Read Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated Online
Authors: Robin Furth
Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (46 page)
LLAMREI
See
ELD, ARTHUR
LOBSTROSITIES
These critters, which live on the beaches of the WESTERN SEA, look like a cross between scorpions and giant lobsters. They are four feet long, have bleak eyes on stalks, and sharp, serrated beaks. Every time a wave comes, they assume “The Honor Stance” by holding their claws up in the air. They maintain this position until the water crashes over them. Lobstrosities are most vicious at night, and are responsible for eating two of Roland’s fingers and some of his toes. They constantly murmur
Dad-a-chum? Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum? Ded-a-Chek?
II:15–21, II:26, II:28–29, II:31, II:32, II:44, II:55, II:93, II:94, II:99–101, II:107, II:135, II:139, II:140–41, II:161–65
(Eddie and Roland eat them),
II:167–68, II:206, II:228, II:230, II:238, II:245, II:248, II:253, II:254, II:258, II:267, II:273, II:283, II:286, II:293, II:294, II:297, II:359–60, II:387–90, II:394, III:13, III:52, III:78, III:79, III:150, IV:23, IV:63
(indirect),
IV:68, V:46, V:61, V:241, V:379, V:462
(indirect),
V:525, V:540, V:686, VI:10, VI:132, VI:295, VI:296, VI:395, VII:741, VII:797, VII:826
LONDON, JACK
See
CAN-TOI
LORD GRENFALL
See
ORIZA, LADY
LORD OF DISCORDIA
See
CRIMSON KING
LORD OF THE SPIDERS
See
CRIMSON KING
LORD PERTH
LORD SEMINON
See
ORIZA, LADY
LOS
See
CRIMSON KING
LOST BEASTS OF ELD
See
ELD, ARTHUR
LOUISE, SISTER
LOVELL, MAINE, CHARACTERS
LOW MEN
See
CAN-TOI
LUD CHARACTERS
LUDDITES
On our level of the TOWER, the Luddites were a group of nineteenth-century textile workers in the English manufacturing districts who rioted and destroyed the machines which they believed were stealing their jobs. Contemporary Luddites are people who are opposed to increased industry or new technology. In MID-WORLD, the Luddites are the inhabitants of the city of LUD. Like their namesakes in our world, their lives have been made unbearable by the totalitarianism of mad machines.
See also
GRAYS
and
PUBES
.
VI:287
LUNDGREN, DAHLIE
See
DEAN, EDDIE
: EDDIE’S PAST ASSOCIATES
LUSTER
See
PUBES
LYDIA
LYDIA’S DIPPER
See
GODS OF MID-WORLD
: OLD MOTHER
LYMAN JAFFORDS
MAD DOG OF GILEAD
EDDIE DEAN tells BLAINE the Insane Mono that Roland used to be called the Mad Dog of Gilead.
III:415, IV:5
**MAERLYN (AGELESS STRANGER; ARTHUR ELD’S MAGE; MAERLYN OF THE ELD)
In the 1982 version of
The Gunslinger,
we were told that Maerlyn was also known as the AGELESS STRANGER, and that—before reaching the DARK TOWER—Roland would have to slay this unknown enemy. In that original version of our story, we were told that Maerlyn, like WALTER, was a minion of the Tower. He
darkled
and
tincted,
or lived in all times. The only being more powerful than Maerlyn was the BEAST—both the originator of all
glammer
and the keeper of the Tower.
In the 2003 edition of
The Gunslinger,
STEPHEN KING cut all references to Maerlyn. Obviously,
sai
King discovered that Maerlyn of the ELD, original keeper of the magic seeing spheres known as MAERLYN’S RAINBOW, had quite a different history than the one previously imparted to him by the sneaky Walter O’Dim. However this is not surprising, since we all know that Walter enjoys twisting the truth.
Throughout most of the Dark Tower series, Maerlyn remains an elusive and mysterious character. Yet in some regions of MID-WORLD, people have come to believe that the good magician Maerlyn and the wicked sorcerer Walter are the same being. In
The Wind Through the Keyhole,
we learn some of the apocryphal stories that explain how a magician serving the White could be turned to the Outer Dark. According to one tale, Maerlyn had once been court mage to ARTHUR ELD himself, but he had been poisoned by the evil glam of the Wizard’s Rainbow, the keeping of which had been given to him in the days before the Elden Kingdom fell. Another version of the Maerlyn/Walter tale maintained that, during the mage’s wanderings after the fall of Arthur Eld’s kingdom, he had discovered certain artyfax of the OLD PEOPLE in the ENDLESS FOREST and his soul had become blackened by them. According to these sources, the wizard still kept a magic house in the Endless Forest, and in the environs of his house, time stood still.
However tempting it might be to think that Maerlyn and Walter are one being, we are given plenty of evidence throughout the series to refute this belief. At the end of
Wizard and Glass,
Walter himself (in the guise of RICHARD FANNIN) told a half-dead TICK-TOCK that he was not and never would be ARTHUR ELD’s mage. And in
Wind Through the Keyhole,
we meet the wizard himself, and he assures us that he is the enemy of both the COVENANT MAN (Walter) and Walter’s much more powerful master, the CRIMSON KING.
In
Wind,
the mythic Maerlyn becomes not only a living, breathing being, but the focus of TIM ROSS’s quest to cure his mother’s blindness. Ironically, Tim set out on his journey to find the wizard because of a vision he saw in a MAGIC PAIL of water, left for him by the treacherous Covenant Man. After his mother had been blinded by her cruel second husband, BERN KELLS, and after Tim had
found the dead body of his father, JACK ROSS, in a stream in a fallow stub of the COSINGTON-MARCHLY STAKE, Tim stumbled across this bucket as well as the Covenanter’s magic wand. The vision which Tim saw in the battered pail seemed innocent enough at first, and perhaps even helpful. In the clear water, Tim watched as a version of himself—water-Tim—visited the wizard in his many-gabled house in a clearing in the forest. Water-Maerlyn gave water-Tim a black silk blindfold which, when placed over Nell’s eyes, restored her sight. Although this vision was the catalyst that set Tim on his journey, the reality of finding Maerlyn proved to be much more difficult.
In Song of Susannah,
MIA stated that when magic went away from the world Maerlyn left his many-gabled house and retired to a cave. But in
Wind Through the Keyhole,
we discover that it wasn’t a cave that Maerlyn finally ended up in, but a
cage.
When Tim finally located the real Maerlyn in the clearing of the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN, located deep in the Endless Forest, he did not recognize the mage at all. This is not surprising since Maerlyn had been transformed into a huge green-eyed TYGER locked inside a rounded, steel-bar cage. In his tiger form, Maerlyn wore a silver collar around his neck. Hung from the collar were two objects. One looked like a playing card (it was actually a keycard to open the Dogan), and the other was a strangely shaped key. Facing a decision much like that found in the Mid-World legend of DIANA’S DREAM, Tim had to decide between using the cage key and facing the tyger so that he could retrieve the keycard for the Dogan and find shelter from the approaching STARKBLAST, or die in the impending storm.
Drawing his four-shot revolver, Tim opened the tyger’s cage. Much to Tim’s surprise and relief, the beast proved to be peaceful. In fact, since the Dogan was offline and could not be opened, the tyger saved Tim’s life by directing the boy to a magic METAL BOX left by the Dogan’s door. Opening the box with the tyger’s second collar key, Tim discovered a magic napkin, or DIBBIN, which, when shaken out, became a storm-shelter big enough to cover both boy and beast. Once the storm passed, Tim fed the tyger drops of liquid from the MAGIC BROWN BOTTLE also located within the magic metal box. Upon swallowing the drops, the tyger magically transformed back into Maerlyn.
In his human form, Maerlyn was so thin that he appeared to be little more than a skeleton. (This is hardly surprising considering the amount of time he had been trapped inside a cage.) He had a white waist-length beard encrusted with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds, and wore a white silk robe, the cuffs of which were covered in silver
siguls
of moons, stars, and spirals. On his head he wore a conical cap as yellow as the sun and on his feet he sported old black boots.
During his discussions with Tim, the grave but kindly sorcerer confided a truth which Tim had never suspected. Namely, that the evil Covenant Man was not half so powerful as he seemed, since his gifts were limited to long life and a little magic. Maerlyn also assured Tim that the Covenanter (whom Maerlyn called the Broad Cloak) would be punished by his true master—the Red King—for the foolish game he played with Tim’s life. As for his own transformation into animal form, Maerlyn stated that a spell had been cast upon him by an emissary of the Red King. The emissary came to Maerlyn’s cave pretending to be a wandering peddler. Although the peddler’s magic wasn’t as powerful as that of
the old wizard, Maerlyn was drunk at the time and so the peddler got the better of him.
After their palaver, Maerlyn set Tim atop the folded dibbin, which was now the size of a flying carpet. Instructing the lad to hold the magic FEATHER (also found in the Dogan’s metal box) the sorcerer told Tim to think of home. Tim did so, but before the boy zoomed off, Maerlyn gave him two final but urgent instructions. First, as soon as Tim returned home, he should place the last of the brown bottle’s magic drops in his mother’s eyes. Second, after restoring his mother’s sight, he should hand her Jack Ross’s ax. Luckily Tim obeyed both of Maerlyn’s final commands. Not only did the magic drops cure his mother’s blindness, but when Tim was attacked by his stepfather, Big Kells, Nell Ross was able to bury her former husband’s ax in Kells’s head.
W:169–70, W:183
(Water Maerlyn),
W:207, W:217
(mage),
W:222, W:223, W:249–50, W:250–55
(254 Tyger; Tim sees once more),
W:256
(furry bedmate),
W:259, W:261, W:269
(as tiger)
MAERLYN AS A TYGER:
W:222, W:233–49, W:269
MAERLYN’S MAGICAL OBJECTS
TIM ROSS found these three magical objects in a METAL BOX located at the base of the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN. The box was opened by a key attached to the collar of the caged TYGER who was actually none other than the mage of ELD, MAERLYN. Although we are never told directly, it is probable that these objects originally belonged to Maerlyn, since even in his tyger form, he knows about their existence and how to use them. In fact, if it weren’t for Maerlyn’s magical objects, Tim would never have survived the STARKBLAST, nor would he have been able to return home to the village of TREE.
W:239–64
METAL BOX:
Tim found this box at the base of the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN’s door. (It reminded Tim of the box his mother used for trinkets and keepsakes, only it was made of metal rather than wood.) When Tim first discovered the box it was locked, though it had an odd-shaped keyhole that looked a little like a letter from High Speech. Engraved upon the box were letters from a language that Tim couldn’t read. When he tried to lift it, the box felt as if it had been anchored to the ground by a powerful force.
Tim finally opened the box with a key attached to the collar of the caged TYGER he found in the Dogan’s CLEARING. (He wouldn’t have opened the box at all if the tyger—actually MAERLYN trapped in a tyger’s shape by a powerful spell—hadn’t insistently nuzzled it.) The box contained three magical objects which proved to be Tim’s salvation: a BROWN BOTTLE of healing drops, a magic flying FEATHER taken from the wing of GARUDA, the EAGLE GUARDIAN, and a napkin that turned out to be the versatile magic DIBBIN. W:236–37, W:240–41, W:246
BROWN BOTTLE:
This small brown bottle contained a powerful magical liquid. Not only did this liquid transform the magician MAERLYN from tyger shape back into human shape, but it restored sight to NELL ROSS’s blinded eyes. W:241, W:247
FEATHER:
This feather was taken from the tail of GARUDA, the EAGLE GUARDIAN. When TIM sat upon the magical DIBBIN and held the
feather, all he had to do was think of home and the dibbin flew him there. W:241, W:247, W:254, W:255
NAPKIN (DIBBIN):
Although TIM ROSS originally mistook this dibbin for an ordinary napkin, it was anything but ordinary. Not only did it expand exponentially when it was shaken out, providing both Tim and Maerlyn with shelter from the raging STARKBLAST, but when used with the magic FEATHER, it became a flying carpet. W:241–47, W:252–55, W:256–57, W:258
MAERLYN’S RAINBOW (BENDS O’ THE RAINBOW, WIZARD’S RAINBOW, MAERLYN’S MAGIC BALLS)
There are thirteen glass balls in the Wizard’s Rainbow, one for each GUARDIAN and one for the TOWER itself. (In the original version of
The Gunslinger,
we were told that the final ball—BLACK THIRTEEN—corresponded to the BEAST that guards the Dark Tower.) Some of these magic balls look into the future; others look into the past or into alternative realities. Still others (chief among them being Black Thirteen) can act as doorways into other worlds. All of the balls are alive and hungry. A person begins by using them, but in the end, he or she is used by them and sucked dry.