Click here for the poem Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came.
DT.FAQ 1.6
Updated 09/17/95
Most Recently Posted 10/18/95
Welcome to the Dark Tower Frequently Asked Questions File! It is
lovingly maintained by Jordan C. Lund who lives in the great Northwest
(Portland, OR) and may be reached at jordanl@europa.com if you have any
questions, comments or corrections. Any and all input is most welcome! For
expediencies sake I will refer to "The Gunslinger" as book one, "The Drawing
of the Three" as book two and "The Waste Lands" as book three.
Contents
I. Frequently Asked Questions (updated again in 1.6)
II. A Chronology (spoilers if you haven't read ALL THREE books)
III. Unanswered Questions
IV. Other Rolands and Towers (added in version 1.2)
V. Credits Page (added in version 1.1)
I. Frequently Asked Questions
1. The question everybody wants answered... "When is the next book
coming out?"
As of this writing the only truly new King book is called "Rose
Madder" and it went on sale June 12, 1995.
The fourth book in the Dark Tower series will be called (according to
the author's note in book two) "Wizard and Glass". As of March 5th, 1991 (the
date of the author's note in the third book) King did not have anything more
than an outline of the fourth book and proclaimed much of the plot as being
"murky". A leading (but as of yet unconfirmed by myself) rumor says that King
hasn't even started writing the next book, but will do so in '95 and the next
book will be released in '95 or '96.
The day this FAQ was finalized (8/29/94) Stephen King went on Larry
King Live on CNN and said that after writing one more unrelated book ("Rose
Madder") his next task is to write books four through seven of the Dark Tower
and finish off the series.
2. "Who is The Man in Black?"
The Man in Black was a sorcerer named Walter who may have aided in
the collapse of the Gunslinger community where Roland grew up (see the
partial chronology that follows). He was in the employ of another Gunslinger
named Marten who attempted to have Roland banished from the community. He
died after Roland caught up with him at the end of the first book.
3. "Who is Richard Fannin?"
Richard Fannin, also known as Merlin, Maerlin, the Magician, the
Wizard, The Ageless Stranger, and Randall Flagg, appears as the villain in
several King stories. In the trade paperback version of book two Roland makes
mention that he witnessed the events of "Eyes of the Dragon" on pages 361-
362 (or if you don't have the trade paperback edition it is in the section
called "The Pusher", chapter 3, section 13). In the trade version of book
three Fannin himself admits that he was the villain in "The Stand" on pages
387-390 (again, if you don't have the trade edition try "Bridge and City",
section 40).
4. "What is the Dark Tower?"
The Dark Tower appears to be a lynch pin of time and space, it may
connect alternate time lines or realities but its true nature (at this time)
remains unclear. What is clear is that Roland's world may not be our own.
There are similarities such as the song "Hey Jude" and other snippets of pop
culture, but Roland never heard of a place like New York City and remains
of lost technology are thousands of years old and yet hundreds of years ahead
of our current technology. For more information on the Tower read the note
for Insomnia below (or if you don't want to read spoilers then go read the
book!)
Jake, Eddie & Odetta seem to have been drawn from "our" world based
on the evidence that Eddie has seen the film version of "The Shining" as
opposed to "hearing about that weird hotel..." (the latter statement of which
would clearly place him in King's fictional universe of horror instead of a
world grounded in reality).
5. "Why is it so hard to find the hardcovers?" (added in 1.21)
The hardcover editions of the Dark Tower books are published in
limited quantities by Donald M. Grant Publisher in Hampton Falls, New
Hampshire. The first release of the books that was widely available was in
the format called "trade paperback", published by Plume books (that's what I
have). They were then re-formatted and published as "mass market paperbacks",
the kind you see at grocery store checkout lines. To my knowledge the trade
paperback editions contain the same color plates that the limited edition
hardcovers had (book 1 had art by Michael Whelan, book 2 by Phil Hale, and
book 3 by Ned Dameron), but the mass market paperbacks do not. There is also
a difference in page layout between the tpb and mmpb, but I am not sure if
that is true when comparing the hc to the tpb. Also keep in mind that if any
set release dates appear for the next limited hardcover the regular (trade
paperback) release will not hit the market until about a year after the
hardcover comes out (book 1 actually took 6 years, book 2 almost 2 and book
three the usual 1 year lag).
You may contact Donald M. Grant at the following address and phone
numbers: (added in 1.6)
Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc.
P.O. Box 187
Hampton Falls, NH 03844
Customer Service - 1-(603)-778-7191
Toll Free Ordering - 1-800-476-0510 (Visa & MasterCard Accepted)
6. "What's the deal with the geography?" (added in 1.3)
Several times over the course of "the Drawing of the Three" Roland
makes mention of his location and his movements. Although he is on the coast
of a Western sea the descriptions of shadows and the movements of the sun
don't match up with someone heading North up the beach of an ocean on the
Western side of a continent (these occurrences happen notably in the
following sections, chapters and parts... "the Prisoner", chapter 1, parts 3
& 4, and in "Shuffle")
There are a couple of explanations for this, the easiest being "King
screwed up." He does live on the East coast and probably takes little things
like the ocean being on his right for granted.
The other options involve a little look at the story. When Roland
says he is heading North he is starting to suffer from the bite of the
lobstrosity (the first quote listed above). It is possible that he got turned
around and actually headed South. The only problem with this argument is that
the same error is made with Eddie in the second quotation, he looks North
and covers the right part of his face to protect it from the setting sun (if
he is facing North the sun should be shining on the LEFT side of his face).
Later in "Shuffle" the rising sun causes the shadow of the door to reach for
the ocean, which is correct so King did know what he was doing at this point
and just "forgot" the physics of a West coast beach earlier in the book.
The only other option I can think of is considerably more involved.
At several points during the books Roland says that the world is somehow
growing larger. He is not speaking metaphorically at these points, but
actually believes that the distances between points on the globe are
physically increasing. He also says in "the Wastelands" that as a rule time
pieces aren't reliable anymore. If the timepieces to which he refers include
sun dials then we can't assume the movement of the sun in Roland's world to
be normal. In fact, if Jake's watch is indicative of the sun movement, it all
might be happening backwards at varying speeds. At times everything might
SEEM to be moving in ways we would expect, but at other times this is most
certainly NOT the case. Again there is a problem with this theory. Jake,
Eddie and Susannah are ostensibly from "our" world and they don't notice
anything strange going on. I would expect Eddie (especially the early, angry
Eddie) to say something like "North? The sun's over THERE buddy! That way
CAN'T be north!" This never happens and so (after all this) I am forced to go
with my first instinct. King is a human being too used to living on the East
coast of a continent and he screwed up.
7. "How does 'Insomnia' figure in to all of this?" (added in 1.4)
The story behind Insomnia is rather simple, Ralph Roberts can't
sleep. Eventually he starts hallucinating, seeing auras around people and
seeing little bald men wearing white smocks who go around with sharp
implements cutting the auras of the dying so they can truly pass from this
world ("to other worlds than these"). There are three "doctors", two of whom
go about their work in a solemn and professional manner. They visit people
who are sick and in pain and do what they can to end suffering. The third
doctor is more chaotic, he gets a perverse thrill out of what he does and
serves chaos by causing people (and animals) to die in tragic accidents. The
doctors explain to the heroes of the story that life is like a tower, human
beings and other Short-Timers inhabit the first two floors of the tower and
are oblivious to things above them. They can however, be raised up to a
higher level of consciousness and brought to see other levels through sleep
deprivation. Long-Timers, such as the LBDs (Little Bald Doctors) can go down
to do their work among the Short-Timers, but are themselves prevented from
interacting with the All-Timers who reside even higher in this metaphorical
tower. The creatures residing at the highest levels use the beings below them
as pawns in a gigantic and unfathomable contest between the Random (chaos)
and the Purpose (order).
It is later revealed that in addition to the regular inhabitants of
the tower there are also those called "the Great Ones", people who are
destined to change the world in dramatic ways. One of these great ones is (at
the time of "Insomnia") a little boy with a scar across his nose named
Patrick Danville. One of the inhabitants of the Tower appeared to a man named
Ed Deepneau and convinced him to try and blow up a civic center for the sole
purpose of killing young Patrick. This "Crimson King" wants the boy dead
because eighteen years in the future he will save the lives of two men, one
of whom (according to the two "good" LBDs) must not die. These two men are
presumably Roland and Eddie (Patrick has been having dreams about Roland
reaching the tower and confronting a man he calls "the Red King"). The forces
of the Purpose have enhanced the lives of the heroes of "Insomnia" so they
can prevent the Crimson King and the forces of Random from killing the child
and thereby remove the agent that saves the men who will confront the Crimson
King at his tower.
As a side note: when Short-Timers operate on the higher levels of
the tower they become intangible to the people and things in the "real"
world. Time also passes much faster, many days can pass over the course of a
conversation. This could easily explain how Roland and the Man in Black held
a conversation over the course of at least a hundred years, Roland was
unknowingly dragged up a level and held there while he had his visions. In
the mean time the Man in Black returned down to the real level and either
died or killed himself, either way when Roland returned to the real world
enough time had passed to turn his companion into a skeleton.
8. "How does 'Rose Madder' fit into all of this?" (Added in 1.5)
As the title to this question says I am about to explain how King's
new book, "Rose Madder", ties into the Dark Tower books. If you want to read
the book and don't want it spoiled THEN DON'T READ ANY MORE! There will be
the requisite lines of "spoiler space" or if you want to skip right to the
next Frequently Asked Question you can do a keyword search for the word
"Talisman" and blow right past all the "Rose Madder" stuff.
THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!
Still with me? Ok, good. Rose Madder is the story of Rosie Daniels
and how she came to leave her abusive husband, but there are parts of the
book that are much more than that. After she leaves, Rosie moves hundreds
of miles away and attempts to begin a new life. She takes back her maiden
name, McClendon, she checks into a halfway house for battered women and she
gets a job recording books on tape. But there is something else too...
Along the way she buys a painting, a painting of a woman on a hill
that seems to call out to her. After a while strange things start happening,
it seems that the view of the painting is widening, more detail begins to
appear around the edges and then things start to appear in her apartment,
crickets and bits of clover that could only have come from the painting.
One night Rosie is awakened by the sound of thunder. It has begun
raining, inside the painting, and the thunder from that storm awakened her.
Curious Rosie draws closer and is actually drawn through the painting into
another world. Here she meets a black woman named Dorcas (who just might
carry a knife strapped to her thigh like, Rosie thinks, "a heroine in one
of those sweet-savage Paul Sheldon novels..." {Paul Sheldon being the name of
the main character in Misery}) and the woman she was able to see before, a
woman who could have been her own twin, dressed in a red robe so dark it
could almost be purple but not quite (this color is called rose madder).
Both Dorcas and Rose Madder are inflicted with a disease, something that
causes dark blotches to appear on the skin and a form of insanity as well
(although Rose Madder has it much worse than Dorcas). This disease also
has made them both infertile so that raises the question of just whose
baby this is anyway.
Rose Madder tells Rosie that whatever Rosie does for her she will
repay. What one does for the other shall be returned, that, says Rose Madder,
is their "ka". What Rose Madder wants done is for her baby to be returned.
The baby has been placed in a maze on the other side of the temple in the
painting and Rose must first safely cross a stream of forgetfulness (this
represents one of the rivers of hell BTW, see Dante for details) and pass
through a dead garden to reach it. In the garden she stops at a tainted
pomegranate tree, the only living plant in the garden, and collects seeds
to mark her way through the maze.
The maze nearby is guarded by a one eyed bull named Erinyes who,
although blind, can smell real well. Should Dorcas or Rose Madder attempt to
enter the temple (or the maze beyond) he would smell their disease and kill
them. He can also smell blood and Rose uses this to defeat the bull and
rescue the child. Dorcas seeks to give Rosie advice and lists her
qualifications to do so by saying (in part) "She's (Rose Madder) drunk the
waters of youth, and she make me drink, too... I've buried my children,
and their children, and their children's children into the fifth
generation... I've seen bodies on fire and heads by the hundreds poked onto
poles along the streets of the City of Lud, I've seen wise leaders
assassinated and fools put up in their places, and still I live."
Rosie is repaid in the end when she lures her husband into this
other world and he encounters Rose Madder. He mistakes Madder for his
vanished wife and Madder transforms into a tentacled beast and kills him.
As Norman screams Rosie thinks to herself "Her face did that... it was the
face of a supernally beautiful goddess seen in an illustration hidden
within some old and dusty book like a rare flower in a weedy vacant lot..."
So what does this all mean? There are several points of note:
#1) Rose comes from the same world as the book Misery. (She is aware
of Paul Sheldon novels).
#2) The world of the painting is the same as Roland's world. (Dorcas
mentions being a witness to the assault of Lud and the disease she and Rose
Madder both have is very similar in many respects to the disease that the
old folks Roland and Co. encounter have, namely sterility and almost a sort
of radiation sickness).
#3) The painting that Rosie bought works in the same way as the
doors that Roland used in book two. The only difference is that the frame
rate (so to speak) of the painting is much slower than the doors.
#4) Both Dorcas and Rose Madder aren't quite human. Besides the
disease that afflicts them the have lived a lot longer than anyone has a
right to thanks to some form of a fountain of youth. Rose Madder herself
is also nearer to the demons that Roland & Co. encounter than anything else.
9. "How does the Talisman fit into all of this?"
I'm sorry to say, but despite the superficial plot similarities of
the Talisman to the Dark Tower (part of the novel has a boy travel across
a blasted wasteland via train to reach a black hotel which contains the
Talisman, "the nexus of all worlds and all possible worlds..."), it does not
directly tie in. There are some small possible connections, the black hotel
has weathervanes that feature sigils which might correspond to the guardians
of Roland's world, early on there are mentions of numerous two headed animals
(not unlike the animals Roland & co. encounter outside Lud), at times Jack
seems to be able to communicate via telepathy with Wolf, Speedy, and the
Talisman itself (a la The Stand and the Dark Tower books), and one character
makes mention of other worlds, but it's clear that the world of the Talisman
is not the world of the Dark Tower or any other of King's fictional Earths.
The world of the Tower has a feeling of being tremendously old, much
older than our world. In the Talisman we are given the feeling that time in
both Earth and the Territories are concurrent. There is also none of the
cultural referencing that appears in Roland's world (the people in the
Territories don't refer to the Bible, but the Book of Good Farming and even
though people had been travelling back and forth for decades no songs or
bands seem to have made the lasting impression that "Hey Jude" or "ZZTop" did
in Roland's world). There is no reference to "lost" technology, like Blaine
the Mono or even something as simple as guns and gunpowder, the people of the
Territories are decidedly middle ages in lifestyle. The writing style is
closer to "Eyes of the Dragon" than any of King's other books, but King has
not (yet) made the connection there so I will not either.
Personally I think the Talisman is a huge writing exercise for King.
He had some plot ideas and themes that he wasn't quite sure what to do with
and so he wrote this book. But for some, as of yet unexplained reason, the
Talisman didn't quite provide the release for those ideas that King wanted.
Later he worked some of the same themes into the Dark Tower books (remember,
when he wrote the Talisman he probably hadn't written books 2 and 3 of the
Dark Tower).
II. Chronology: The following is the list of events as they happened
in TIME, not as they appeared in the books. I expect many holes will be
filled in as the series progresses. The word "circa" is Latin and means
"approximately" or, more literally, "around". The initials B.C. have little
meaning in Roland's world so I have changed the acronym to mean "Before
Current" time then the book number as a reference to which current time we're
talking about (at least 120 years are covered over the course of book 1
alone). If you have NOT read all three books YOU WILL FIND SPOILERS BELOW!
Book 3 - Circa 3,000,000,000 B.C. (book 3 time). A creation myth of
Roland's world appears on page 36. It involves two cardinal stars, Old Mother
(or Lydia) to the South and Old Star (or Apon) to the North. Apon had a fling
with Cassiopeia and a fight ensued between the stars. The gods stopped it by
separating the two and forcing Cass. into a celestial rocking chair. The
wreckage of this fight formed the solar system. Susannah recognizes Old
Mother as being a planet, not a star.
Book 2 - Circa 1943 - A five year old Odetta Holmes has a brick
dropped on her head by Jack Mort. This event creates Detta Walker although
Detta takes control only one or two times until 1959.
August 19, 1959 - Jack Mort pushes Odetta Holmes in front of
a subway train, both her legs are amputated. It is this event that causes
Detta Walker to become more dominate.
Circa 1964 - Roland enters the mind of Detta Walker while she
is shoplifting in Macy's department store and brings her into his world.
Book 1 - May 9, 1977^1 - Jake is pushed in front of a large Cadillac
and killed. Before he dies he sees the image of The Man in Black dressed as a
priest. He believes that TMIB pushed him in front of the car. This man is
actually Jack Mort dressed as a priest and not the man in black after all.
Book 2 - May 9, 1977^2 - Roland enters the body of Jack Mort,
prevents Jake from being killed and sent to the Gunslinger's world, and gets
enough of the anti-biotic Keflex to save his own life (as well as more
ammunition than he has ever seen before in his life). In the process Jack
Mort is killed by the same train that maimed Odetta Holmes.
Book 3 - May 31, 1977 - Jake begins to believe that he is going
insane due to the same split time-line that effects Roland. In one reality he
died, in another he didn't. Jake fully remembers both and that is tearing him
apart. Jake skips school and finds an empty lot that once contained an
"artistic deli". In the lot he finds a silver key and a rose growing in the
middle of a clump of purple grass (see the note for Roland's meeting with
Walter). The rose opens and within Jake sees thousands of stars. He also buys
a book from a man named "Tower", in this book is a train that bears a
remarkable similarity to Blaine the Mono. This similarity leads Jake to
believe that Blaine runs from St. Louis, MO to Topeka, KS and he just might
be right.
June 1, 1977 - Jake meets Eddie in a dream and is told to go to
"co-op city" and find the young Eddie and Henry Dean. By following them he
can find the gateway to the Gunslinger's world, which is actually contained
within an ancient house thought to be haunted. Henry tells Eddie that 2 boys
from Norwood Street had been found there with their throats cut and all the
blood drained from their bodies and their hair had turned white. Eddie and
Henry call the house "The Mansion", but there is reason to believe that at
one point in the past it may have been called "The Markey Academy". This
house is a living guardian between universes and it comes alive to prevent
Jake from passing through. Naturally it fails.
1985 - "Rose Madder". A newly pregnant Rose Daniels is beaten so
severely by her husband that she loses the baby.
Book 2 - Circa 1988 - Roland enters the body of Eddie Dean and helps
him get a load of drugs through customs, gains a passing familiarity with
antibiotics (enough to stay alive until a permanent cure for the lobstrosity
bite is found), and rescues Eddie from a bloody shoot-out.
June 16, 1990 to Summer, 1991 - Events of "The Stand".
March, 1992 to August, 1998 - Events of "Insomnia".
1994 - Events of "Rose Madder".
Book 3 - Circa 300 or 400 B.C. (book 3 time) - A civil war erupted in
a land called Garlan or in a place even farther away called Porla. Ripples of
anarchy and rebellion spread out from this initial outbreak and caused almost
every kingdom to fall. Huge well organized and well trained armies broke
apart into disorganized bands of bandits called "Harriers". Communication
between River Crossing and the great city Lud stopped 120 years B.C. The last
tribute was sent to the rulers of River Crossing about this same time, they
found a deserted keep and hundreds of slain men whose jawbones screamed with
demonic influence. The people that survived that encounter came away with
radiation sickness.
The bands of harriers became a gang named "the Grays" and began a
regular assault on the city of Lud. Lud's original inhabitants organized a
defense and, because they were younger, were called "the Pubes". Around 90
B.C. Lud fell under the onslaught of the last great army led by a man named
David Quick (who was killed himself when his airplane landed hard, breaking
one wing).
Roland and Cuthbert plan a night of mischief making in the cemetery,
but Alain won't go for fear of offending the spirits. Cuthbert mocks his
friend saying that ghosts don't exist.
A Fair-Day riddling event ends when a cross-eyed man tries to cheat
Cort by stealing the answers to the riddles. Cort sticks a dagger in his
chest and nobody is awarded the prize goose.
Book 1 - Roland & Cuthbert overhear the plot of a cook named Hax and
a guard to poison an entire town called Farson in the name of "the good man".
Hax is hung.
Mention is made of a Susan telling Roland the story of Oedipus. The
mention occurs within the flashback to the story of the traitor Hax. It is
later said that Susan was a horse drover's daughter and Roland's first love,
she is quite likely killed when Gilead (Roland's homeland) fell.
Roland recalls how Marten the Enchanter danced a courtship dance with
his mother while he and his father watched. He knows Marten killed his father
with a knife.
3 years after Hax was hung Roland nearly catches Marten & his mother
in flagrante delicto. At this time a revolt is occurring in the West and the
world has already "moved on". Roland uses his hawk David to beat Cort in open
combat. It is possible that at this time, after becoming a gunslinger, Roland
gets his hands on Marten with the help of Walter. Marten, however, must
escape because Roland erroneously believes that he is the man in black.
9 weeks after the graduation ceremonies for Roland's class Cort dies
(perhaps poisoned).
1 year after Roland defeats Cort the Downland Baronies become over-
run by riot and civil war.
2 years after Cort dies (is killed?) the civil war that destroys the
gunslingers begins. This revolt is led by a man named John Farson who wanted
Roland dead for stealing something of his.
10 years after the hanging of Hax the land falls to "the good man",
Roland kills his mother. It is assumed to be around this time that the events
of "Eyes of the Dragon" occur.
Roland buys a mule in Pricetown.
Roland is given a stainless steel Silva compass by a madman who tells
him to "give it to Jesus".
The Man in Black arrives in Tull, resurrects Nort.
Roland survives Tull by killing every man woman and child in the town
after they attack him in a religious fervor.
Roland begins his chase of the man in black across the desert.
Roland meets Brown & Zoltan, the mule dies.
Roland meets John Chambers, aka "Jake". Jake tells Roland his vague
rememberings of New York City and, under hypnosis, recalls the circumstances
of his death. In the cellar are mutated spiders, a cache of food & a human
jawbone (described in book 3 as being larger than human, from the Great Old
Ones). After Book 2 this, and all other Book 1 notes concerning Jake, become
"retcon" or "retired continuity" or "alternate reality". After Book 2 the
reality is that Roland made the desert trek alone, despite what he remembers
(Eddie also says that he never mentioned Jake either so the portions
involving discussions of Jake in Book 2 ceased to be as soon as he prevented
Jack Mort from killing Jake).
Book 3 - Roland approaches an abandoned way station. He replenishes
his water (there is an ancient electric pump that still runs) and moves on.
He finds no basement, no extra food, and no demon jawbone.
Book 1 - A sexual demon oracle nearly kills Jake and tells Roland of
the drawing of the three. Jake had been using the jawbone as a talisman, but
threw it away after Roland's encounter with the oracle.
Roland & Jake see the man in black for the first time ascending
a mountain. While climbing they find a hand car and rail road that carry
them through the mountain. As in the case of the cellar the darkness hides
mutations, this time humans instead of spiders, but it also has a sort of
subway station. Roland gets a bow and some arrows that are never mentioned
again. In this station are a number of mummified corpses that crumble to dust
when touched. Roland says that there used to be a gas that would do that to
people and that they fought a war with it. Jake falls to his death as
Roland pursues the man in black.
Roland catches the man in black in an animal grave yard. Roland has
his fortune told. Roland discovers the man in black is NOT Marten, but
Walter, a man in Marten's employ. Roland is also told that Walter is the
least of the Tower's minions. After him come "The Ageless Stranger" (who
not only lives backward in time, but exists in all times) and "The Beast".
Walter sends Roland a dream that shows the nature of the universe. Everything
is destroyed by a great white light and the dream ends with a lone blade of
purple grass (see the notes for 1977). After this encounter much time has
passed, Roland's hair is graying and the man in black has turned to a
skeleton. Roland takes the jawbone. In Book 3 Roland says it took him 20
years to go from his home in Gilead to the place where he meets Walter. He
also says that after the meeting Walter had been dead at least 100 years and
perhaps more.
Book 2 - Roland loses his right index and middle fingers as well as
his right big toe to a crustacean creature nicknamed a "lobstrosity". While
the creature didn't appear to be poisonous, Roland's wounds quickly became
infected and that's just as bad. These creatures also raise both claws in
front of them, not unlike a boxer raising both gloves in defense. Roland
calls this stance the "honor stance", a term he learned while training under
Cort. A wave soaked Roland's ammunition belt shortly before he was attacked
and reduced the number of good shells by at least half if not more.
Roland staggers Northward up the beach and finds a door labeled "The
Prisoner". See the note for 1988 above. Here Roland also thinks about his
fellow Gunslingers (but only briefly). He says that (in reference to their
collective search for the Dark Tower) the others either died, gave up, killed
themselves, fell victim to treachery or chose to disbelieve the whole idea
of the tower all-together. Out of his class of 56 only 13 became gunslingers.
Of those 13 only Roland survives (the names of some of the others are given
in book 2 as well during the 1988 notation, Cuthbert, Alan & Desmond). At
least one of them (named Alain) was killed by Cuthbert and Roland himself.
Roland and Eddie continue their quest and find a second door marked
"The Lady of Shadows" (see respective notes above). The split personality of
Odetta Holmes / Detta Walker make the journey to the third door extremely
difficult. The fact that Roland's infection has returned doesn't help matters
either. Both women create a false history of their journey, Odetta to fill
in the blanks in her memory and Detta to fuel her hatred of the "honkey
mahfah's". Detta tries to kill Eddie on one occasion and continually attempts
to slow down their progress down the beach. Due to Roland's illness Eddie has
to make the final leg to the third door twice and between trips Detta Walker
escapes with a loaded gun.
Eventually they reach the third door labeled "The Pusher" (see notes
above). Detta takes Eddie prisoner and waits for Roland to return from the
"real" world. Before he returns, however, he looks at her through the door
and she sees herself through someone else's eyes. This combines Odetta Holmes
and Detta Walker into a third, whole, personality Susannah Dean (Susannah
being the middle name both Odetta and Detta shared and Dean being Eddie's
surname).
Book 3 - While Roland is teaching Susannah to shoot, a large bio-
mechanical bear lurches from the woods and tries to kill Eddie. Reference is
made to "The Old People" who called the bear Mir ("the world beneath the
world"?). Roland calls it "One of the Twelve" and a "Guardian". The bear is
huge, decrepit, and infested with maggot-like parasites. It is killed only
when the satellite dish on its head is destroyed. The Guardians are semi
mythical creatures to Roland and, by his account, were created 2000 - 3000
years previously. Like a ship the bear has a metal identification plate
reading (in part) "North Central Positronics, LTD., Granite City, Northeast
Corridor, Design 4 GUARDIAN, Type/Species BEAR, SHARDIK, **NR**SUBNUCLEAR
CELLS MUST NOT BE REPLACED**NR**". Roland also calls the bear "a wonder of
the latter days." Shardik is also the name of a book by Richard Adams, the
author of Watership Down.
It is at this time that Roland first begins to show the dichotomy
created when he prevented Jake from being killed in book 2 (see the 1975
notes above). While appearing very ill, his mind being torn in half, Roland
tells the history of the Guardians. They were created by The Great Old Ones
to guard the 12 portals that led in and out of the world. These 12 portals
and their guardians were set around the edge of the world like numbers on
a clock face. At the center of the circle, where the hands would be fastened,
lies the 13th portal which rules all worlds. The Dark Tower. The guardians
which Roland can recall are the Bear, the Fish, the Lion, the Bat, and the
Turtle (which according to a nursery rhyme carries the earth on its shell
and "holds us all within his mind") this turtle appears often, leading the
way to Blaine's cradle among other places. Roland says that the Turtle is
very important, more so than the other guardians.
After recounting the tale of his split memory, Roland throws Walter's
jawbone in the fire where it changes first into a key, then a rose, then
vanishes entirely.
In a dream Jack Andolini tells Eddie that "there are other worlds
than these and that fu**ing train rolls through all of them. . . if you can
get it started. And if you do get it started, your troubles are only
beginning, because this device is a real bastard to shut down." Other
portions of this dream occur during Jake's time and place names (such as Tom
and Gerry's Artistic Deli) occur both in the dream and in the "real" time and
space of Jake's reality.
The three begin tracing the Bear's trail, trying to find the portal.
After finding the portal Roland shows his companions how to follow the "Beam"
that leads from each Portal to the Dark Tower. The force that binds his world
together causes everything, even trees, flying birds, and clouds, to bend
in the direction of the flow. By following that flow they will reach the
center and find the tower. Eddie finds a piece of Ash that might be carved
into a key if he can do it right.
Eddie is told through the dreams he shares with Jake that the key can
keep the conflicting voices out of Roland's head, which it does. They
continue along the beam and Eddie realizes that Jake is going to try and make
it through to their side.
A marker is found indicating a kingdom called Mid-World. Roland says
that it was one of the great kingdoms before the world moved on. He also says
that he knows some of the stories from those times and that a partial history
was recorded on a tapestry that is very sad.
Roland and company sight a city that may very well be the remains
of Saint Louis, MO. They find an oracle not unlike the one that almost killed
Jake in book one and Eddie recognizes it as the place where Jake is going to
come through.
While Roland and Susannah battle the demon of the oracle, Eddie draws
a door in the dirt, finishes the key, opens the door and Roland jumps through
carrying the demon, which is loosed on the doorkeeper allowing Roland and
Jake to escape.
Jake had been bitten by a spider on his side of the door and the bite
becomes infected. Roland gives the boy keflex until he recovers. Four days
later he is awakened by a small mammal called a billy-bumbler nuzzling his
face. Jake feeds it and it befriends the group (they name it Oy due to its
repeating the last syllable of any word it hears, "Boy" becomes "Oy"). Jake
also notes that his watch has ceased to function properly, claiming all sorts
of impossible times and running backwards at varying speeds. Roland says that
"as a rule no timepiece did very good work these days".
They head towards a distant city under the ominous sound of beating
drums (Eddie figures out later that it is the backbeat to the ZZ Top song
"Velcro Fly"). Jake notices several mutant bison in a herd of normal ones.
The road they follow passes through a small town called River Crossing. They
are met by a contingent of incredibly aged people, the eldest well into her
hundreds, who recognize Roland as a gunslinger. They tell part of the story
of Lud.
As they approach the city Eddie and Susannah recognize a huge suspen-
sion bridge as being the George Washington Bridge. This confuses Jake who
had been assuming they were in Missouri. Roland explains some of the things
he has been hiding for a while. Ka is his word for fate, that which people
are driven to do whether they like it or not. A ka-tet is a group of people
bound together by the same ka. Roland has some minor telepathic abilities,
he can send thoughts and can receive some, but it is like looking through a
dirty window. Eddie, Susannah and Jake can read each others minds and this
sharing of thoughts is called khef (not unlike Eddie and Jake being able
to communicate from one world to the next through their dreams). After this
defining of terms Roland tells them all the full story of what happened in
book one, including his dream that was induced by Walter that had the
universe being obliterated and ended with a lone blade of purple grass (Jake
instantly recognizes the significance of the grass, see the notes for Book 1
and 1977). Eddie and Susannah re-tell the stories of book 2 and the first
half of book 3 just to bring Jake up to speed (she leaves out the rape by/of
the demon in the speaking ring and the fact that she might be pregnant). Jake
tells them all his story and what he knows about Blaine the Mono.
As they grow nearer the city they find a wrecked WWII vintage
airplane that contains the mummified remains of a very large man (David
Quick). Beneath the insignia of a fist holding a lightning bolt is the Nazi
swastika.
Roland reveals that he is a hard core riddler.
They discover a hive of blind albino bees. Roland says that these,
along with the mutant bison and partially sterile humans came as a result of
something that happened a thousand years ago or more called "the Old War",
"the Great Fire", "the Cataclysm", and "the Great Poisoning".
Oy nearly falls to his death while trying to cross the ancient
bridge. Jake dives after him and is almost killed himself, but Eddie (who had
been fighting a bout of acrophobia) saves them both with the help of Roland.
To save Jake and Oy, however, all had to be exposed on the bridge at the same
time and a man holding a grenade threatens to kill them all unless they give
up Jake. Gasher, who has some type of venereal disease that produces AIDS like
facial lesions, has come on behalf of the Tick-Tock Man (who is the leader of
the Grays) to kidnap the boy.
Roland leaves to find Jake and Eddie and Susannah must navigate the
city and find Blaine on their own. Jake is led through a dense maze by Gasher
and Roland is only able to follow with the help of Oy. Eddie and Susannah
encounter a band of Pubes and kill most of them before they are recognized
as gunslingers. The survivors begrudgingly agree to take them to Blaine. At
the Cradle they see a 60ft golden statue of another gunslinger. Blaine
awakens and threatens to kill Eddie and Susannah unless they tell him(it?) a
really good riddle. Meanwhile Jake meets the Tick-Tock man, the Great-
Grandson of David Quick, inside a furnished missile silo. Roland and Oy
effect the rescue of Jake after Blaine helps them by opening the door to the
silo via remote control. Jake tries to kill the Tick-Tock Man with one of his
own weapons, but the gun he uses isn't strong enough to penetrate the man's
literally thick skull.
Blaine riddles Roland and, finding him worthy, leads them out of the
encampment of the Grays to the Cradle. To leave the city, however, they must
solve another of Blaine's riddles while canisters of nerve gas erupt beneath
the city killing the entire population.
Richard Fannin finds what is left of the Tick Tock Man, calls him by
his real name (Andrew Quick), and revives him. Andrew is sworn into fealty
("My life for you! My life for you!") and is charged with finding Roland and
company and killing them. After than Fannin leads him to the gas masks saying
that while he could survive the next few minutes, Quick might have a few
problems.
Blaine's boarding riddle is answered and they are on their way
through the city towards the Wastelands. The track runs 7000 miles and has 4
stops before Topeka (Candleton, Rilea, the Falls of the Hounds, and
Dasherville). At the edge of Lud they first see the Waste Lands and the
grotesque mutations that live there, unspeakable creatures that seem cut from
the pages of an H.P. Lovecraft story. Blaine reveals that he is going to kill
himself and wants to take everyone else with him. They travel faster than
the speed of sound, Blaine has disabled his sensors so he won't know if there
is a break in the track, and they have begun a riddling contest that could
(if they win) save their lives.
This ends the tale of the Dark Tower as of August 29, 1994.
III. Unanswered Questions:
There are several things here that may be allusions to other works,
but I haven't read enough King to figure them out on my own. For example:
What is the deal with the creation myth? Do those names ring any
bells at all?
What about the story of Markey Academy, the boys found with
their throats cut, their blood drained and their hair turned white?
The story of David Quick sounds familiar but I can't quite place it
(perhaps I've just seen "Road Warrior" a few too many times).
Of course there is also the great turtle, wasn't that a significant
part of beating the creature in "IT"? Some great mystical turtle?
At one point Roland says that as a rule time pieces don't work
anymore. Would this be true for sun-dials as well?
Could the form of shared telepathy that they all seem to have be
considered "the Shine"?
IV. Other Rolands and Towers
Date Unknown - Childe Rowland.
I have, at long last, obtained this text (kudos to Joe Hughes for
finding it and mailing me copies). I have typed it up as a text file and
you can read it as well by e-mailing a request to me. The story involves
four siblings, three boys and a girl. The girl, Burd Ellen, is kidnapped
by the King of Fairy after walking widershins around a church to retrieve
a lost ball. The eldest brother seeks the advice of Merlin and goes in
search of his lost sister. He never returns. The middle brother does the
same and also vanishes. Finally the youngest, Childe Rowland, gains
permission from his mother to try as well. Merlin tells him that in order
to succeed he must do two things, he must cut off the head of every person
he meets from the time he enters the land of Fairy until he finds Burd Ellen
and he must not eat or drink anything while in the boundaries of the Fairy
Kingdom. Childe Rowland ventures forth, meeting a horseherd, cowherd and
henwife, asking each for directions and then killing them. He finally
arrives at a large hill and the Fairy King's Dark Tower. He gains entry
and battles and overcomes the King of Fairy. The terms of his surrender
are to release all four children. He does this and everyone lives
happily ever after. An interesting side note: Shakespeare makes reference to
this ballad in King Lear, Act III, Scene iv, where Edgar (disguised as the
madman Tom O'Bedlam) says "Child Rowland to the Dark Tower came, / His word
was still 'Fie, foh, and fum, / I smell the blood of a British man'."
Date Unknown - The Tower
The sixteenth card of the Higher Arcana in any Tarot deck, this card
is typically read as meaning a particularly painful, arduous or terrifying
experience that ultimately offers freedom from oppression. Several versions
of the card show a man and woman falling from the tower.
Circa 1100 A.D. - The Song of Roland.
This epic poem (the only remaining complete epic written in French)
tells the story of the nephew of Charlemagne and how, while fighting in
Spain, he and the entire rear guard of Charlemagne's army were wiped out
because Roland's stepfather, Ganelon, was a traitor and sold out his own
people to the Saracen so Roland would be killed. Roland himself is partly to
blame as well because he failed to blow his horn and call reinforcements. The
author of the epic used this story to show the righteous battle between the
Christians of the crusades (Roland, his 11 companions {together called "the
12 peers"}, and 20,000 French soldiers) and the "heathens" who destroyed them
(presented as Muslims, although the historical culprits were Basques).
Roland's companions in this text are as follows: Oliver, Gerin, Count Gerer,
Oton, Berenger, Astor, Anseis, Gerard of Roussillon, Duke Gaifier, Archbishop
Turpin of Reims, and Count Gautier.
1855 - "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning.
By his own admission King has been greatly influenced by the
poem. It tells the story of a Roland searching for a "Dark Tower". In his
search Roland loses all of his companions (including one named Cuthbert), is
forced to cross many types of blasted terrain not unlike a desert or waste-
land, and when he finally arrives at the tower he is greeted by the eerie
sound of the names of his companions and their deeds being spoken. He sees
them standing in a sheet of flame on the hilltops surrounding the tower and
blows his horn to signify that he has arrived. If you would like the
electronic text file version of this poem please e-mail me.
Circa 1938 - "The Dark Tower" by C.S. Lewis.
Only a fragment of this story still exists today, but what is left of
it was published in 1974. There are several gaps in the manuscript and it is
entirely possible that Lewis never even finished the story (rather than he
did finish it, but the rest was lost).
Here several men discuss the nature of time travel and, since they
deem it impossible to physically travel to other times, they invent a
chronoscope to look in on other times. This device consists of a telescope
like tube which contains some exotic material. When a light is shone through
one end and projected out the other onto a screen images of another time
appear. They have no control over these images, but they always fall within
10 miles or so of what they call "The Dark Tower", knowingly making the
connection to Browning. Through this window to the other world they see the
Dark Tower being constructed by a race of people divided into three castes.
There are workers who actually do the manual labor, there are the
supervisors of the workers (called "Jerkies") who are un-naturally stiff in
their movements, and there is the high lord of the Tower called "the
Stingingman". They watch in fascinated horror at the Stingingman who has a
scorpion-like stinger protruding from his forehead. People of the working
class come before him stripped to the waist and he injects his venom into
their spine turning them into one of the "Jerkies".
Soon it becomes apparent that the world they are viewing may not be
another time at all, they begin to see familiar faces in the crowd, and the
tower seems achingly familiar (it turns out to be almost an exact replica of
the tower at the Cambridge library). One of the familiar faces is that of one
of the men gathered to view this other world and they follow this duplicate
as he moves from one scene to the next. Eventually this duplicate falls ill
and just as they all think he is about to die he grows a stinger in the middle
of his forehead. Nothing more is seen of the previous Stingingman, but the
duplicate of the confused Englishman is raised to the exalted status of Lord
of the Dark Tower. Just as the men are about to witness the stinging of his
first victim the man who has been duplicated loses all sense of sanity and
lunges for the screen (the girl who was to be stung was the duplicate of his
own fiancee). Somehow a transference takes place and his mind becomes trapped
in the body of the Stingingman and vice versa.
Lewis never completed the story beyond this point. The man from
England is trying to keep himself and the woman he thought was his fiancee
alive in the world of the Dark Tower while the Stingingman evades capture in
the streets of England. It is clear in this story that Lewis meant to make a
point about alternate realities, but he was either un-aware of the term or
deliberately chose not to use it. King's use of the doorways in Book 2 is
almost a direct lift of Lewis' description of the chronoscope. Also, my
personal opinion on the stinger is that it is a hyper-developed pineal gland.
V. Credits
Humble thanks go to the following people:
Lance Whitney (lwhitney@delphi.com) for placing this FAQ in the "Book
and Candle Pub" on Delphi.
Keith F. (keithf@gandalf.rutgers.edu) for including my FAQ in his
marvelous horror WWW home page (http://electron.rutgers.edu/~keithf/).
Tim Sheridan (tsherida@moose.uum.edu) for correcting an error in the
story of Jake's rescue from David Quick.
Gary L. (stimpy@beavis.im.med.umich.edu) for posting the Dark Tower
related bits from King's interview on CNN (especially since I missed the
interview).
David Pirmann (pirmann@cs.rutgers.edu) for sending me the electronic
version of Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came". You may obtain
this e-text by e-mailing me at jordanl@europa.com.
Someone whose name and address I lost for telling me about an "it's /
its" typo that somehow slipped by me.
Curt Miller (Curt.Miller@SEN.CA.GOV) for sending me the page numbers
for the geography question added in version 1.3 of the FAQ.
Joe G. Hughes (jghughes@prairienet.org) for sending me the info on
the original "Childe Rowland". The full text appears in "The Worlds Great
Folktales", edited by James R. Foster, Dewey Decimal # 398.21 F81w. The
e-text version of this may be obtained by e-mailing me at jordanl@europa.com.
Janie (edmunds.2@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu), Shaun Stuart (shaun@
acca.ucsd.edu), and Mark Lawton (lawton@cole.nuff.ox.ac.uk) for pointing out
obvious typos that slipped by me.
Mark Lawton also was kind enough to put this FAQ on his WWW page,
http://hicks.nuff.ox.ac.uk/lawton/darktow.html
Mike Lenius (mlenius@netaccess.on.ca) for posting this on CompuServe.
John McGarry (jmcgarry@onramp.net) for a bit in the Chronology that I
missed, the bit with the compass.
Phil Laton (PL7714@xx.acs.appstate.edu) for placing this FAQ on his
fine Stephen King WWW page (http://xx.acs.appstate.edu/~pl7714/skin.html).
And last but not least, Emily Hegarty (ehegarty@acad.suffolk.edu) for
reminding me of the Tarot card for the Tower. I can't believe I forgot it!