Stephen King's The Dark Tower Concordance

Robin Furth

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781451694871
• eBook ISBN: 9781451695045
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The Complete Concordance is an entertaining and incredibly useful guide to Stephen King’s epic Dark Tower series by Robin Furth and features a foreword by Stephen King himself.

The Dark Tower series is the backbone of Stephen King's legendary career. Eight books and more than three thousand pages make up this bestselling fantasy epic. The Complete Concordance covers books I-VII and The Wind Through the Keyhole and is the definitive encyclopedic reference book that provides readers with everything they need to navigate their way through the series. With hundreds of characters, Mid-World geography, High Speech lexicon, and extensive cross-references, this comprehensive handbook is essential for any Dark Tower fan.

Includes:
-A Foreword from Stephen King
-Characters and Genealogies
-Magical Objects and Forces
-Mid-World and Our World Places
-Portals and Magical Places
-Mid-, End-, and Our World Maps
-Timeline for the Dark Tower Series
-Mid-World Dialects
-Mid-World Rhymes, Songs, and Prayers
-Political and Cultural References
-References to Stephen King’s Own Work

CHARACTERS,¹⁷ MAGICAL OBJECTS, MAGICAL FORCES

. . . finally only three remained of the old world, three like dreadful cards from a terrible deck of tarot cards: gunslinger, man in black, and the Dark Tower.

I:140*

There’s only three boxes to a man. . . . Best and highest is the head, with all the head’s ideas and dreams. Next is the heart, with all our feelings of love and sadness and joy and happiness. . . . In the last box is all what we’d call low-commala: have a fuck, take a shit, maybe want to do someone a meanness for no reason . . .

V:630–31

A

AARON JAFFORDS

See JAFFORDS, AARON

ABAGAIL, MOTHER

In the alternate version of KANSAS which our tet traveled through in Wizard and Glass, JAKE CHAMBERS found a note tucked under a camper windshield. The note read, “The old woman from the dreams is in Nebraska. Her name is Abagail.” Although our tet never meets this 108-year-old black woman, her path is nevertheless linked to Roland’s. In STEPHEN KING’s novel The Stand, this daughter of a former slave is a Warrior of the WHITE, and her archenemy is the evil RANDALL FLAGG.

In Song of Susannah, we discover that Mother Abagail’s world is definitely linked to Roland’s. Both the Red Death (the plague which devastated the END-WORLD town of FEDIC) and the superflu (the disease which wiped out 99 percent of the people in Abagail’s version of Earth) are both physical manifestations of a metaphysical illness. As the GREAT OLD ONES’ technology fails and the mechanical BEAMS collapse, such viruses and plagues are breaking out on many levels of the TOWER.

IV:624, VI:405

ABRAHAM, DAUGHTER OF

See TASSENBAUM, IRENE

ADAMS, DIEGO

See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: RANCHERS

ADAMS, RICHARD

See GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM: SHARDIK

ADAMS, SAREY

See ORIZA, SISTERS OF

**AFFILIATION

The Affiliation was the name given to the network of political and military alliances that united MID-WORLD’s baronies during Roland’s youth. By the time Roland reached adulthood, the Affiliation was in tatters, due in large part to the bloody rebellions and terrible betrayals staged by THE GOOD MAN (JOHN FARSON) and his followers.

The Affiliation—which played such a large part in Wizard and Glass—does not figure directly in the following three books of the Dark Tower series. However, we can guess that the gunslingers who fought beside Roland in the final battle of JERICHO HILL were all that remained of the Affiliation’s forces. See also DEMULLET’S COLUMN.

IV:148–49, IV:150, IV:151 (in trouble because of Farson), IV:163 (gunslingers’ attitude toward it), IV:174–78 (general info), IV:180 (and Mejis’s loyalty), IV:181, IV:182, IV:189, IV:191, IV:199, IV:201, IV:204, IV:206, IV:211 (hint something is wrong in Hambry), IV:219 (when Gilead falls, the Affiliation ends), IV:221, IV:224, IV:225, IV:228, IV:229, IV:231–32, IV:250–51 (Roland asks Susan if she supports it), IV:255, IV:260 (“Affiliation brats”), IV:277, IV:302, IV:344, IV:350–51 (implied—Inner Crescent), IV:359, IV:378, IV:381, IV:411, IV:417 (and the power of the White), IV:423, IV:430, IV:433, IV:438, IV:501 (Roland’s ka-tet accused of being traitors)

**AGELESS STRANGER (LEGION, MAERLYN)

In the original version of The Gunslinger, we learned that the Ageless Stranger was actually just another name for the great sorcerer MAERLYN. Like WALTER, he was a minion of the TOWER, only a more powerful one. As Walter said in the GOLGOTHA, the Ageless Stranger darkled and tincted—in other words, he could live simultaneously in all times. According to Walter, if Roland wanted to reach the Tower, he would have to slay this formidable enemy.

In the new version of The Gunslinger, we learn something quite different about this strange being. According to Walter the true name of the Ageless Stranger is not Maerlyn but Legion, and he is a creature of END-WORLD. Roland must slay him in order to meet the Tower’s present controller—the CRIMSON KING. Like Roland, we don’t yet know whether slippery Walter is telling the truth or is spreading lies for his own ends.

See also MAERLYN and CRIMSON KING.

I:211–12, III:261, III:387

AIDAN

See TET CORPORATION: FOUNDING FATHERS: CULLUM, JOHN

**AILEEN OF GILEAD (AILEEN RITTER)

In the original version of The Gunslinger, we learned that Aileen was Roland’s second important lover. He became intimate with her after his return from MEJIS but before GILEAD’s fall. However, Aileen plays a smaller role in the 2003 version of The Gunslinger. Instead of remembering his love for beautiful, bright-eyed Aileen, Roland longingly recalls SUSAN DELGADO of HAMBRY. In the updated Gunslinger, Aileen becomes Roland’s dancing companion, not his beloved, and the woman his parents want him to marry, not the girl he chooses to be his lover.

I:86, I:88, I:131, I:137, I:140

ALAIN JOHNS

See JOHNS, ALAIN

**ALAN

See ALLEN. See also DESCHAIN, GABRIELLE

ALBINO BEES

See MUTANTS

ALBRECHT

See VAMPIRES: TYPE THREE

ALEXANDER, BEN

See CAN-TOI

ALEXANDER, TRUMAN

See ENRICO, BALAZAR: BALAZAR’S MEN

ALIA (NURSE)

See TAHEEN: RAT-HEADED TAHEEN

**ALICE OF TULL (ALLIE)

In both versions of The Gunslinger, Roland meets Alice when she serves him from behind the plank bar of SHEB’S honky-tonk in TULL. Although she may once have been beautiful, by the time we see her she is straw-haired and scarred. Like so many people in MID-WORLD, Alice has been sucked dry—both physically and emotionally—by the sterile hardpan of the desert. The overall impression she gives is of a woman who has been worn down into an early menopause. Her dirty blue dress is held at the strap by a safety pin and the livid scar corkscrewing across her forehead is emphasized, rather than hidden, by her face powder.

Although she initially reacts to him with hostility, Alice soon becomes Roland’s lover. Unfortunately, she also becomes his victim. During the battle between Roland and SYLVIA PITTSTON’s followers, Allie’s former lover SHEB uses Alice as a human shield. Like so many of Roland’s other friends and confidants, Alice dies under Roland’s guns.

In the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, Allie still dies under Roland’s guns, but before that she is the psychological victim of the MAN IN BLACK, also known as WALTER O’DIM. After he brings the weed-eater NORT back to life, Walter gives Nort a note for Allie. The note confides that Walter has planted a magical word in Nort’s mind. The word is NINETEEN. If Allie says this word to him, the weed-eater will blurt out all that he saw in the world beyond.

But this message is a cruel trick, a Catch-22. Alice has always wanted to know what comes after this life, but attaining such forbidden knowledge will drive her mad. However, knowing the word, and not being able to speak it, is also guaranteed to drive her mad. In the end, Alice cannot control her curiosity and she says “Nineteen” to Nort, forcing him to spill forth all of his terrible, repressed secrets. Hence, when Roland aims his gun at her, a distressed Allie does not beg to be spared but begs to be killed so that her psychic torture will come to an end. Unfortunately for Alice, she ends up in the very place she wanted her imagination to escape—the LAND OF NINETEEN.

I:26–43 (Nort’s story 33–41), I:45–47, I:52–54, I:58–59 (dies), I:60, I:64, I:77, I:78, I:79, I:118, I:131, I:143, I:156, II:231, III:42, III:44, III:127, VI:288

**ALLEN

In the original version of The Gunslinger, Allen was part of Roland’s ka-tel, or class of apprentice gunslingers, and was one of the boys who witnessed Roland’s battle with CORT. In the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, Allen’s name is replaced with that of ALAIN JOHNS.

I:162, I:167–73 (witnesses Roland’s coming of age)

SPELLED ALAN: II:121

**ALLGOOD, CUTHBERT (ARTHUR HEATH, LAUGHING BOY)

Talkative, brown-haired Cuthbert Allgood was Roland’s beloved but restless childhood friend. Under the name Arthur Heath, he accompanied Roland and ALAIN JOHNS on Roland’s dangerous MEJIS adventure, which figured so prominently in Wizard and Glass. Despite the comma of brown hair always falling over his forehead and his anarchic sense of humor, tall, narrow-hipped Bert was quite handsome. His dark, beautiful eyes made SUSAN DELGADO wonder whether—under different circumstances—she would have fallen in love with Cuthbert rather than with Roland.

Cuth...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Tarot Reading
• Foreword by Stephen King
• About This Book
• The Wind Through the Keyhole and the Winds of Mid-World
• Abbreviations and Text Guide
• Gilead Fair-Days
• Mid-World Moons
• Introductions: Parts One and Two
• Characters, Magical Objects, Magical Forces
• Mid-World Places and Borderland Places
• Our World Places and the Multiple Americas
• Portals, Magical Places, and End-World Places
• Appendix I: Mid-World Dialects
• Appendix II: A Brief History of Mid-World (All-World-That-Was) and of Roland Deschain, Warrior of the White
• Appendix III: Mid-World Rhymes, Songs, Prayers, and Prophecies
• Appendix IV: Mid-World Miscellany (Dances, Diseases, Drugs, Games, Holidays, etc.)
• Appendix V: The Tower, the Quest, and The Eyes of the Dragon
• Appendix VI: Political and Cultural Figures of Our World Mentioned in the Dark Tower Series
• Appendix VII: Maps of Mid-World, End-World, and Our World
• Appendix VIII: Reading Group Guides
• Appendix IX: Versions of the Commala Song
• About Robin Furth
• Endnotes
• Copyright