by Bev Vincent
SOWING NIGHT (1, M)
Festival night associated with the ritual of planting in the spring. The season of Sowing includes the month of June. During the Sowing Night Cotillion, young Roland watched his mother dance with Marten Broadcloak.
SPEAKING RINGS OR SPEAKING CIRCLES (1, 3, 4, 7)
Circles made out of tall standing rocks, often inhabited by demons that can be summoned and forced to act as oracles, usually in return for sexual favors. They are thin places and often provide access between worlds, such as the one where Jake returned to Mid-World. Roland encounters one after leaving the Way Station and finds a number of them at the end of Tower Road.
SPIRIT OF TOPEKA (7)
The atomic locomotive (hot-enj) that carried Susannah, Ted, Sheemie and a few others from Algul Siento to Fedic after the Breakers were freed. It could travel up to three hundred miles per hour. The last nine of twelve cars—all empty—fell into the chasm outside Fedic when the trestle collapsed.
STARKBLAST (4.5)
According to Daria: “A fast-moving storm of great power. Its features include steep and sudden drops in temperature accompanied by strong winds. It has been known to cause great destruction and loss of life in civilized portions of the world. In primitive areas, entire tribes have been wiped out.” A period of unusually warm weather lasting a few days usually heralds the storm. Like tornadoes, starkblasts form funnels and can travel for hundreds of miles before lifting into the sky and vanishing. Billy-bumblers have a talent for predicting them, and they’re known to bring strange dreams. They often travel along and are intensified by a Beam. They struck the forest north of Gilead each year but never reached the city.
SUNSHINE (4.5)
Widow Ardelia Smack’s burro. Tim Ross fed, watered and walked the burro many times.
SWORD OF ELD
See Excalibur.
TALES OF ARTHUR (5)
A book filled with stories of the days of Arthur Eld. Father Callahan has a copy.
THINNY (4, 5, M)
A place where the fabric of existence is almost worn away. A sore on the skin of existence, a cavity at the center of the universe able to exist only because things are going wrong in all worlds. They are doorways between worlds, though dangerous. They spread and grow. There have been more of them since the Dark Tower began to fail. They shimmer as if they were silvery water. They issue a low, liquid warbling sound that is disturbing on a psychic level, the effect of which is cumulative. Blaine the Mono passed through one to get the ka-tet to Topeka. The sound reminds Jake of Hawaiian music. The ka-tet is able to block the sound using bullets from Mid-World, but not ones from the real world. It tingles when they come into contact with it. Being inside it is claustrophobic, purgatorial. The one at the far end of Eyebolt Canyon—the first Roland ever saw—has been there since before Susan was born but not before her father was born. An earthquake may have accompanied its arrival. Viewed from above, it looks like a slow-burning peat fire or a swamp full of scummy green water. The light green mist (silvery in the moonlight) that rises off it sometimes looks like long, skinny arms with hands at the end. It has seductive, cajoling voices that can draw people in to their deaths. The locals burned it quiet each fall because the animals reacted badly to the sound.
THREADED STOCK (1, 4, 5, M)
Purebred line, free from genetic mutations.
TOPSY (L, M)
One of Roland’s horses, a two-year-old roan that dies in Eluria.
UNFOUND DOOR (1, 3, 5, 6, 7)
The magic door that Walter uses to send Father Callahan from the Way Station to the Cave of Voices near Calla Bryn Sturgis. It is made of ironwood or ghostwood. It has a crystal doorknob with a rose etched on it and no keyhole. Like the doorway at the Portal of Shardik, it vibrates to the touch. Unlike most magic doors, this one follows Callahan after he passes through. The ka-tet use it in conjunction with Black Thirteen to travel to specific times and places in Keystone Earth. The term comes from Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. Patrick Danville draws it to Susannah’s specifications so she can travel to Central Park. The word “unfound” is written on it in the hieroglyphics of the Great Old Ones. The door at the base of the Dark Tower also says “unfound” until Roland takes off his guns. Then the word changes to “found.”
VI CASTIS COMPANY (4)
The mining company that has taken over all the former freehold gold, silver, copper and diamond mines in the Vi Castis Mountains. The Big Coffin Hunters assisted the company in running the independents off.
VOICE OF THE TURTLE / VOICE OF THE BEAM (3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
See Song of the Turtle.
WATCH ME (1, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
A card game that has been played in barrooms and bunkhouses and around campfires since the world was young. According to Roland, saying “Watch me” means “you have a deal.” The one surviving dipolar computer in Lud can only run the drum machines and play this game. There is also a one-handed version and a version called Hotpatch or Casa Fuerte.
WAY-GOG (3)
Bagpipelike instrument played on an upper level of the Tower, according to Blaine the Mono.
WESTERN LINE (4.5)
The train line that once ran for more than a thousand wheels west of Gilead all the way to the Mohaine Desert. In the years before Gilead fell, it ran only as far as Debaria. Beyond that, washouts, earthquakes and harriers destroyed the tracks.
THE WHITE (1, 3, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)
The force of good that stands behind the Affiliation. The power of Arthur Eld, the White King. The sigul on the end of Roland’s gun barrels and the one on the door of Arthur’s tomb translates to the White. Steven Deschain sends Roland to Debaria so people can see that the White is still strong and true.
WICKETS
See Points.
WIDE EARTH (1, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 7)
One of the seven seasons of Mid-World, between Winter and Sowing. The Dance of Easterling marks its end. Riddling is the most important event of the Fair of Wide Earth because the riddles augur well or ill for the success of the crops. The Covenant Man made his rounds of the North’rd Barony during this season.
“THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE” (4.5)
A story from the Magic Tales of the Eld that Roland’s mother read to him when he was a child. Roland tells the story of Tim Stoutheart to Young Bill Streeter in Debaria.
WIZARD’S GLASS, THE (4, 5, 7)
Any of thirteen magical glass orbs that make up the Wizard’s Rainbow. Also known as the Bends o’ the Rainbow.
WIZARD’S RAINBOW, THE (4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)
Also known as Maerlyn’s Rainbow. It consists of thirteen colored glass balls (or bends), one for each of the Guardians of the Beam and one—Black Thirteen, the most powerful and terrible—representing the Dark Tower. Some people believe Maerlyn was turned evil by their glammer in the days before the Elden Kingdom fell. Others think he created them.
These balls are alive and hungry and evil. Hurt enlivens them. People who use them end up being used by them. Each one makes its possessor feel like the glass is just for him or her, but they never stay in one place or one pair of hands for long. Almost all have the power to send the user todash. Some are used to see into the future or into other worlds, or to spy on other locations in Mid-World. They never see the good—only the ill.
By the time Roland comes into possession of the pink orb in Mejis, most are thought to have been broken. The Crimson King had six of them, but he smashed them before leaving Le Casse Roi Russe for the Dark Tower. The locations of the rest are mostly rumors. The blue glass was supposedly in the hands of a desert tribe of slow mutants called the Total Hogs, but they lost it. The green glass was reportedly in Lud and the orange one in Dis.
WOLF (4)
Mayor Hart Thorin of Hambry’s dog. He chewed up one of Susan Delgado’s Reap Fair dresses.
YEAR’S END (4, 5)
One of the seven seasons in Mid-World, between Reaping and Winter. Its moon is the Demon Moon.
ZOLTAN (1, 3,
4, 6, 7, M)
Brown’s talking raven, named after a folk singer and guitarist King knew at the University of Maine.
MID-WORLD/MANNI/CALLA WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS
ALL HAIL (OR HILE) THE CRIMSON KING (4, 5, 7, M)
A statement of tribute to the Crimson King. Jake sees it written on the boards surrounding the vacant lot.
ALL THINGS SERVE THE BEAM (3, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
Everything that anyone does, even people who are opponents of the ka-tet, ultimately is to the benefit of ka. Tim Ross knows the saying without understanding what it means.
ALLEYO (5)
To run away.
AM (7)
The opposite of Prim—reason instead of magic.
AN-TET (4, 4.5, 5, 7)
In council. A kind of telepathy and communication shared by people who are part of a ka-tet. Also the relationship between two lovers.
ANTI-KA (7)
A force that works against ka, set in motion by the Crimson King.
ASTIN (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Roland’s pronunciation of “aspirin.”
AVEN KAL (7)
“Lifted by the wind” or “carried on the wave.” A wave that runs along the Path of the Beam that takes people somewhere to show them something ka wants them to see or hear.
AVEN KAS (7)
A destructive natural force, like a hurricane or a tsunami.
BAH-BO (7)
A term of endearment meaning “baby.”
BANNOCK (7)
Buffalo.
BIN-RUSTIES OR RUSTIES (4.5, 5, 6, 7)
Swallows or giant blackbirds.
BINNIE BUGS (5)
Mosquito-like insects.
BLACKMOUTH DISEASE (7)
Cancer.
BLOSSIEWOOD OR BLOSSWOOD (4.5, 5)
A sweet-smelling tree found at the edge of the Endless Forest. It has a fine-grained lightweight golden wood used for lake and river craft. When Roland was ten, spiders infested a farm of these trees east of Gilead. The forester panicked and cut down all the good trees to keep them from being killed, which put an end to the Blosswood Forest.
BOOM-FLURRY (5)
An organ-pipe cactus with great thick barrel arms and long needles. They have a bitter, tangy odor, can move and are carnivorous. They act as sentries outside the Dogan near Calla Bryn Sturgis.
BOUGIE (7)
A reanimated corpse.
BRIGHT (4.5)
Special talent.
BUCKA (1, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
A wagon, usually horse-drawn.
BULL SQUIRTER (4.5)
A kind of eye dropper used by Destry in Tree, probably for artificial insemination.
CALLUM-KA (6)
A simple pullover worn by men and women in the Callas during cooler weather.
CAMEL BUCKET (4, M)
A bucket at a saloon into which unfinished drinks are poured, creating a noxious combination known as camel piss. Reckless and poor people can buy double shots for a few pennies.
CAN CALAH (6)
Angels. Gan speaks in the voice of the can calah.
CANDA (7)
A strategic distance between two gunslingers when entering a battle outnumbered. It guarantees that they can’t be killed by a single shot. The distance is never the same in any two situations.
CAN-TAH (5, 6, 7)
Little gods. Animal-shaped icons, like the scrimshaw turtle, imbued with power.
Crossover to other works: The stone carvings in the China Pit mine in Desperation are also can-tahs.
CAN TOI (6, 7)
Low men/women.
CAN-TOI-TETE (7)
Misbegotten thing. Roland’s term for a mutant desert dog.
CARVERS (4)
Five-shot revolvers.
CHAR (3, 4)
Death.
CHARY (1, 4.5, 5, 7)
Dangerous or deadly.
CHARY MAN (1, 4.5, 5, 7)
Someone who courts or brings death.
CHARY-KA (7)
Someone (like Roland) who is destined to deal death.
CHARYOU TREE (1, 4, 5, 6, M)
In the days of the Old People, at the end of the Reaping Day Fair, a person was sacrificed in the bonfire as a way of placating the gods. “Come, Reap, death for you and life for our crops” was the accompanying chant. The chosen sacrifice had his or her hands painted red. After the tradition was banned, people painted the hands of stuffy-guys and threw them into the Reap Fair Bonfire instead, or burned them on pyres after the harvest.
CHASSIT (1, 7)
High Speech for the number nineteen
CHEFLET (3, 7)
The way Roland pronounces the name of the antibiotic Keflex.
CHERT (7)
A strong metamorphic rock that is often used for primitive tools like ax-heads, knives, skewers and scrapers. It resembles quartz. According to legend, it “breaks lucky,” which means it usually breaks into pieces the size and shape to suit the purpose at hand.
CHILDE (7)
A formal and ancient term that describes a knight or a gunslinger chosen by ka to embark on a quest. Because it is a holy term, the gunslingers never used it among themselves.
CLEARING AT THE END OF THE PATH (L, 1, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
Death. Also heaven. The place where a person’s ka-essen goes after death. Some people believe that those in the clearing know all the secrets the living keep from one another.
CLOBBER (4.5)
A straw hat worn by men who worked at the mines.
CLOUT (1, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
A cloth, rag or diaper.
COFFAH (7)
Hell.
COMMALA (1, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
A word with dozens of meanings in Mid-World. The most common is a variety of rice, but it also stands for intercourse, orgasm, the moment before a feast begins, baldness and schmoozing, to name but a few. Many of its meanings, connotations and shadings are sexual.
COOZEY (4)
An unflattering adjective.
CORVETTE (4)
Literally “a little packet.” In Hambry, a small leather purse with a lace tie. Big enough for a few coins. Carried by ladies more often than gentlemen.
COSY (3, 5)
Dangerous or tricky. Devious.
COTTON GILLY (4)
Prostitute.
COVE (3, 7)
A person. Most often used in “a trig cove,” meaning a sly or smart person.
COZEN (4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
Cheat, trick or deceive.
CRADLE (3)
Train station.
CRADLE-AMAH (5)
Wet nurse.
CRUNK (4)
The unofficial name for the dialect spoken by cowboys in Mejis.
CUJO (7)
In Mejis, this word means “sweet one.”
CULLY (L, 1, 3, 4, 4.5, 6, 7, M)
A nonspecific form of address, like “boy” or “mate.”
DAN-DINH (1, 5, 7)
A formal way a person speaks with a person acknowledged as his dinh. The person opens his heart to the dinh’s command with regard to an emotional problem. When a person does this, he agrees to do exactly as the dinh suggests, immediately and without question.
DAN-TETE (6, 7)
“Little savior”—a term applied to John Cullum, who was in the right place at the right time and was levelheaded enough to help Roland and Eddie—or “baby god”—the term for Mordred Deschain used by the minions of the Crimson King.
DASH-DINH (5)
A religious leader.
DEAD-LETTER (4, 4.5, 5, 6)
A will.
DEADLINE (3, 7)
A line that it is lethal to cross. There is supposed to be one around the Cradle of Lud, and the Crimson King set one around his castle to keep people from leaving after he went mad.
DELAH (4.5, 5, 6, 7)
Many. A number beyond counting. Who knows? Always spoken with a light toss of the open hand toward the horizon or the sky. Can be used as a modifier to indicate “very,” as in t
rig-delah.
DEVAR-TETE (7)
Little prison or torture chamber. Roland applies the word to the Fedic Dogan. In the context of the Devar-Tete Whye, it means simply “little.”
DIBBIN (4.5)
The magic napkin that Tim Ross uses for protection against the starkblast and as a magic carpet to get him back to Tree.
DINH (1, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)
Leader. It can refer to the person in charge of a ka-tet or the king of a country. Steven Deschain was the dinh not only of his fellow gunslingers but also of Gilead and the Affiliation. Mia observes that “leader” and “king” are poor substitutes for another meaning of the word: father.
DOCKER’S CLUTCH (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
A spring-clip or shoulder holster that allows quick access to a concealed weapon.
DOCKERY (3)
A plant like chicory used to make coffee.
DROGUE (L, 4)
At the end of a line, as in “riding drogue,” the rear end of a caravan.
DROTTA STICK (5)
A dowsing rod used to locate water.
DRY TWIST (5, 6, 7)
A fast-progressing form of arthritis. Roland appears to be suffering from this, but his pains come from a different source.
EARTH-GAS (4)
A fuel like propane that can be used to run generators and other appliances.
EFDAY (4.5)
A day of the week—probably Friday.
ETHDAY (4.5)
A day of the week—probably Saturday.
FAN-GON (5, M)
The exiled one.
FASHED (4, 4.5, 5, 7)
Upset, vexed or mad.
FAYEN FOLKEN (7)
Another term for the can toi or low men.
FIREDIMS (2, 3, 4)
Gemstones. Diamonds.
FIREDIM TUBES (3)
Neon lights.
FOLKEN (4.5, 5, 6, 7)
People, as in Calla-folken, the people of the Calla.
FOTTERGRAF (2, 4, 5, 7)
Photograph.