The Dark Tower (series)
The Dark Tower is a fantasy fiction, science fantasy, horror, and western themed series of novels by the American writer Stephen King. The series has been described as King's magnum opus - besides the seven novels that comprise the series proper, many of his other books are related to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses.
The series was inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot and in the preface to the 2003 edition of The Gunslinger, King also identifies The Lord of the Rings and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly as inspirations, identifying Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as the genesis of Roland of Gilead.
The central character, Roland, is the last living member of a knightly order known as gunslingers. The world he lives in is quite different from our own - politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West, as well as magical powers and relics of a highly advanced, but long vanished, society. Roland's quest, his raison d'être, is to find the Dark Tower, a mythical building said to be the nexus of the universe. Roland's world is said to have "moved on", and indeed, it literally appears to be coming apart at the seams - mighty nations are being torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish from the face of the earth without a trace, and even the Sun sometimes rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland's motives, goals, and even his age are unclear, though events in later installments shed light on these mysteries.
Characters in the series
Roland
Roland, son of Steven, a Gunslinger, was born in Gilead. He is now the last Gunslinger, with the sole charge of finding the Dark Tower, in some hope of reversing the erosion of time and the universe. This quest means all to him. The success of the quest is more important then the life of his loved ones, family and friends. Roland's passion for his quest could be what endangers the Tower and all worlds connected to it.
As the series opens, he chases Walter, the Man in Black, across a desert. He finds Jake Chambers, an 11 year old boy from 1970's New York City and befriends him. Jake was walking down the street one day when someone pushed him under a Cadillac; then he woke up at a way-station in Mid-World and was quickly found by the gunslinger. Roland's relationship with Jake in The Gunslinger defines his personality: He can be friendly but is usually distant; he is wise and skilled but ignorant of our ways; he has no real sense of humour but is noble. However, ultimately he fails Jake; when confronted with the choice of saving Jake from an abyss or pursuing the Man in Black, he lets Jake fall. He catches up with Walter, the Man in Black, who tells Roland's fortune during a very long discussion. Roland falls unconscious, to finally wake up next to what seems to be Walter's skeleton. He is attacked by a flock of bizarre lobster creatures, which attack him and two fingers of his right hand. These wounds become infected from the lobstrosities' poison and Roland falls gravely ill.
Roland continues on his journey along the beach in search of (long term) the Tower and (short term) some care for his hand. He finds neither, but happens upon a door on the beach. This door stands upright, is visible only from one side and opens into not just a very strange where, but a very strange when...
Eddie
Eddie makes his debut in The Drawing of the Three, in which Roland encounters three doors that open into New York City of our world in different times. Through these doors, he draws companions who will join him on his quest, as the Man In Black foretold. The first to be drawn is Eddie Dean, "The Prisoner", a drug addict and cocaine mule. Eddie lived with his older brother and fellow junkie Henry, who Eddie revered despite the corrupting influence Henry had upon his life. Roland helps Eddie fight off a gang of mobsters for whom he was transporting cocaine. After passing through the door out of "our" reality, Eddie faces horrible withdrawal symptoms but also shows a strange affinity for the ways of the gunslinger. Unwillingly at first, Eddie becomes Roland's companion through Mid-World, and soon falls in love with Odetta Holmes, the next member of Roland's ka-tet. Eddie dies at the hands of Pimli Prentiss, the head of Algul Siento, after Roland and his ka'tet successfully stop the Breakers from destroying the beams.
Susannah
Also hailing from New York City, Susannah is an African-American woman with two major afflictions: her legs above the knees were severed in a subway accident, and a childhood head injury left her with dual personalities. She is "The Lady of Shadows", the second companion predicted by Walter to be drawn through the mysterious doors. Initially, her dominant personality is that of Odetta Holmes, a sweet, well-mannered woman active in the civil rights movement. In dark times, however, she is taken over by Detta Walker, a murderously psychotic but incredibly crafty woman neither Eddie nor Roland can control.
The third door leads to New York in the mid-1970s. Here Roland finds himself inside the mind of "The Pusher", a sadistic psychopath named Jack Mort whose callous acts of random violence have shaped the lives of Roland's companions. When Odetta was five, Mort dropped a brick on her head (which led to the emergence of her multiple personalities); he also pushed Odetta in front of a subway car when she was a teenager (not knowing or caring that she was previously a victim of his cruelty); on this day in question he is planning to shove a young boy (who turns out to be Jake Chambers) into traffic. Unable to let Jake die once again through his inaction, Roland takes control of Mort's body and stops him, then later forces him to throw himself in front of a subway train. In the midst of this struggle, Roland also manages to trick Detta into looking through the door, which forces her to acknowledge her dual personalities. The two successfully merge, yielding the true third party member, Susannah Dean.
Susannah, the sole survivor of Roland's Ka-Tet, leaves his world to an alternate New York where another Eddie and another Jake are waiting for her. Roland continues to the Dark Tower, accompanied only by the billy bumbler Oy and The Artist, Patrick Danville.
Jake
The eleven-year-old boy Roland left to die reappears in The Wastelands due to a bizarre paradox. Since Roland prevented Mort from shoving Jake into traffic, he never appeared in Mid-World, and was never left to die under the mountains. Both Jake and Roland, however, can remember both timelines, and the knowledge is slowly driving them insane.
In the first half of The Wastelands, Roland's ka-tet figure out a way to draw Jake into Mid-world where he belongs. Eddie obsessively whittles a key out of wood as they approach another door, this one set into the ground and guarded by an invisible demon. Susannah distracts the demon by allowing it to copulate with her, while Eddie perfects the key and opens the door. On the other side, Jake has been drawn into an abandoned house filled with evil spirits, but fights through it (with a bit of timely assistance from Roland) to reach the door. Once in Mid-World again, Roland's and Jake's memories are corrected and their journey into insanity abated. Unfortunately, Susannah will pay the price for her distraction of the spirit.
While crossing the desolate city of Lud, Roland finds that he may have to sacrifice Jake again to ensure their safe passage. Despite the danger, however, he rescues Jake, reaffirming the father-son bond that has grown between them. Like Eddie and Susannah, Jake eventually becomes a full-fledged gunslinger.
Jake meets his end saving Stephen King in Bangor, Maine.
Oy
On the road to Lud, the group finds a wounded "billy-bumbler". These animals are described as looking like a cross between a racoon and a dog, with a corkscrew-spiral tail. When Jake first sees the bumbler, he calls "Come here, boy," and the animal mimicks the sound with "Oy". The bumbler is friendly and intelligent -- Roland explains that it used to be common for billy-bumblers to speak and even be able to perform simple math -- and Jake decides to call him Oy, after the first word they heard him say. Seemingly a mere pet at first, Oy proves to be strangely helpful and nearly human at times. Roland concedes that Oy may quite possibly be meant as another member of their ka-tet.
Oy dies valiantly while fighting Mordred Deschain in the final book, The Dark Tower.
Walter, the Man in Black
He appears in many books of Stephen King, including The Eyes of the Dragon and The Stand, always as a nearly-demonic sorcerer. It is frequently hinted (though never explicitly stated) that he is the physical manifestation of the Devil, and his only desire is to spread chaos, discord, and evil wherever he goes. The Man in Black is a servant of the Crimson King, but secretly seeks the Tower for himself. His true name is Walter Padick, but he has taken many aliases, among them Randall Flagg. Flagg is a central character in another sprawling King novel, "The Stand." In this tale, he is also called "The Dark Man." Somehow knows about Roland's "Tower Cycle"
The Crimson King
The ultimate in evil, this mysterious figure wishes to conquer the Dark Tower and raze it to the ground. Since this will destroy nearly the entire universe, he is naturally cast as the villain in The Dark Tower books. He is also present in another Stephen King book, Insomnia, and a King-Peter Straub collaboration known as Black House. He is also known as Ram Aballah, and once ruled from his castle in Thunderclap, but now is imprisoned on a balcony in the Dark Tower. He believes that when the Tower falls, he will rule the darkness that was once the multiverse. He is the one whom Walter/Flagg serves, whom the low men and taheen serve, and has opposed Roland of Gilead from the beginning. Like Roland, he is descended from Arthur Eld, but there is speculation among Tower fans whether or not he and Arthur Eld are the same individual. Somehow knows about Roland's "Tower cycle"
Mia
An invading spirit who possesses Susannah Dean's body in Wolves of the Calla. Originally an immortal spirit similar to a succubus, she saw and fell in love with a baby. After plague ravaged the city of Fedic and the child was taken away, Mia struck a bargain with Walter. If she would give up her formless immortality, Walter would give her a baby. Mia's purpose in Walter and the Crimson King's plan is to bear Roland's child; prophecy has foretold that this child will be Roland's doom.
Mia got Roland's seed from the demon Susannah copulated with in "The Wastelands", during Jake's Drawing. The demon got it from before, when it seduced Roland as a woman. These demons are hermaphroditic and are able to change their sex at will.
Mordred
Son of two fathers and two mothers, Mordred was born of Susannah's egg fertilized by the seed of both Roland of Gilead and the Crimson King (via the demon encountered while drawing Jake into the world), and carried to term by Mia. Mordred is half-human, half-godly, and if his fate is fulfilled, he will kill both Roland (one of his fathers) and topple the Dark Tower itself. However, neither the seers nor fate itself could protect Mordred from the death of magic in Mid-World as the Tower falters. Mordred becomes deathly ill after eating poisoned horse meat, and is slain by Roland at the threshold of the Dark Tower.
The Low Men (Can-toi, Fayen Folken)
First introduced in "Low Men in Yellow Coats", these soldiers of the Crimson King are half-taheen and half human, and originate in the todash spaces between worlds. Richard P. Sayre is a prominent Low Man in the Dark Tower Series. They also appear in Black House by King and Peter Straub.
Taheen
Taheen resemble humans with the heads of animals. They are in charge of Devar-toi and the Can-toi and are the servants of the Crimson King. The Taheen, much in the same way as humans, have a choice in their destiny, thus they can be good or evil.
Pere Donald Callahan
Callahan is the "damned" priest who appeared in the novel "Salem's Lot". He makes his first appearance in the Dark Tower series in "Wolves of the Calla". He entered Mid-World, then arrived at the Way Station in the beginning of The Gunslinger. Readers don't find this out until they read the Wolves of the Calla. He assisted the ka-tet in the Battle against the Wolves, helped Susannah's rescue mission from 1999 New York, and makes his final stand in The Dark Tower VII against the can-toi (low men) and vampires. Callahan falls at the hands of the vampires in the Dixie Pig; this diversion allows Jake to escape.
Richard Patrick Sayre
The leader of the can-toi and the head of the Sombra Corportation, Sayre is the individual who lured Callahan to his death in 1983. He is the one who witnesses Mordred's birth in the Extraction Room at the Arc 16 Experimental Station in Fedic, and he meets his end when he is shot twice in the back of the head (once for Mia, once for Pere Callahan) by Susannah.
Jack Andolini
Jack Andolini is a New York gangster and affiliate of Enrico Balazar, whom readers first met in The Drawing of the Three . In that novel, in 1987, while trying to kill Eddie, he followed Eddie and Roland into Mid-World and met his death by the hands of the lobstrosities. However, he reappears in Wolves of the Calla as a representative of the Sombra Corporation, in 1977. When Roland and Eddie enter the Maine of 1977, Andolini and his gang ambush them at the East Stoneham General Store. This version of Andolini, however, meets a not so horrible fate: in The Dark Tower, he is imprisoned in a Maine county jail.
Ted Brautigan
We first met Ted in the Stephen King novella Low Men in Yellow Coats from Hearts in Atlantis. He is a powerful Breaker, a psychic whose extraordinary powers are sought by the Crimson King so he can hasten the destruction of the Dark Tower. Ted arrived in the Devar-Toi, the prison where the Breakers are held, in 1955, and thanks to Roland's old friend from Mejis, Sheemie Ruiz, Ted escapes the Devar-Toi and enters the Connecticut of 1960, which is when the story of LMIYC takes place. After his adventure in Connecticut, the low men captured him and smuggled him via the Dixie Pig and Thunderclap Station and back to the Devar-Toi. He meets Roland and his ka-tet in the final novel of the series, and he, Everything's Eventual's Dinky Earshaw and the teleport Sheemie, assist the ka-tet in the attack on the Devar-Toi and they ultimately succeed in obliterating the low men and the taheen. After Roland, Jake, and Oy travel to the Maine of 1999 to prevent their ka' ska Gan Stephen King from dying, Ted and his friends escort Susannah Dean to Fedic Station, and they depart for the Callas, where they hope to return to America via the Doorway Cave.
Sheemie Ruiz
We first met Sheemie in Wizard and Glass. He was the mildly retarded tavern boy at the saloon in Hambry, and he assisted Roland and his original ka-tet in preventing the followers of John Farson, and more specifically, the Crimson King, from reviving the Great Old Ones' war machines. Sheemie joined Roland's ka-tet briefly and helped the gunslingers ward off the Crimson King's followers until he and his mule Capi mysteriously disappeared. However, while Roland assumes Sheemie is dead, he is not; he had been captured by the low men and taken to the Devar-Toi, the Breaker prison, because of his telepathic abilities. He reappears in the series' final novel and assists the ka-tet in defeating the low men and the taheen. However, during the battle, he stepped on a piece of glass, causing an infection (accelerated by the "poison air" around Thunderclap). While escorting Susannah to Fedic on the train, he dies.
Dinky Earnshaw
Richard "Dinky" Earnshaw is the psychic assassin from Stephen King's short story Everything's Eventual. He was hired by a man named Mr. Sharpton who was the head of a North Central Positronics subsidiary. However, when Dink discovered what Sharpton was truly using him for, he killed Sharpton. Unfortunately, the low men captured him and transported him to the Devar-Toi, where he later met Ted Brautigan and Sheemie Ruiz. The three joined forces with Roland and his ka-tet in the final novel of the series and they defeated the Devar's warriors.
Places
All-World (Roland's World)
All-World is the world/universe (see: parallel universe) also known as "Keystone Tower". It is the only world/universe in King's multi-verse that contains the Dark Tower in its physical form. All others contain a representative of the Tower, but not the Tower in an accessible form. From All-World, it is possible to actually enter the Dark Tower.
All-World is divided into regions, such as In-World, Mid-World, End-World, Out-World, and Thunderclap. The geography is widely varied. It includes deserts, mountains, rolling plains and vast wastelands. It is said to have "moved on." This seems to mean that there was no order to anything anymore, and that nothing was dependable anymore. For example: the sun doesn’t always rise in the right place and sometimes it doesn’t even cross the entire sky. According to Blaine the Mono, his Slo-Trans engines were supposed to last for millions of years, but were already faltering after a few thousand. However, since time appears to run at different rates all throughout All-World, and given Blaine's dementia, this assessment may not be dependable.
It seems that an extremely advanced civilization once existed in All-World, possibly a parallel United States. This can be inferred from the high degree of similarity between Old Ones (the name for these ancient people) architecture, automobiles, clothing and the fact that an Old Ones military outpost used an everyday phone modem and Microsoft products. There was also a cola product called Nozz-a-la whose artwork was identical to that of Coca-Cola. They might have spoken English.
The civilization of the Old Ones collapsed because of the replacement of magic, which could last forever, with technology, which would disintegrate if left unattended and which might anyway to maintain the Beams of the Dark Tower.
The Beams are six invisible forces connecting the edge of the world/universe to the center. These Beams are the primary source of force in All-World and they maintain order. Failure of the Beams cause changes in physical and astronomical constants, which causes chaos in nature, as well as in civilization. There are six Beams with twelve Guardians, one for each "Portal" (the end of a Beam) arranged like the spokes of a wheel with The Tower at the center. (see also: The Waste Lands).
The Old One civilization used technology to maintain the Beams of the Dark Tower instead of magic, and sought to literally control reality. The final blow for the Old One civilization seems to have been nuclear wars, germ warfare and chemical warfare. It is not known when such wars took place, why they took place, or even between which nations or organizations such wars were fought. It is widely hinted the Crimson King was ultimately working behind the scenes, manipulating people and events to bring about civilization's destruction, since such destruction serves his ultimate ends.
The All-World of most of the Dark Tower series seems to be sparsely populated and dangerous, filled with mutants both human and animal, and vast swaths of land are irradiated. Demons and robots are to be found, as well as Taheen, who are in the employ of the Crimson King. Governments do not extend beyond the town level. Resources are scarce, and relics of the Old Ones technology exist mainly in perverted, deranged, or damaged forms that threaten instead of helping the last remnants of civilization.
Keystone World and the rose
The only "unique" world. The only world with Stephen King in it, and the only world where changes made are permanent and can't be unmade. This world is home to the rose, which they say is not merely the representative of the tower here, but might actually be the physical tower itself. At the end of the series it was being protected by the Tet Corporation, which Roland's ka-tet created in 1977, using Odetta Holmes' fortune as heiress to the Holmes Dental Corporation.
Dark Tower Glossary
Commala
In Wolves of the Calla), Commala is part of Calla-Speak, a dialect used in the Crescent-Callas of the borderlands between Mid-World and the vast wasteland of Thunderclap.
"One would have been 'sexual orgasm,' as in 'Did'ee come commala'? (The hoped-for reply being 'Aye, say thankya, commala big-big.') To wet the commala is to irrigate the rice in a dry time; it is also to masturbate. Commala is the commencement of some big and joyful meal, like a family feast (not the meal itself, do ya, but the moment of beginning to eat). A man who is losing his hair is coming commala. Putting animals out to stud is damp commala. Gelded animals are dry commala, although no one could tell you why. A virgin is green commala, a menstruating woman is red commala, an old man who can no longer make iron before the forge is say sorry sof' commala. To stand commala is to stand belly-to-belly, a slang term meaning "to share secrets." For that matter, why is a fork sometimes a commala, but never a spoon or a knife? The Commala is also a dance to the goddess Oriza, to bless the rice."
(excerpt from: Wolves of the Calla)
Thinny
A thinny is a "weak spot" in reality. They are described as looking like large blobs of mercury and emit a warbling sound ("sounds Hawaiian, don't it?")that can set a person's teeth on edge and hypnotize them and draw them into it if they get close enough to it. Even if not hypnotized, prolonged exposure to the sound of a thinny can cause madness. Transportation into other universes is possible by simply walking into a thinny, but this is very dangerous and death is much more likely. Roland encountered a thinny earlier in life, the story of which is recounted in Wizard and Glass. His ka-tet also encounters one just outside Topeka, Kansas, in the reality of The Stand.
Manni
The Manni tradition stems from the idea of a multiverse. The Manni are a group in All-world who consider themselves to be sailors on the winds of ka. They wear dark blue robes and are known for having rather grim views on situations. The dialect of All-world is heavily influenced by the Manni to include words like ka, ka-tet and kehf.
Ka
"It is ka, and ka is destiny." -Ted Brautigan, Hearts in Atlantis: Low Men in Yellow Coats. Ka can be described as destiny or fate, but is more complex than that. It is said to be a wheel that can only be broken by death or by betrayal. But, as Cort put it, those are also spokes on the wheel of ka. The image of ka as a wheel is reminiscent of the philosphy, "what goes around comes around."
Synonyms: Fate, Destiny, Karma, Luck, Kismet, Purpose
Ka-tet
"We are kat-tet. We are one from many." Says Roland of Gilead on the day before the Battle of Algul Siento(The Dark Tower, Novel). Ka-tet is the belief that a group of people can be tied together by fate, or ka. It is said that a group has shared "kehf" or the water of life. Sometimes the symbol of water is used literally, as in a ritual Roland and his ka-tet prefroms the night before the battle of Algul Siento. Roland's ka-tet includes himself, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Oy, and Jake Chambers. This tet was broken after the Battle of Blue Heaven. Donald "Pere" Callahan could possibly be considered ka-tet at the end of the series, as could Roland's nemisis, Randall Flagg. Roland's previous ka-tet included himself, Cuthbert Allgood, Jamie DeCurry, and Alain Johns.
Khef
Literally the water of life. It is basically the life force of ka. It's where ka meets the soul. The Manni believe it to be possible to live off this life force.
Books in the series
- The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982, originally published as separate short stories; revised edition released in 2003)
- The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
- The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)
- The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)
- The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (title originally announced as The Crawling Shadow) (2003)
- The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)
- The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)
Connections to other works of King
The series has become a linchpin that ties much of King's work together. The worlds of The Dark Tower are in part composed of locations, characters, events and other various elements from many of King's novels.
The following is a list of specific connections between books. Note that all Dark Tower books are connected to each other chronologically.
- The Gunslinger
- The Drawing of the Three
- The Waste Lands
- Wizard and Glass
- The Stand
- Wolves of the Calla
- 'Salem's Lot
- The Ten O'Clock People
- Bag of Bones
- Black House (via the term opopanax)
- Song of Susannah
- The Dark Tower (2004 novel)
External links
- The Dark Tower official website (requires Macromedia Flash 6)
- List of Stephen King's works - including this series - from his official website
- TheDarkTower.net -- Extensive Fan and Information Site
- Dark Tower Wiki
- [1] Extensive information about all King's works including the Dark Tower