Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (126 page)

W:176–77, W:179

10. RITUAL FOR THE DEATH OF A WELL-BORN PERSON IN GILEAD

After the death of Roland’s mother, Gabrielle Deschain, every man in Gilead wore a black collar of mourning or a black band around his shirtsleeve. Women wore black nets on their hair. This went on until Gabrielle had been six months in her tomb. W:35

11. RITUAL FOR A PERSON WHO HAS COMMITTED SUICIDE

When someone of high blood committed suicide in Gilead, the publishment of her death declared that she had died while possessed of a demon which troubled her spirit. W:37

1. PROPHECY ABOUT THE CRIMSON KING

When Roland was a boy, he heard a bit of doggerel which predicted the death of the Crimson King. According to this prophecy, the Red King would kill himself with a spoon. The second part of the prophecy stated that Los the Red could be killed by Roland’s guns, since their barrels were made from Arthur Eld’s great sword, Excalibur. However, by swallowing the sharpened spoon, the Crimson
King made himself Undead, and so safe from even Roland’s guns. It’s a shame we never get to hear the actual prophecy. (VII:607–8)

2. PROPHECY FOR THE LINE OF ELD

Mordred Deschain’s birth fulfills an ancient prophecy which foretells the destruction of the last gunslinger—Roland Deschain. As we know from the Dark Tower series, Roland was tricked into conceiving a child with his
ka-tet
mate Susannah Dean. Roland’s sperm was taken by a Demon Elemental (posing as the Oracle of the Mountains), which then turned itself into a male and impregnated Susannah in the Speaking Ring where she, Roland, and Eddie drew Jake Chambers into Mid-World. Although Roland is not actually Susannah’s father, he is her
dinh,
or leader, and so is the father of their
ka-tet.
(VI:252). The prophecy reads as follows:

He who ends the line of Eld shall conceive a child of incest with his sister or his daughter, and the child will be marked, by his red heel shall you know him. It is he who shall stop the breath of the last warrior.

MID-WORLD DANCES

**
Commala (Sowing Night Cotillion or Sowing Night Cotil’):
This was the name of Gilead’s Spring Dance. The geometric steps of this dance were meant to mimic a courting ritual. We learn about it in the 2003 version of
The Gunslinger.

Pol-kam:
This dance was popular in Gilead. It was lighter and faster than a waltz. I:137

Quesa:
A simple sort of reel danced in Hambry. IV:209

Waltz:
Waltzing was popular in Gilead. I:137

MID-WORLD DISEASES

Blood-sickness:
This one sounds a bit like blood-poisoning, but it could also be another blood-related illness. III:248

Mandrus:
A venereal disease found in Lud. It’s also called Whore’s Blossoms. III:297

Mutation:
Mid-World’s many mutations were caused by the Great Poisoning.
See
MUTANTS
,
in
CHARACTERS.
See also
MID-WORLD ARGOT
: THE GREAT POISONING,
in
APPENDIX I.

Rabies:
We have this one in our world too. III:296

Rot:
This disease affects the Border Dwellers of the Mohaine Desert. It is a lot like leprosy. I:15, I:18

Superflu:
This one actually affects the alternative Topeka, not Mid-World. It is also known as Captain Trips and Tube-Neck. IV:73

Wasting Disease:
IV:307

MID-WORLD DRUGS

Alder-bark:
Helps bad breath. II:363

Graf:
Strong apple beer.

Mescaline:
A hallucinogen that helps gunslingers see and communicate with demons. I:125, I:127

Pettibone:
An alcoholic drink. IV:251

Sugar:
Good for energy bursts. II:103–4

MID-WORLD GAMES

Castles:
A game very much like Chess. IV:191

**Croquet and Points:
These games were popular among Gilead’s ladies. In the 2003 version of
The Gunslinger,
we find out that Points is played with ninepins. It sounds a bit like bowling. I:88, I:96

Faro:
This is probably a betting card game, since Sylvia Pittston makes her followers repent playing it. I:50

**Gran-Points:
In this game you hold a bat and wait for a rawhide bird to be pitched. It sounds a bit like baseball.

Jacks Pop Up:
A card game for children. W:105

**Mother Says:
This children’s game is similar to Simon Says.

Watch Me:
This is one of Mid-World’s card games. People tend to bet, and the games can get rather dangerous. I:26–27

MID-WORLD HOLIDAYS AND CARNIVALS

All-Saints Eve:
I:32

Baron’s Year-End parties:
III:50

Dance of Easterling:
This great party marked the end of the Wide Earth and the advent of Sowing. IV:194

**Easter Night:
In the 2003 version of
The Gunslinger,
the Easter Night Dance is replaced by the
Sowing Night Cotillion.
I:150, I:156

Fair-Day Riddling:
Riddling was an extremely important game in Mid-World-that-was. Riddling was believed to hold incredible power. A good Fair-Day Riddling contest would ensure that the crops grew well. III:281

Fair-Days:
Here is a list of Mid-World’s seasonal Fair-Days. III:416

Winter

Wide Earth

Sowing (New Earth or Fresh Commala)

Mid-Summer

Full Earth

Reaping

Year’s End

**Feast of Joseph fairtime:
In the 2003 version of
The Gunslinger,
this holiday is renamed the Feast of Reaptide Fair. I:186

Glowing Day:
Cuthbert liked this holiday because of the fireworks and the ice. IV:185

MID-WORLD MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Fiddles:
I:145

Guitars:
IV:194

Way-Gog Music:
This instrument, which is a bit like a bagpipe, isn’t actually from Mid-World. It is played on the upper levels of the Tower. III:409

MID-WORLD RELIGIONS

In
The Little Sisters of Eluria,
we’re told that in Mid-World, faith—like everything else—had moved on. As far as Roland was concerned, the God o’ the Cross was just another religion which taught that love and murder were inextricably bound together. In the end, all gods drank blood. E:147

For a list of Mid-World gods, see
GODS OF MID-WORLD
and
GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM
,
both listed in the
CHARACTERS
section. Also see
MID-WORLD FOLKLORE
.

Christian (general):
In Mid-World, Christians are called “followers of the Jesus-man” or of the God o’ the Cross. E:147

Methodism:
I:34

Guardian Totems:
IV:222

Pagan Religions:
See
GODS OF MID-WORLD
in
CHARACTERS

MID-WORLD SIGULS

Christian Medallions:
A Christian medallion saves Roland from the Little Sisters of Eluria. E:182

Coffins and Blue Coffin Tattoos:
These tattoos adorn the hands of the Big Coffin Hunters. Tick-Tock of the Grays wears a coffin-shaped clock around his neck. In
Wolves of the Calla,
we find out that the low men also bear coffin–shaped tattoos. IV:155

The Dark Bells:
The Dark Bells are the
sigul
of the Little Sisters of Eluria. E:184

The Eye:
This is the
sigul
of John Farson, but it is also the
sigul
of the Crimson King. IV:91

Fist and Thunderbolt:
This is a lot like Mid-World’s version of the swastika. III:275

Jesus-Man
Sigul
:
A crucifix. E:153

Rose:
The Little Sisters of Eluria wear an embroidered rose on their habits. It is the
sigul
of the Dark Tower. E:165

A question recently arose on the Stephen King Web-site message board concerning the relationship between the Dark Tower books and
The Eyes of the Dragon.
The Constant Reader who posted the query wanted others to share their thoughts about where
The Eyes of the Dragon
should be placed on the Dark Tower timeline. Does
Eyes
take place before or after the rule of Roland’s illustrious ancestor Arthur Eld? Is our Roland a descendant of King Roland? And, by extension, is the house of Delain related to the house of Deschain? Having just completed a Dark Tower timeline (it should be posted on-site soon), I found this question really interesting, so I thought I’d throw in my own two cents’ worth of commentary.

My first job was to reread
Eyes.
I too had always assumed that
The Eyes of the Dragon
took place in Roland’s world, albeit in the distant past. However, once I took a good long look at my timeline, at Volume I of my
Concordance,
and at the many, many notes and maps spread about my workroom, I realized that I had a very big problem. Namely,
The Eyes of the Dragon
doesn’t fit into the history of Roland’s world. Before you reach for your six-gun to shoot me, hear me out. Then decide what you think. As you read, keep in mind that familiar phrase, the essence of which I will return to at the end of my entry:
There are other worlds than these.
As Jake Chambers so eloquently stated before his free fall into the abyss below the Cyclopean Mountains, no world stands alone. A universe consists of many worlds, and the Dark Tower contains all of them. Some levels of the Dark Tower may be unique, some may be dangerous or downright deadly, but the majority of them seem like slightly distorted echoes of each other.

As we’ve seen over and over in the Dark Tower series, the multiverse is almost like a rabbit warren, with many secret entrances and byways leading from one “Earth” or “Mid-World” to another. As the Manni know so well, unwary travelers must beware. If you dare to click the heels of your ruby slippers together (or in the case of the Manni, set your plumb bob swinging), there is no guarantee that you will be able to return to the world that you left. There may only be one Keystone Earth, but there are many variants of that Earth. Eddie Dean may think that he comes from the same New York City as Calvin Tower, but in Eddie’s world, Co-Op City is in Brooklyn. In Calvin’s, it’s in the Bronx.

As Callahan discovered during his five years traveling along the highways in hiding, and as our
ka-tet
found out in the alternative Kansas, the worlds-next-door may look the same as ours, but upon close scrutiny they prove to be subtly, but significantly, different. Though their landscapes are almost identical, and
though they seem to share our history and culture, at some point in time those worlds, and ours, diverged. In
Wolves of the Calla,
Pere Callahan recounts his travels through the multiple Americas, which he calls the vertical geographies of chance (V:298). In Callahan’s version of Earth, as in ours, Fort Lee sits on the far side of the George Washington Bridge, yet during his travels through the alternative Americas, he leaves New York City via the G.W. only to find himself in a town called Leabrook, where the face of someone named Chadborne decorates the ten-dollar bill and a politician named Earnest “Fritz” Hollings is elected president (V:300, V:305). Similarly, Susannah, Eddie, and Jake disembark from Blaine the Insane Mono into what they think is our world’s Kansas, only to find that the Takuro Spirit–driving and Nozz-A-La-cola-drinking inhabitants have all been killed off by a disease called superflu.

Certainly, what holds true for our world also holds true for Roland’s. We live on Keystone Earth, the template for all of the alternative Earths, but Roland comes from Tower Keystone, the template for all of the multiple Mid-Worlds. If there are many worlds similar to ours spinning about the central needle of the Dark Tower, then surely there are alternative versions of Roland’s world to be found there as well. However, even by stating this obvious fact, I leave out a very important point. Related worlds can have differences that are as arresting as their similarities. After all, as Eddie Dean states in
The Dark Tower,
Roland’s world and our world are also twins. Despite their divergent histories and apparent differences, they are protected by the same divine forces and are attacked by the same enemies.

As we all know, there
are
many striking similarities between the world depicted in
The Eyes of the Dragon
and the one we travel in during the Dark Tower series. In both tales,
Roland
is a royal name. The halls of the rich and powerful are adorned with Kashamin rugs, and the weapons of kings are made of sandalwood. In Delain, as in Gilead, Old Star shines in the night sky. People wonder about the semimythical Grand Featherex, and magicians (both good and evil) have the power to make themselves
dim.
Those born to aristocratic families are said to be of High Blood, and records are written, and read, using the Great Letters. Gunpowder is rare, and extremely valuable.

In both Delain and Gilead, the distant (and somewhat sinister) land of Garlan is well known for its poisons. Both the Dragon Sand used to kill King Roland of Delain and the poisoned knife meant to murder Steven Deschain of Gilead originated in Garlan. John Norman, whom we met in the Dark Tower novella “The Little Sisters of Eluria,” was born in Delain (a land also known as Dragon’s Lair and Liar’s Heaven), which also seems to imply that
The Eyes of the Dragon
and the Dark Tower series both take place on the same level of the Tower.