Umbrella, and returned home to California. (Sky Island)
Later, while on an excursion in a rowboat, they were trapped by a whirlpool and deposited in a cavern deep under the sea. There they met a strange flying creature called the Ork, who carried them to Jinxland, a country on the other side of the Deadly Desert. After their adventures in Jinxland, Ozma invited them to stay in the Land of Oz. (The Scarecrow of Oz).
Trot and Cap'n Bill had many wonderful adventures there including getting their feet "rooted" while searching for a gift for Princess Ozma's birthday. (The Magic of Oz).
Still later in her career, Trot was elevated to be a princess of the Ozure Isles. (This made her "twice a princess," since she already had the same honor from Ozma.) She became a close friend of the ten-year-old Ozurian Prince Philador. (The Giant Horse of Oz)
as depicted in Going Nowhere Fast
Book appearances[]
- The Sea Fairies (1911) (first appearance)
- Sky Island (1912)
- The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)
- Rinkitink in Oz (1916)
- The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)
- The Magic of Oz (1919)
- Glinda of Oz (1920)
- The Royal Book of Oz (1921)
- Kabumpo in Oz (1922)
- The Cowardly Lion of Oz (1923)
- The Lost King of Oz (1925)
- The Giant Horse of Oz (1928)
- Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz (1929)
- Pirates in Oz (1931)
- Ojo in Oz (1933)
- The Magical Mimics in Oz (1947)
Background[]
Trot initially appeared in L. Frank Baum's The Sea Fairies (1911), intended as the first in an alternate children's fantasy series. Following her appearance in Sky Island (1912) (which includes crossover appreances by Button-Bright and Polychrome), Trot and her friend Cap'n Bill were introduced to the Land of Oz in The Scarecrow of Oz (1915).
In Cosgrove-Payes The Wicked Witch of Oz, the evil witch Singra turns Trot into a piece of green cheese, after mistaking her for Dorothy. In Phyllis Ann Karr's The Gardener's Boy of Oz, Trot's mother comes to live in Oz, but in Paul Dana's The Lost Boy of Oz, Trot reveals that she chose not to stay, and regularly watches her in the Magic Picture. The girl is the heroine of Eric Shanower's novella Trot of Oz, and figures prominently in his short story "The Solitary Sorceress of Oz."