Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated

by Robin Furth

  II:380–84, III:262 (indirect)

  WEED-EATER

  See TULL CHARACTERS: NORT

  WEGG, WILL

  See DEBARIA CHARACTERS: LITTLE DEBARIA CHARACTERS

  WERE-SPIDER

  See MORDRED

  WERTNER, HENRY

  See HAMBRY CHARACTERS: HORSEMEN’S ASSOCIATION

  **WHEELER’S BOY

  Like many of the figures from Roland’s past, we don’t know much about this gunslinger apprentice. The only bit of information we’re given is that STEVEN DESCHAIN thinks he is brighter than Roland. This character is cut from the 2003 version of The Gunslinger.

  I:105

  WHITE AMMIES

  See GILEAD’S WHITE AMMIES

  WHITE, JAKE

  See HAMBRY CHARACTERS: HORSEMEN’S ASSOCIATION

  WHITE, THE

  The White is the force of good. It is akin to faith in God, but it is both larger and more elemental than a belief in any particular religion or creed. To the beleaguered inhabitants of MID-WORLD, the aristocratic gunslingers are knights of the White. Although the ancient hero ARTHUR ELD is often associated with the White, the term is not limited to a particular political faction, allegiance, or social class. Its true meaning relates back to the philosophy of wholeness and unity embedded in the language of High Speech. Like white light and white magic, the White contains all colors within its balance and is the opposite of the evil Outer Dark. (Page references for Volumes I–IV not included. See APPENDIX I.)

  V:101, V:104, V:605, V:709, VII:4, VII:6, VII:10, VII:12, VII:13, VII:27, VII:127, VII:607, VII:748

  WHITMAN, THOMAS

  See THOMAS OF GILEAD

  WIDOW SMACK (ARDELIA SMACK)

  The Widow Smack was TREE’s beloved schoolteacher. Despite her shakes and the veils she wore to hide the ruin of her face, the Widow was a highly respected member of the village. Just as CORT instructed generations of boys in the art of war, so the Widow Smack—once a great lady in the Barony Estate—taught the children of Tree how to read, how to practice the art of mathmatica, and how to think. Although physically frail, the widow was a fearsomely smart woman who took no guff. On most days she was tireless. However, on occasion she was overcome by trembling fits and headaches and sent the children home. There must have been an unhappy love affair early in her life, because during these fits she would urge the students to remind their parents that she regretted nothing, least of all her beautiful prince. Sadly, the bloodsores that had eaten off half her face had also stolen her ability to cry. Her only remaining eye was unable to weep.

  Although TIM ROSS’s stepfather, BIG KELLS, forced Tim to give up schooling at the WIDOW’S COTTAGE so that he could earn scrip at the TREE SAWMILL, the widow remained Tim’s closest ally. Not only did she continue to give Tim books to read and mathematical problems to solve, but when she saw Tim riding past her house one night, heading for the ENDLESS FOREST where he was secretly meeting the evil COVENANT MAN, she was alerted to danger. With the help of her little burro SUNSHINE, the Widow traveled to the Ross cottage, GOODVIEW, where she found Nell, who had been beaten into unconsciousness by her husband. The Widow’s nursing probably saved Nell’s life, if not Nell’s sight.

  The Widow Smack was the first person Tim told about his father’s murder and that the murderer had been his own stepfather, Big Kells. The Widow Smack told Tim that he must relay the news to SQUARE PETER COSINGTON and SLOW ERNIE MARCHLY, in whose stake the body lay. They would fetch the body home but also drum up a posse to catch Kells. But the Widow also told the boy to beware of the wicked Covenant Man, who she stated was a pestilence incarnate. Alone among the people of Tree, the Widow knew the Covenanter’s true identity—that when he wasn’t at his hobby of collecting taxes and licking the tears off poor folks’ faces, he was an advisor to the LORDS OF GILEAD.

  Later, when Tim decided to travel into the Endless Forest again (this time to find MAERLYN, who he believed could restore his mother’s sight), the Widow did not approve. (After all, Tim’s information had come from the trickster Covenanter.) Nevertheless, she gave Tim a lamp and a loaf of bread, and a warning to watch for THROCKEN dancing in the moonlight, for they would presage the coming of a STARKBLAST. But most importantly, she gave Tim her brother’s four-shot revolver.

  While Tim was gone, and the starkblast stormed upon the village of Tree, it was the Widow who watched over blind Nell. Sadly, while she slept in the big rocker by the Ross’s fire, Bern Kells sneaked back into the cottage and slit the Widow’s throat. Her death was avenged by Nell, who put her first husband’s ax in Kells’s thick skull.

  W:112–13 (112 bloodsores that ate half her face), W:115, W:126 (veils and shakes), W:127, W:130, W:142, W:147, W:155–56, W:164–70, W:171, W:173–75 (174 saves Nell’s life), W:184–89 (degenerative disease, 189 harsh country accent), W:190, W:104 (lamp), W:196, W:199, W:202, W:207, W:212 (cotton sack), W:215 (sack), W:221, W:225–26, W:246, W:255 (cottage), W:258–62 (asleep; 262 dead), W:263, W:264, W:267

  GILEAD LADY FRIENDLY WITH WIDOW SMACK: Long ago, after the Barony’s COVENANT MAN took part in some foul business in the village of TREE, the WIDOW SMACK wrote to a great lady she once knew in GILEAD. That lady was a woman of discretion and beauty, and replied to the Widow’s inquiries promptly, though she begged her friend to burn the letter and the information it contained. According to this lady, collecting taxes was merely the Covenant Man’s hobby. In truth he was a great mage, and an advisor to the Gilead’s palace lords who call themselves the COUNCIL OF ELD. W:169, W:170

  JOSHUA: Joshua was Widow Smack’s brother. He died in the ENDLESS FOREST twenty years before the events of “The Wind Through the Keyhole” took place. Joshua bought a gun from a roving peddler and showed his sister how to use it. Joshua must have been very wise. He said, “a gun must never be pointed at a person unless you want to hurt or kill him, for guns have eager hearts.” Widow Smack gave Joshua’s gun to TIM ROSS.

  PEDDLER: This peddler sold JOSHUA his four-shot revolver. W:186

  SUNSHINE (BURRO): Sunshine was the Widow’s burrow. W:155, W:164, W:166, W:174, W:258

  WILSON, TEDDY

  See MAINE CHARACTERS

  WILSON, WILLIAM

  See BALAZAR, ENRICO: BALAZAR’S NASSAU CONNECTION

  WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE CHARACTERS MET BETWEEN GREEN PALACE AND RIVER WHYE:

  FRIGHTENED WOMAN: This frightened woman peeks at ROLAND, EDDIE, SUSANNAH, JAKE, and OY as they travel along the PATH OF THE BEAM toward the RIVER WHYE. She has her arms around two children and carries a baby in a sling around her neck. W:5

  HALF-MUTIE FARMER: See MUTANTS: HUMAN MUTANTS (MINOR MUTATIONS)

  TOOK (TOOK’S OUTLAND MERCANTILE): In The Wind Through the Keyhole, Roland and his American tet pass by this deserted store. Its sign is barely readable. W:4

  WINKLER

  See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: OTHER CHARACTERS

  WINSTON

  See PUBES

  WIZARD OF OZ (DOROTHY, TOTO, TIN WOODSMAN)

  The Wizard of Oz, which tells the tale of Dorothy, Toto, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Woodsman, is mentioned quite often in the Dark Tower series. Like JAKE, SUSANNAH, and EDDIE, Dorothy Gale was blown from a world much like ours to one where witches and magic are real. However, had The Wizard of Oz taken place in MID-WORLD, the Tin Woodsman would have been manufactured by NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS, and the Cowardly Lion would have been a MUTIE of some sort. In Wizard and Glass, our ka-tet actually visits an emerald palace where the evil wizard RANDALL FLAGG poses as the Great and Terrible Oz.

  II:229 (Dorothy), III:59, III:408, IV:629–30, IV:643–46, V:166

  DOROTHY: V:567

  TOTO: V:296

  WIZARD’S GLASS

  See MAERLYN’S RAINBOW

  WIZARD’S RAINBOW

  See MAERLYN’S RAINBOW

  WOLF POSSE

  See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: WOLF POSSE

  WOLVES (GREENCLOAKS)

  Once every generation, the CALLAS of MID-WO
RLD’s BORDERLANDS are invaded by giant, green-cloaked horse-riders from THUNDERCLAP. These servants of the CRIMSON KING steal one of each pair of prepubescent twins and deliver them en masse to their masters in the dark land. Although the people of the Callas don’t know exactly what happens to their young children once they are kidnapped, they do know that those who survive the journey home upon the train-pulled flatcars come back ROONT, or mentally and physically ruined.

  Although the Wolves’ coming is always foretold by ANDY, CALLA BRYN STURGIS’s one remaining Messenger Robot, before the arrival of our gunslinger tet the folken have never successfully rebuffed an attack. As they so morosely state during their meeting at the TOWN GATHERING HALL, they are a village of farmers, not fighters, and the Greencloaks who come galloping across the RIVER WHYE, bearing their terrible light-sticks and sneetches, are more than a match for a bunch of clod-turners.

  By anyone’s standards, the Wolves (named for the gray wolf masks they wear) are truly terrifying. As they gallop through the town on their huge gray steeds, wearing their green, swirling cloaks and black, cruel-looking boot spurs, they seem unassailable. No weapon penetrates the armor they wear beneath their clothes, and the ones they wield are the deadly technological creations of the GREAT OLD ONES. Their light-sticks burn the skin black and stop the heart, and their flying metal buzz-balls strip a man of skin in five seconds.

  In truth, the Wolves are neither men nor beasts but robots manufactured by NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS. However, by the time our tet rides into Calla Bryn Sturgis on their borrowed horses, only one of the Calla’s folken knows the true nature of the town’s terrible adversaries. This person—GRAN-PERE JAFFORDS—has guarded his secret for years, afraid that he will be disbelieved by his fellows or (worse yet) killed by Andy and whatever other traitors lurk in the town. Because, as becomes clear in Wolves of the Calla, the Calla always contains traitors—adults willing to sell information to Thunderclap as long as their own children are guaranteed safety.

  At the EAST ROAD battle, which takes place at the end of Wolves of the Calla, our tet defeats these terrible invaders and ends a cycle of violence which has been playing out for six generations. They kill these monsters not by shooting them through the heart, but by destroying the small radar dishes, or thinking caps, which revolve above their heads, but which are hidden by the hoods of their cloaks. (In this one vulnerability, they resemble SHARDIK, the cyborg BEAR GUARDIAN, which SUSANNAH killed at the beginning of The Waste Lands.) When EDDIE and JAKE remove the mask from one of their metallic enemies, they discover that he looks much like DR. DOOM from the Spider-Man comic books. He has lenses for eyes, a round mesh grille for a nose, and two sprouted microphones for ears.

  V:5–31 (coming to Calla), V:113, V:117, V:132, V:135, V:139, V:142–60 (149—described), V:161, V:163, V:164, V:207, V:214, V:217, V:220, V:221–22, V:224, V:236, V:237, V:247, V:257–91, V:295, V:318, V:319, V:321, V:322, V:328, V:339, V:340, V:341, V:342, V:347–49, V:350, V:356, V:357–69, V:382, V:383, V:390 (killed), V:393, V:394, V:396, V:397, V:413, V:416, V:420, V:434 (Hitler Brothers and Wolves), V:479, V:481, V:483, V:484, V:490, V:491, V:492, V:494, V:501, V:509, V:536 (Balazar’s men as), V:537 (Wolves of our world), V:554, V:555, V:561, V:567, V:572, V:574, V:575, V:580, V:581, V:582, V:584, V:586, V:590, V:602, V:603, V:604, V:606, V:607–17, V:629, V:632–35, V:636–38, V:642, V:645, V:650, V:656, V:658, V:659, V:661, V:663–97, V:700, VI:4, VI:6, VI:10, VI:23–26, VI:27, VI:61, VI:64, VI:81, VI:237, VI:238 (horses), VI:243, VI:245, VI:246, VI:247, VI:248, VI:337, VI:365, VII:21, VII:43, VII:81, VII:149, VII:151–53, VII:173, VII:179, VII:191, VII:192, VII:193–94, VII:206, VII:214, VII:232, VII:233, VII:234, VII:239, VII:252, VII:272, VII:407, VII:538, VII:540

  WORTHINGTON, FRED

  See BREAKERS

  WYLAND (WYLAND BABY)

  See TREE VILLAGE CHARACTERS

  Y

  YANKO, MIKE

  See PIPER SCHOOL CHARACTERS

  YOUNG AND BEARDLESS

  See MANNI

  Z

  ZACHARY

  See TULL CHARACTERS

  ZALIA JAFFORDS

  See ORIZA, SISTERS OF

  ZALMAN HOONIK

  See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: ROONTS

  ZOLTAN

  See BORDER DWELLERS

  ZOMBIS

  In Wolves of the Calla, Roland must hide his knowledge of the WOLVES’ true nature from whatever traitors lurk in CALLA BRYN STURGIS. He does this by telling the folken that the Greencloaks are zombis (spelled without the usual e), not robots.

  V:610, V:616

  MID-WORLD PLACES AND BORDERLAND PLACES23

  For the gunslinger it had been a stranger death yet—the endless hunt for the man in black through a world with neither map nor memory.

  I:140*

  My world is like a huge ship that sank near enough shore for most of the wreckage to wash up on the beach. Much of what we find is fascinating, some of it may be useful, if ka allows, but all of it is still wreckage. Senseless wreckage.

  Roland Deschain, IV:71

  Eddie slept. There were no dreams. And beneath them as the night latened and the moon set, this borderland world turned like a dying clock.

  V:239

  A

  **ALGUL SIENTO

  See ALGUL SIENTO, in PORTALS

  ALKALI FLATS

  See DEBARIA, BARONY OF

  ALL-WORLD

  In the time of Roland’s semi-mythical ancestor, ARTHUR ELD, all of the kingdoms of the land—whether part of IN-WORLD, OUT-WORLD, or MID-WORLD—were united under one high king who wore the crown of All-World upon his brow. This king was Arthur, Warrior of the White and the first Lord of Light. Like the great King Arthur of our world, Arthur Eld wielded a magical sword called EXCALIBUR. Arthur reigned during a kind of Golden Age that came (we believe) after the nuclear and chemical destruction wreaked by the OLD ONES.

  Even in Roland’s youth, when the In-World Baronies still stood and the gunslingers maintained relative peace by exerting their strength through the fragmenting AFFILIATION, the unity of Arthur Eld’s All-World was only a myth. FARSON (who we believe was the pawn for an even greater destructive force) warred in the west, drawing over to his side many of the embittered, failed gunslingers originally sent to the western lands in disgrace. In Wizard and Glass, we learned that Arthur Eld’s original kingdom (known as the ancient land of Eld) was located in the northwest. Ironically (or perhaps quite pointedly) these western baronies were the first to fall to THE GOOD MAN during Roland’s youth.

  IV:317, V:486, VI:251

  ALORA FARM

  See DEBARIA, BARONY OF

  AMBUSH ARROYO

  See DEBARIA, BARONY OF

  APPLE, THE BIG

  See NEW YORK CITY, in OUR WORLD PLACES

  ARC

  See BORDERLANDS: GRAND CRESCENT

  **ARROYO COUNTRY

  See BORDERLANDS: CALLA BRYN STURGIS

  ARTEN

  Roland’s lady-mother, GABRIELLE DESCHAIN, was originally from Arten.

  W:37, W:306

  BEESFORD-ON-ARTEN: The town of Beesford-on-Arten was located west of GILEAD along the WESTERN LINE which ran from NEW CANAAN to DEBARIA. In stark contrast to the fertile lands of Gilead, Beesford-on-Arten was a land of scrub and struggling ranches. A few of GABRIELLE DESCHAIN’S relatives still lived in Beesford-On-Arten, but we can’t tell whether or not they were loyal to the AFFILIATION, since many people in Arten supported JOHN FARSON. W:41

  ATCHISON

  See ATCHISON, TOPEKA, AND SANTA FE RAILROAD in OUR WORLD PLACES

  B

  BACK COURTS

  See NEW CANAAN, BARONY OF: GILEAD

  BAD GRASS

  See MEJIS, BARONY OF

  BADLANDS

  See CALLA BADLANDS and DISCORDIA, both in PORTALS

  BANQUETING HALL

  See CASTLE DISCORDIA, in PORTALS

  BAR K RANCH

  See MEJIS, BARONY OF: HAMBRY

  BAYVIEW HOTEL

  See MEJ
IS, BARONY OF: HAMBRY

  BEACH (LOBSTROSITY BEACH)

  See WESTERN SEA

  BEACH DOORS

  See DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS: MAGICAL DOORWAYS, in PORTALS

  BEAM ROAD

  Roland and his tet follow this road from the GREEN PALACE to the RIVER WHYE, where they meet the ferryman, BIX.

  TOOK’S OUTLAND MERCANTILE: Roland’s tet passed this abandoned store while walking toward the RIVER WHYE. Inside they found cobwebs and the skeleton of an animal that might have been a BILLY-BUMBLER. W:4

  BEAMS

  See BEAMS, PATH OF THE, in PORTALS

  BEELIE TOWN (BEELIE STOCKADE)

  See DEBARIA, BARONY OF

  BEESFORD-ON-ARTEN

  See ARTEN

  BIDDER-WEE SALOON

  See DEBARIA, BARONY OF

  BIG EMPTY

  In the town of RIVER CROSSING, the elderly residents refer to the wastelands beyond LUD as the Big Empty. SUSANNAH DEAN thinks that all of MIDWORLD’s barren lands are a “Big Empty,” and confronting that desolation turned Roland in on himself. See also WASTE LANDS and DRAWERS, in PORTALS.

  III:226, III:243

  BIG RIVER

  See BORDERLANDS: RIVER WHYE

  BIX’S BOATHOUSE

  See BORDERLANDS: RIVER WHYE

  BLAINE’S ROUTE

  Our desperate ka-tet boarded the slo-trans mono BLAINE in LUD, just after EDDIE and SUSANNAH’s shoot-out with the PUBES and JAKE’s escape from TICK-TOCK, leader of the GRAYS. Blaine’s track led southeast, roughly along the PATH OF THE BEAM, in the direction of the DARK TOWER. Although Blaine claimed that he could take our group closer to their final destination, none of them was certain whether they would be able to disembark this Barony Coach alive.

  Although probably originally endowed with a polite personality by the GREAT OLD ONES (who in retrospect were much less than great), over the centuries Blaine’s personality fragmented into its component parts, finally evincing some of the cruelty of his Makers. The resulting monstrosity—which our ka-tet battled in a life-or-death riddling contest—consisted of a frightened Little Blaine as well as a nasty Big Blaine, who seemed to believe he served the people of Lud best by killing them.