Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (133 page)

4
. I:200

5
. As Steve mentioned when he read this essay, he first began to articulate this idea in
The Stand.

6
. E:147

7
. IV:302

8
. For an explanation, see my timeline, listed in Appendix II.

9
. The three companions are Eddie, Susannah, and Jake. Roland’s fourth companion is the billy-bumbler Oy. Although Oy doesn’t train to be a gunslinger, he is an important member of Roland’s
ka-tet.

10
. As Constant Readers will remember, in
The Gunslinger,
Roland allowed Jake to tumble into the abyss below the Cyclopean Mountains so that he could pursue the Man in Black. However, by the time he reaches the city of Lud in
The Waste Lands,
Roland puts his own life in danger to save Jake from the child-hungry gang of Grays.

11
. The High Speech word
khef
means many different things, including water, birth, and life force. It implies all that is essential to existence.
Khef
is both individual and collective; it is the web that binds a
ka-tet.
Those who share
khef
share thoughts. Their destinies are linked, as are their life forces. Behind the multiple meanings of this term lies a philosophy of interconnectedness, a sense that all individuals, all events, are part of a greater pattern or plan. Our fates, for good or dis, are a result of both our own and our shared
khef.

12
. The Wolves steal one of every pair of prepubescent twins born in the Callas so that their masters in Thunderclap can extract the chemical that causes twin-telepathy. This chemical is then fed—in pill form—to the Breakers. (It increases their psychic abilities.) Unfortunately, once this chemical is removed from a child’s brain, the child is roont, or ruined.

13
. As Constant Readers all know, on Keystone Earth, the Dark Tower takes the form of a magical wild rose.

14
.
Ka-shume
is the price one pays for altering
ka,
or the course of destiny.

15
. Unfortunately, many of the Breakers don’t appreciate this newfound freedom.

16
. 1+3+9+6=19. Are you surprised?

17
. As all CONSTANT READERS know, the Dark Tower books contain many references to political and cultural figures from our world. Unless these figures play a central part in the narrative, they have been relegated to Appendix VI.

* This line comes from the 1982 version of
The Gunslinger.
It was cut from the revised 2003 edition.

18
. Ed Deepneau thinks that he is destroying the “baby-killing” pro-choicers. However, he has been duped by the Crimson King into causing utter mayhem so that one four-year-old child will cease breathing.

19
. In the novel
Insomnia,
two forces battle over the fate of the macroverse. These forces are the Random and the Purpose. Generally speaking, the Crimson King is aligned with the chaotic Random, while the White is aligned with the Purpose.

20
. In some variations of the legend, Gan was said to rise from either the void or the sea.

21
. Interestingly, in the novel
It,
the Turtle claims that he created the universe on a day he had a bellyache. Hence, all of the evils we experience are the result of trapped wind.

22
. In
The Gunslinger,
Stephen King hints that the Good Man may be just another of Walter’s aliases. However, by the time we reach
The Dark Tower,
Walter tells us that this bit of information was a red herring. John Farson and Walter are separate beings. Farson was one of Walter’s many pawns.

23
.
NOTE ON MID-WORLD DIRECTIONS:
In the original version of
The Gunslinger,
Roland follows WALTER (the MAN IN BLACK) due south through the MOHAINE DESERT and the CYCLOPEAN MOUNTAINS. In the 2003 edition of the book, Roland follows Walter southeast, both of them drawn toward the force of the BEAR-TURTLE BEAM. For a detailed account of how this alters MID-WORLD’s geography, see MID-WORLD MAPS located in Appendix VII of this
Concordance.

* This line comes from the 1982 version of
The Gunslinger.
It was cut from the revised 2003 edition.

24
. For
The Drawing of the Three
I only listed direct references to the Cyclopean Mountains. However, whenever action takes place on LOBSTROSITY BEACH, which borders the WESTERN SEA, these mountains are on the horizon.

25
. For definitions of the terms
Multiple Americas
and
Alternative Americas,
see
APPENDIX I
, MID-WORLD DIALECTS. Also see the entry MULTIPLE AMERICAS, in this section of the
Concordance.

26
.
Oxford English Reference Dictionary,
2nd ed., rev. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

27
. In the novel
Desperation,
Diablo Mining has its headquarters in a Quonset hut in the Nevada desert. The military experiment stations, where the superflu virus was developed in
The Stand,
were Quonset huts.

28
. As readers of the Dark Tower series know, Mid-World was originally the name of an ancient kingdom, one that tried to preserve culture and knowledge during a great age of darkness. However, throughout the series Stephen King also uses
Mid-World
as a general term for Roland Deschain’s level of the Tower. I have followed this practice.

29
. III:33—Shardik is two thousand to three thousand years old when our
ka-tet
finds him in the Great West Woods. III:38—Creating the cyborg Guardians was the Great Old Ones’ final act of atonement for the harm they had done to the earth, and to each other. To pinpoint a timeline date, I counted backward from our
ka-tet
’s adventures in the Great West Woods. At that point, Roland is approximately 336 years old. (I explain Roland’s age in Footnote 27.) Since Shardik’s age is approximate, I thought this date should be approximate also. 3,000-336 A.R.B. = 2,664 B.R.B. 2,000-336 A.R.B. = 1,664 B.R.B., or approximately 2,700 B.R.B. to 1,700 B.R.B.

30
. VI:243—The Red Death affected Fedic two dozen centuries, or twenty-four hundred years, before the coming of the Wolves. Most people were already birthing monsters. Mid-World’s many mutants came into being thanks to the Great Old Ones’ disastrous wars. For more information, see MUTANTS, in CHARACTERS.

31
. VI:243—The Red Death may have come out of the deep crevice beyond Fedic, called the Devil’s Arse, but given the name of the disease (taken from a fictional plague created by Edgar Allan Poe), and the terrible practices of the Great Old Ones, it seems most likely that it was created by biological engineers and accidentally released.

32
. III:38—See Footnote 2. For date on the timeline, I counted backward. The Great Old Ones disappeared two thousand years before the Wolves began raiding the Callas (V:339). In
Wolves of the Calla,
we find out that the Wolves have been preying on the children of the borderlands for six generations (V:339). In the Calla, one generation is twenty-three years (V:15). Six generations equals 138 years. If Roland is approximately 336 at the time that
Wolves of the Calla
takes place, he was 198 when the Wolves started raiding (198 A.R.B.). I counted back from this date.

33
. There appear to be two Arthur Elds—the mythical Arthur Eld, who was the first king to arise after the Prim receded and who was the ancestor of both the line of Deschain and the Crimson King (VII:176), and the historical Arthur Eld, forefather of Steven Deschain. Steven Deschain was twenty-ninth, on a sideline of descent, from the historical Arthur Eld. Roland, then, is thirtieth. If a generation is approximately twenty-three years (see V:15), and if Steven Deschain was approximately twenty-three when Roland was born, then 30 x 23 = 690.

34
. III:412—At the time
The Waste Lands
takes place, eight hundred years have passed since Blaine’s monitoring equipment went down in End-World. If Roland is 336 years old when he and his
tet
riddle with Blaine, 800-336 = 464 B.R.B.

35
. III:242—Civil war erupts in Garlan/Porla three hundred to four hundred years before our
ka-tet
reaches River Crossing.

36
. I(2003):160.

37
. I(1988):159, I(2003):170—Roland is fourteen when he finds out that Marten Broadcloak is having an affair with his mother. Roland challenges his teacher, Cort, and wins his guns. Hax hanged by the neck three years before Roland’s test of manhood.

38
. I(2003):169.

39
. See Footnote 10. I(1988):163—Roland goes for his test five years too early. Steven Deschain sent Roland east because he thought that the Good Man and his followers were in the west. IV:112.

40
. Events of
Wizard and Glass.

41
. IV:655-56.

42
. Ibid.

43
. I(2003):118—The land falls to Farson five years after Hax’s hanging. Roland’s father is dead by this time. I(2003):161—Steven Deschain was killed by a knife.

44
. I(1988):163—Roland won his guns five years too early. He was fourteen at the time. Hence, the average age for gunslingers to win their guns is nineteen. II:177—We are told that Cort dies of poison nine weeks after the gunslinger apprentices’ Presentation Ceremony.

45
. II:177.

46
. V:347—Cuthbert was twenty-four when he died at Jericho Hill. If he and Roland were approximately the same age, then Roland must have also been about twenty-four when this battle was fought.

47
. VII:174.

48
. VII:174-75.

49
. I(2003):152—Roland catches sight of Walter, presumably after the battle of Jericho Hill, and then does not see him again for twelve years, or until he and Jake enter the passages beneath the Cyclopean Mountains. Twenty-four years plus twelve years equals thirty-six years.

50
. I(2003):146.

51
. Events of “The Little Sisters of Eluria.”

52
. Events from
The Gunslinger.
For explanation of Roland’s age, see Footnote 22.

53
. VII:176-77.

54
. I(2003):230-31—Roland appears to be ten years older when he wakes. II:47—At least one hundred years pass while Roland is in the golgotha. III:375—According to Blaine, by the time our
ka-tet
reaches Lud, it has been three hundred years since any gunslinger walked either In-World or End-World. Since Roland is the last gunslinger, Roland must have disappeared for about three centuries. Roland was approximately twenty-four at the battle of Jericho Hill. (See Footnote 19.) He was approximately thirty-six when the events of
The Gunslinger
took place. (See Footnote 22.)

55
. According to Si of River Crossing, the last tribute was sent to River Barony Castle in the time of his great-grand-da, but they found the castle in ruins. Si is at least seventy by the time he tells his story.

56
. V:339—By the time
Wolves of the Calla
takes place, the Wolves have been invading the Calla for six generations, or 138 years. On V:15, we learn that a generation is approximately twenty-three years.

57
. III:244—Ninety years before our
ka-tet
reached River Crossing, Quick rode into Lud with his harriers. III:273-75—Our
ka-tet
finds the remains of both Quick and the flying machine.

58
. III:246—The mono under discussion stopped running seventy years before our
ka-tet
reached the town of River Crossing. On this page, our
tet
seems to think that the stalled mono is Blaine. Later in the story they realize that Patricia stopped running, not Blaine.

59
. Throughout
Wolves of the Calla,
we are told that Jake is twelve years old. In the previous books he was eleven. Hence, a year (or a good part of a year) must pass between the events of
The Waste Lands/Wizard and Glass
and
Wolves of the Calla.

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