by Robin Furth
RAT: The Rat is paired with the FISH Guardian. III:325, III:331, III:333, VI:16
TURTLE (MATURIN): According to MID-WORLD’s legends, GAN bore the world and moved on. However, if the Turtle hadn’t been there to catch it on his back as it fell, all of the known worlds would have ended in the abyss.
The Turtle is one of the most important Guardians, and seems to be the major totem of the city of LUD. (The STREET OF THE TURTLE, with its sculptured Turtle, leads to BLAINE’S CRADLE.) Even before meeting him, we hear the following two poems about him:
See the TURTLE of enormous girth!
On his shell he holds the earth.
His thought is slow but always kind;
He holds us all within his mind.
On his back all vows are made:
He sees the truth but mayn’t aid.
He loves the land and loves the sea,
And even loves a child like me. (III:40)
See the TURTLE of enormous girth!
On his shell he holds the earth
If you want to run and play,
Come along the BEAM today. (III:122)
(For additional variations on the Turtle poem, See APPENDIX III.)
The Turtle Guardian’s name is Maturin. Unlike SHARDIK (Maturin’s companion Guardian), the Turtle Guardian does not appear to be mad. In fact, he appears to be aiding our ka-tet in their search for the DARK TOWER.
In Song of Susannah, SUSANNAH-MIO finds a small SCRIMSHAW TURTLE in the lining of JAKE CHAMBERS’s magical bowling bag (temporary home to BLACK THIRTEEN). This SKÖLDPADDA (as it is called by MATHIESSEN VAN WYCK) is actually one of the CAN-TAH, or little gods. Its good magic (probably derived from the Turtle Guardian, which it depicts) seems able to nullify some of the chaos wrought by Black Thirteen. Not only does it help Susannah/Mia to find shelter at the NEW YORK PLAZA–PARK HYATT, but it also later aids Jake and PERE CALLAHAN when they face the CAN-TOI, TYPE ONE VAMPIRES, and GRANDFATHERS at the DIXIE PIG. III:39–40, III:122, III:129, III:264, III:266, III:309 (sculpture of and street of the), III:310 (voice of the), III:312 (street), III:316 (street), III:325 (street), III:331, III:332 (street), III:333, III:341 (street), IV:222 (Hambry’s Mercantile), IV:424 (“Bless the Turtle”), IV:481 (“in the name of the turtle and the bear”), IV:570–73 (Roland hears the turtle’s voice during his time trapped in Maerlyn’s ball), V:97 (Turtle Bay), V:99, V:165, (cloud), V:183, V:188 (Turtle Bay), V:405, V:618–19 (indirect; Eddie feels scrimshaw in bottom of bag; we don’t find out what it is until later book), VI:15 (Maturin), VI:57 (fountain), VI:66, VI:68, VI:71, VI:81–98 (scrimshaw in Susannah/Mia’s possession), VI:112, VI:124 (scrimshaw), VI:230 (scrimshaw), VI:256 (scrimshaw), VI:259 (scrimshaw), VI:295 (world borne by Gan landed on Turtle’s back), VI:296, VI:298, VI:299, VI:339–40 (scrimshaw; indirect), VI:343 (scrimshaw), VI:363 (scrimshaw), VI:394, VI:398, VII:3 (Maturin), VII:3–14 (scrimshaw), VII:21, VII:25 (can-tah), VII:26, VII:28, VII:51 (can-tah), VII:143 (scrimshaw), VII:144 (scrimshaw), VII:147, VII:232, VII:244, VII:272, VII:291, VII:295, VII:409, VII:445, VII:446, VII:458, VII:488 (New York sculpture), VII:489–90, VII:497, VII:513, VII:525–26 (scrimshaw), VII:542, VII:813
SCRIMSHAW TURTLE (CAN-TAH): For page references, see listing above; for more information about the can-tah, see CAN-TAH, listed separately
WOLF: At the beginning of The Dark Tower, we find out that—thanks to the efforts of the BEAM BREAKERS—only two Beams are still intact. They are the BEAR-TURTLE Beam and the Wolf-ELEPHANT Beam (also known as GAN’s Beam). Together they form the only remaining guy-wires holding the DARK TOWER in place. By the time Roland and his friends reach the DEVAR-TOI, the Devar’s telemetry equipment has already picked up the first bends in the Bear-Turtle. Luckily for all of us in every world, our ka-tet defeats the CRIMSON KING’s henchmen and the Beams are able to regenerate. IV:222 (Hambry’s Mercantile), VII:232, VII:295
GUNSLINGERS (MID-WORLD)
In the Foreword to The Wind Through the Keyhole, STEPHEN KING described Mid-World’s gunslingers as a strange combination of knights errant and territorial marshals from the Old West. As we learn over the course of the Dark Tower series, the gunslingers of Mid-World were all this and more. Based in the city of GILEAD, Barony Seat of NEW CANAAN, in the heart of IN-WORLD, MID-WORLD’s gunslingers were peace officers, messengers, accountants, diplomats, spies, and sometimes executioners. But most of all, gunslingers were highly trained fighting machines whose reflexes, memories, and powers of observation were honed to an incredible keenness. To become a gunslinger was to undergo a rigorous training of mind, body, and spirit unsurpassed in any of the worlds.
Descended from ARTHUR ELD, the ancient king of ALL-WORLD, and his many knights, Gilead’s gunslingers were the aristocrats of their time. Armed with six-shot revolvers rather than swords, their job was to protect the enlightenment and knowledge of Elden times against the constant encroachment of the OUTER DARK. To a man who belonged to the tet of the gun, losing his life was preferable to losing his honor, since loss of honor reflected not just on himself but on all of his male ancestors. Among gunslingers, the saying “I have forgotten the face of my father” was the ultimate statement of remorse.
During Roland’s youth, the gunslingers’ greatest enemy was JOHN FARSON, also known as THE GOOD MAN. Despite his talk of equality and democracy, Farson was little more than a brutal, power-hungry harrier. He was also dangerously insane. Evidently, his favorite pastime was playing polo, but using human heads as the balls. Like MARTEN BROADCLOAK, Steven Deschain’s treacherous sorcerer and advisor, Farson ultimately served the CRIMSON KING. For more information, see AFFILIATION and CORT (CORTLAND ANDRUS). For information about individual gunslingers, see the entries for the characters listed under INDIVIDUAL GUNSLINGERS, below.
APPRENTICE GUNSLINGERS: At the age of six, boys born to the line of ELD were taken from their parents (many of whom lived in Gilead’s CENTRAL PLACE) and were made to sleep in the apprentices’ BARRACKS, located above the munitions vault. The training of apprentices was undertaken by CORT, the gunslingers’ teacher-at-arms. Strict as a sergeant, Cort trained generations of young men in the art of war. Not only did he instruct them in the use of a variety of weapons, but he also taught them to navigate by the sun and stars, and to keep a clock ticking inside their heads. Though he called them the very eye of syphilis, Cort’s true hope was that each and every boy would one day earn his guns. Though Cort had a philosophical side, his lessons focused on the necessities and slyness of battle. For the subtle arts of the mind, the apprentices were taught by VANNAY THE WISE.
Drilled into each apprentice was the gunslinger’s litany: “I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.” At approximately eighteen years of age, each gunslinger apprentice was expected to best Cort in a one-on-one battle in Gilead’s SQUARE YARD, located behind the GREAT HALL. (They were to take Cort’s ironwood staff from him.) Those who emerged triumphant from this all-or-nothing battle traded in their nickel and steel barrel-shooters for the six shooters of fully-fledged gunslingers. Those who failed were sent west, weaponless. Disgraced and outcast, they never returned to Gilead. Many ended up joining forces with JOHN FARSON. See also CORT and VANNAY, listed separately
I:110 (2003 edition), I:169–186 (Roland’s coming-of-age battle, 2003 edition), II:16 (Cort’s teachings), II:36 (training the memory), II:177, II:309 (cleaning a gun), III:14, III:71, III:83, III:276 (riddling), III:328 (checking visual quadrants), IV:107, IV:109, IV:111, IV:112, IV:164, IV:232, IV:270, IV:350, IV:358, IV:574 (waking a person from trance), V:29, V:78–81 (lessons from Cort and Vannay), V:89 (lessons about Manni) V:225, V:235, V:388 (Vannay), V:392 (training), VI:203, VII:33 (Cort’s lessons), VII:34, VII:589, VII:778 (Cort’s teaching), W:36, W:40 (baby gunslingers)
“Have you come here for a serious purpose, boy?”
“I have come for a serious purpose.”
“Have you come as an outcast from your father's house?”
“I have so come.”
“Have you come with your chosen weapon?”
“I have.”
“What is your weapon?”
The final question always worked to the teacher’s advantage, since he could adjust his plan of battle to the sling or spear or bah or bow. If the boy won the battle and took Cort’s stick, he was allowed to exit by the east end. If he failed, he slunk out by the west entrance, a boy forever. Such young men were sent west in disgrace, into the very lands where JOHN FARSON’s revolution raged. Many of these failed gunslingers—such as ELDRED JONAS—joined forces with Gilead’s greatest enemy. Farson gave these broken boys weapons and encouraged them to vent their rage against the city of their fathers. For page references, see APPRENTICE GUNSLINGERS, above.
INDIVIDUAL APPRENTICES SENT WEST: See BIG COFFIN HUNTERS: INDIVIDUAL BIG COFFIN HUNTERS: JONAS, ELDRED
COUNCIL OF ELD: See GILEAD’S COUNCIL OF ELD
INDIVIDUAL GUNSLINGERS:
ALLGOOD, CUTHBERT: See ALLGOOD, CUTHBERT, listed separately
ALLGOOD, ROBERT: See ALLGOOD, CUTHBERT: CUTHBERT’S FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES
CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK: See CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK, listed separately
CHAMBERS, JAKE: See CHAMBERS, JAKE, listed separately
DEAN, EDDIE: See DEAN, EDDIE, listed separately
DEAN, SUSANNAH: See DEAN, SUSANNAH, listed separately
DeCURRY, JAMIE: See DeCURRY, JAMIE, listed separately
DESCHAIN, ROLAND: See DESCHAIN, ROLAND, listed separately
DESCHAIN, STEVEN: See DESCHAIN, STEVEN, listed separately
JOHNS, ALAIN: See JOHNS, ALAIN, listed separately
JOHNS, CHRISTOPHER: See JOHNS, ALAIN, listed separately
McVRIES, PETER: When Roland and JAMIE arrived in DEBARIA to track the SKIN-MAN, the HIGH SHERIFF, HUGH PEAVY, admitted that he had hoped to see STEVEN DESCHAIN himself and perhaps PETER McVRIES. Roland told Peavy that McVries had died of a fever three years previously. (This fever was most likely induced by poison.) Peavy grieved McVries death, since he was a trig hand with a gun. W:54–55
TAVARES POSSE: When TIM ROSS was twenty-one, three men wearing the hard calibers of gunslingers came to the village of TREE. They were bound for TAVERES and were hoping to raise a posse. Tim was the only young man who would go with them. Initially these gunslingers called Tim “the lefthanded gun” and later, after he’d proved himself to be both fearless and a dead shot, they called him tet-fa, or friend of the tet. Later, Tim actually became a gunslinger, one of the few of that tet not born to the line of ELD. W:268
GUNSLINGERS (OUR WORLD)
Individuals from our where and when who come in contact with Roland Deschain are often reminded of one or more gunslingers from the Old West of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here is a short list of those gunslingers, including a brief bio of each.
BILLY THE KID: Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney) was one of the Old West’s famous outlaws. Although he was born in New York, the Kid became one of the most notorious gunslingers involved in New Mexico’s cattle wars. Legend has it that he killed twenty-one men before his twenty-first birthday. True to his nickname, the Kid died young. He never saw twenty-two. II:186
CASSIDY, BUTCH, AND THE SUNDANCE KID: Butch Cassidy was one of the most celebrated outlaws of the American West. Born Robert Leroy Parker, he took his last name from Mike Cassidy, a cowboy rustler who taught him the horse-thieving trade. His first name came from his stint working for a butcher in Wyoming.
Butch Cassidy and Harry Longbaugh (known as the Sundance Kid) formed the Wild Bunch Gang, also called the Hole in the Wall Gang. Cassidy was sometimes called a “gentleman bandit” because he claimed never to have killed anyone during his raids. II:358
EARP, WYATT: Wyatt Earp was one of the Old West’s most famous lawmen and was a whiz with the six-shooter. He earned a reputation as a hard-caliber man in such towns as Tombstone and Dodge City. He and the other Earp brothers took part in the famous shoot-out at the OK Corral. (They fought the Clanton clan.) Earp actually wore the famous lawman’s star for less than a decade. His other careers were as gambler, teamster, buffalo hunter, and railroad man. He was friends with the equally famous DOC HOLLIDAY. II:358
HOLLIDAY, DOC: Doc Holliday was born John Henry Holliday. Although he trained as a dentist, he moved west to try to ease the tuberculosis that was killing him. Unfortunately, the drier climate didn’t help much and his constant coughing drove away his clientele. As a result, he took up a new profession—gambling—and was remarkably good at it. He eventually diversified and added train robbery, despite the fact that he was friends with the lawman WYATT EARP. (Interestingly enough, the Doc occasionally served as Earp’s deputy.) Like so many of the other famous gunslingers of our world, Holliday was a deadly shot with the six-gun. However, in the end it was the TB, and not the gun, that killed him. Holliday died at age thirty-six. II:358
OAKLEY, ANNIE: Although Annie Oakley was a woman, she could shoot like Roland. From 1885 to 1902, she starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Although she stood just under five feet tall, her aim could make a huge man tremble. As part of her act, Annie shot cigarettes from her husband’s lips. She could even shoot through the pips of a playing card tossed in the air. Too bad she never met our ka-tet. II:368
GUTTENBERG, FURTH, AND PATEL
Guttenberg, Furth, and Patel is a NEW YORK CITY accountancy firm. TRUDY DAMASCUS works there.
VI:47, VI:52–54
DAMASCUS, TRUDY: Until the first of June 1999, Trudy Damascus prided herself on being a hardheaded, no-nonsense accountant. Her professional goal was to become a partner in the firm of Guttenberg, Furth, and Patel. However, while returning from lunch that fateful day, she witnessed SUSANNAH/MIA’s materialization on SECOND AVENUE. Mia—desperate to find a telefung so that she could contact RICHARD P. SAYRE and the other WARRIORS OF THE SCARLET EYE who promised to let her bear her CHAP in safety—threatened Trudy and stole both her shoes and her New York Times. Trudy was never the same afterward. VI:47–58, VI:64 (indirect), VI:65, VI:222
ANTASSI, OFFICER PAUL: Officer Paul Antassi is the NEW YORK CITY police officer who arrives at Guttenberg, Furth, and Patel after Trudy Damascus reports being mugged on SECOND AVENUE. He is also the first person to hear Trudy’s rather unlikely story about the abrupt appearance of SUSANNAH DEAN/MIA, daughter of none, into the New York of 1999. Like all the others who will listen later, Antassi refuses to believe Trudy’s tale. VI:52–53, VI:54–55
GUTTENBERG, MITCH: Mitch Guttenberg is one of the partners of Guttenberg, Furth, and Patel. VI:54
KIDZPLAY: This company owes Guttenberg, Furth, and Patel a large sum of money. RICHARD GOLDMAN is the company’s CEO. VI:47, VI:48
GOLDMAN, RICHARD: Richard Goldman is the CEO for KidzPlay. Trudy Damascus is after his testicles. VI:48
H
HABER
See CAN-TOI
HACKFORD, DR. MORRIS
See TOPEKA CHARACTERS
HAGGENGOOD TWINS
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: OTHER CHARACTERS
HAGGERTY THE NAIL
See TREE VILLAGE CHARACTERS
HALF-MUTANT FARMER
See MUTANTS: HUMAN MUTANTS (MINOR MUTATIONS)
HALVORSEN, JIMMY
See DEAN, SUSANNAH: OTHER ASS
OCIATES: MACY’S EMPLOYEES
HAMBRY CHARACTERS
In Wizard and Glass, Roland tells his ka-tet about his fourteenth year, and the months he spent in the town of HAMBRY after he won his guns. In Hambry, Roland lost his heart to SUSAN DELGADO, and what remained of his innocence and trust to the duplicitous followers of THE GOOD MAN. Under the false name of WILL DEARBORN, Roland and his two apprentice-gunslinger friends, CUTHBERT ALLGOOD (alias ARTHUR HEATH) and ALAIN JOHNS (alias RICHARD STOCKWORTH), discovered that the people of Hambry secretly supported JOHN FARSON. Roland and his friends destroyed the rebellion, whose forces were led by the BIG COFFIN HUNTERS and aided by the wicked witch RHEA OF THE CÖOS. They also stole John Farson’s secret weapon, MAERLYN’S GRAPEFRUIT, for their fathers. Although Roland and his two friends survived, Roland (tricked by the glammer of Maerlyn’s evil magic ball) deserted Susan and she was burned to death on a Charyou Tree fire.
HORSEMEN’S ASSOCIATION: All of Hambry’s important ranchers, stockliners, and livestock owners belonged to this local, but powerful, association. Many of the farmers belonged as well. FRAN LENGYLL—distant friend and later murderer of PAT DELGADO—was its president. Not surprisingly, SUSAN DELGADO thought them a cold lot. This association owned the BAR K RANCH, where Roland, CUTHBERT, and ALAIN stayed during their time in MEJIS. Although they pretended to be loyal to the AFFILIATION, the Horsemen’s Association actually supported THE GOOD MAN. In reality, they were the FARSON Association. IV:188, IV:199, IV:211, IV:251–52 (something is wrong), IV:293, IV:381 (all traitors), IV:424, IV:519 (as “Farson Association”), IV:522, IV:541