Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (10 page)

DEBORAH (GERT MOGGINS):
Deborah (whose real name was Gert Moggins) was Depape’s fifteen-year-old whore. Deborah was
also known as “Her Nibs,” “Her Majesty,” and “Roy’s Coronation Cunt.” Gert preferred to call herself a “cotton-gilly.” IV:173
(described),
IV:214–15, IV:266, IV:447, IV:605

DEPAPE, AMOS:
Brother of ROY DEPAPE. Roland thought he was stung to death by a snake. Actually, he was fucked to death by SUSANNAH DEAN’s demon possessor, MIA, who (while still a wraith) functioned as a kind of sexual VAMPIRE. VI:242

JONAS, ELDRED:
Eldred Jonas was the leader of the Big Coffin Hunters. He was a failed gunslinger who was lamed in one leg by CORT’s father, FARDO, in GILEAD. Like other failed gunslingers, limping Jonas was sent west, and in bitterness he forsook the WHITE and took up the cause of JOHN FARSON and the OUTER DARK.

Jonas had tufted eyebrows, long silky white hair, and a white mustache. Often described as a white-haired wolf, he seemed to have held some palaver with the MANNI since he knew about travel between worlds. Jonas’s back was covered with scars which he said were inflicted in GARLAN. We don’t know why. Jonas became CORAL THORIN’s lover. Roland killed him after taking MAERLYN’S GRAPEFRUIT from him. I:86, IV:65, IV:115–17
(described),
IV:119, IV:121, IV:130
(indirect reference),
IV:141, IV:142, IV:154
(described),
IV:155, IV:172–78
(failed gunslinger. 175 travels through “special doors” to other worlds!),
IV:191–210
(Thorin’s party. 195–97 described; 206–8; 209),
IV:211, IV:213
(called “Il Spectro”),
IV:214, IV:220, IV:221–22
(joins standoff at Travellers’ Rest),
IV:224–32
(227 with Sheriff Avery; 230–32 Big Coffin Hunters’ palaver),
IV:235, IV:245, IV:249, IV:266, IV:269, IV:270, IV:271, IV:285, IV:286, IV:292, IV:301, IV:318, IV:327, IV:328–29
(with Cordelia),
IV:330, IV:331, IV:336, IV:342, IV:347–53
(349 tufted eyebrows),
IV:356, IV:358, IV:362–64, IV:367–68, IV:371–74
(Cordelia tells him about Roland and Susan),
IV:375–80
(as white-haired wolf; 380 finds rook’s skull!),
IV:384–87, IV:388, IV:390–92
(defaces Bar K),
IV:393–94
(defacement continued),
IV:399–400, IV:401, IV:403–8
(sent west by Fardo),
IV:411, IV:420–25, IV:434, IV:443, IV:448, IV:453, IV:456, IV:460, IV:466, IV:472, IV:473, IV:474, IV:478–80
(479 Roland reveals that Jonas is a failed gunslinger),
IV:483–85, IV:487–93, IV:496, IV:500, IV:501, IV:502, IV:515, IV:519–23, IV:525
(mentioned),
IV:527–29, IV:530, IV:532–35, IV:536, IV:537–46, IV:548, IV:553–60
(attacked by Roland’s
ka-tet;
559 killed by Roland),
IV:561–62, IV:570, IV:579, IV:586, IV:592, IV:628, IV:645, IV:646, IV:649, IV:664, E:195, V:187, VI:242, VII:175, VII:297, VII:336

REYNOLDS, CLAY:
Although not as sly as JONAS, Clay Reynolds—the final member of the Coffin Hunter
ka-tet
—was smarter than ROY DEPAPE. Although he walked with his left foot turned in, Reynolds was a vain womanizer who liked to swirl his fancy silk-lined cloak. He was either a redhead (see IV:173 and IV:537) or black-haired (IV:226).

Along with CORAL THORIN, Reynolds was one of the few of Roland’s enemies to escape HAMBRY alive. Clay and Coral became lovers and formed a gang of professional bank robbers. Their gang was eventually trapped by a sheriff in the town of OAKLEY. Reynolds ended up dancing the hanged man’s jig. IV:65, IV:116, IV:119, IV:141, IV:142
(indirect reference),
IV:154–55, IV:173–78
(173 red hair),
IV:214–22
(Travellers’ Rest standoff),
IV:224–32
(standoff continued. 226 black hair),
IV:245, IV:265, IV:269, IV:270, IV:272, IV:292, IV:298
(tracks and left foot),
IV:301, IV:347–49
(more intelligent than Depape),
IV:352, IV:363–64, IV:367–68, IV:371, IV:377, IV:378, IV:383, IV:385–86, IV:404, IV:420–25, IV:451–52, IV:470–71
(stabs Rimer),
IV:480, IV:483–85, IV:487–93, IV:521–23, IV:527–29, IV:532–35, IV:537–46, IV:548–49, IV:558, IV:565–70
(Sheemie follows Reynolds and Susan),
IV:585–87, IV:603–8
(puts rope around Susan’s neck. Present as she burns),
IV:623
(Bank robber and Coral Thorin’s lover. Both killed),
V:187

LITTLE COFFIN HUNTERS:
This is the term HAMBRY folk used for Roland’s
ka-tet.
Needless to say, Roland didn’t like it much. IV:260, IV:287

BIG SKY DADDY

See
GODS OF MID-WORLD

BILLY-BUMBLERS/THROCKEN (GENERAL INFORMATION)

A billy-bumbler looks like a cross between a raccoon, a woodchuck, and a dachshund. Bumblers have black-and-gray-striped fur and lovely gold-ringed eyes. Although they sometimes wag their tails like dogs, they are much more intelligent than canines. Before the world moved on, every barony castle in MID-WORLD kept a dozen or so. They were excellent ratters and sheep herders.

In the days they lived with men, bumblers could parrot the words they heard; some could even count and add. By the time Roland draws his American
ka-tet
into Mid-World, most bumblers wander the land in wild but harmless packs. Few remember their old skills, though Jake’s pet OY does.

According to BIX, the ferryman whom we meet in
The Wind Through the Keyhole,
a bumbler’s bright (or talent) is his ability to predict the coming of the terrible storm known as a STARKBLAST. In olden days, bumblers’ strange pre-storm behavior was often the only warning farmers had about this impending disaster. Several days before a starkblast was due to roll along the PATH OF THE BEAM, a bumbler would sit down and turn to face the direction of the coming storm. He would lift his nose to the wind, prick his ears, and curl his tail around himself. When the storm was about to blow, the throcken would begin turning in circles. This advance warning was urgently needed by farmers in places frequently hit by starkblasts, such as those living in the GREAT WOODS north of NEW CANAAN.

Because of their special talent, Bumblers play a large role in
The Wind Through the Keyhole.
In the folktale which young Roland recounts to the young BILL STREETER in DEBARIA’s JAIL, the youthful hero TIM ROSS met a throcket of bumblers in the forest beyond the FAGONARD. While traveling along the PATH OF THE BEAM toward the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN, Tim spotted a half dozen of these pretty creatures sitting on a fallen ironwood tree, their snouts raised to the crescent moon, their eyes gleaming like jewels. Thanks to the warning given to him by the WIDOW SMACK, Tim understood that the bumblers’ behavior indicated that a deadly starkblast was on its way. Roland’s vivid description of these bumblers is drawn from a hand-colored woodcut which he remembers from his childhood days. It was one of a dozen
well-loved illustrations from
Magic Tales of the Eld,
a book that his mother, GABRIELLE DESCHAIN, read to him when he was a boy.

III:18, III:159, III:164, III:220–22, III:253, III:327, W:3, W:4, W:5, W:7
(throcken),
W:8, W:9, W:13, W:14
(throcken never wrong about starkblast),
W:15, W:16, W:17, W:18, W:23
(Oy and starkblast),
W:26, W:28, W:68
(and starkblast),
W:151
(many bumblers is a throcket)
W:166
(dancing throcken),
W:218
(runs from light),
W:220–21
(dancing throcken),
W:224, W:225, W:226, W:227, W:232, W:305

See also
OY

OLD GROOM FROM ROLAND’S YOUTH WHO PRAISED BUMBLERS:
III:221, III:253–54

BILL STREETER

See
STREETER, YOUNG BILL
;
for Young Bill’s father, see
SKIN-MAN
: SKIN-MAN’S VICTIMS: JEFFERSON RANCH;
see also
DEBARIA CHARACTERS

BILLY THE KID

See
GUNSLINGERS
(OUR WORLD)

BIONDI, GEORGE

See
BALAZAR, ENRICO
: BALAZAR’S MEN

BIRD GUARDIAN

See
GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM

BIRDMEN

See
TAHEEN

BISHOP DUGAN

See
CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK
: CALLAHAN’S OTHER PAST ASSOCIATES

BISSETTE, LEN

See
PIPER SCHOOL CHARACTERS

BIX

ROLAND, EDDIE, SUSANNAH, JAKE, and OY come across Bix’s bright green boathouse and red-and-yellow striped ferry near the beginning of
The Wind Through the Keyhole.
(At this particular point in the tale, our
tet
has just left the GREEN PALACE and is traveling southeast along the PATH OF THE BEAM toward CALLA BRYN STURGIS.) When Bix sees the big guns that Roland and Eddie wear, he drops to one knee, puts an arthritis-swollen fist to his forehead And cries, “Hile gunslinger. I salute thee.” Obviously, Bix is loyal to both the WHITE and to GILEAD-that-was.

In the conversation that follows, Bix states that he has been running his ferry across the RIVER WHYE for ninety years. Once upon a bye, there had been farms and trading posts on both sides of the river, but by the time our
tet
arrives
and asks for passage, his services have not been needed for years. Although he has lost count of his birthdays, Bix knows that he is over a hundred-and-twenty years old. Considering his age, Bix is doing extremely well. Although he has trouble carrying heavy picnic baskets, he still manages to work his ferry. Bix wears a vast straw hat, baggy green pants, and longboots. On the top half of his body he wears a thin white slinkum.

After feeding our
tet
some well-stuffed fish popkins (the river is full of shannies), Bix takes them across the river. In order to do this Bix attaches a ringbolt to the top of the post which sits like a mast in the center of the ferry, then he hooks the ringbolt to the cable which runs across the river. To move the ferry, he cranks a large metal crank shaped like a block Z. Not surprisingly, the crank is stamped with the NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS logo. According to Bix, both the steel cable and the crank were at the ferry when he took his job more than ninety years previously. He thinks that they came from an underground BUNKER or DOGAN, located near the GREEN PALACE. Bix says that this underground area goes on for miles, and that it is full of things that belonged to the OLD PEOPLE. Strange, tooth-rattling music still plays from overhead speakers. If you stay there too long, you break out in sores, puke, and start to lose your teeth.

During the hour it takes to cross the river, Bix asks our
tet
about the fate of LUD. (Long ago, Bix had a woman in that city and so he remembers both BLAINE the Insane Mono, and Blaine’s suicidal twin, PATRICIA.) As our
tet
disembarks, he warns them about the ASIMOV ROBOT, ANDY, whom our friends are destined to meet in Calla Bryn Sturgis. (“If you see that cussed Andy, tell him I don’t want no songs, and I don’t want my gods-damned horrascope read!”) It is Bix who reminds Roland about the coming of the STARKBLAST, and who tells our
tet
about the GOOK meetinghouse where they can rest and be safe from the storm. Unfortunately, the storm comes much more quickly than anyone expects. We can only hope that Bix made it back to his boathouse in time to take cover.

W:6
(indirect),
W:7
(indirect),
W:8–16, W:21, W:29

BLACK AMMIES

See
SERENITY, SISTERS OF

BLACKIE

See
WALTER
: WALTER’S ALIASES: COVENANT MAN

BLACK MAN IN GRAY FATIGUES

See
HARRIGAN, REVEREND EARL
: CROWD

BLACK MAN IN JAIL CELL

See
GAN

BLACK MAN WITH WALKMAN

EDDIE DEAN and JAKE CHAMBERS first see this man singing along with his Walkman when they travel via TODASH to 1977 NEW YORK. While preparing himself to travel back to 1977 through the magical UNFOUND DOOR, Eddie fixes the date in his mind by imagining this man walking in front of CHEW CHEW MAMA’S.

V:48, V:231, V:514

BLACK THIRTEEN

See
MAERLYN’S RAINBOW

BLACKBIRD, LADY

See
DEAN, SUSANNAH

BLACKBIRD MOMMY

See
DEAN, SUSANNAH

BLAINE

See
NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS

BLAKE, KEVIN

See
BALAZAR, ENRICO
: BALAZAR’S MEN

BLEEDING LION

Even though the CRIMSON KING’s followers in END-WORLD are systematically and purposefully eroding the final two BEAMS so that the DARK TOWER will collapse and the macroverse will blink out of existence, they have their own set of superstitions concerning the fearful end of the world and about how their master’s plans may yet be thwarted. Though we don’t know the details of these superstitions, we do know that at least one concerns a Bleeding Lion stalking to the north. Another is about a gunslinger-man coming out of the west to save the Tower. There is a good chance that the Bleeding Lion is none other than the LION GUARDIAN, ASLAN.

VII:238, VII:239

BLUE

See
SUSANNAH DEAN
: ODETTA HOLMES’S ASSOCIATES

BLUE DEER

See
MUTANTS
: ANIMALS, BIRDS, REPTILES

BLUE-FACED BARBARIANS

See
FARSON, JOHN
: FARSON’S MEN

BLUE LADY

See
DEAN, SUSANNAH
: ODETTA HOLMES’S ASSOCIATES: SISTER BLUE