by Robin Furth
THUNDERCLAP (THE LAND OF DARKNESS, THE DARK LAND)
In Wizard and Glass we learn that the fey realm of Thunderclap sits on the lip of END-WORLD. It is described as a land of dead fields, deserted villages, blasted trees, and dead soldiers. From here come the pale warriors; all clocks run backward in this land of death, and the graveyards vomit out their dead. Roland will have to pass through Thunderclap on his way to the TOWER, and it is here that Roland and his friends will have to meet their enemy FLAGG once more.
In Wolves of the Calla, we discover that the dark land of Thunderclap sits just east of the BORDERLANDS, which in turn sit on the eastern edge of MID-WORLD-that-was. Beyond Thunderclap is CASTLE DISCORDIA and the arid DISCORDIA BADLANDS. In Thunderclap, the world has already ended. It is described as “a great darkness, like a rain cloud on the horizon.” Despite the rain-cloud analogy used by the CALLA folken, Thunderclap is a dry, rainless desert.
Thunderclap is the home of the DEVAR-TOI, or Big Prison, where the CRIMSON KING keeps the psychic BREAKERS. The Breakers (who are human) are forced to use their wild talents to erode the BEAMS so that the foundering DARK TOWER will collapse, causing the macroverse to blink out of existence. Long before our story began, the insane Red King released poison gas over the whole of this area. Hence, the Breakers, as well as their CAN-TOI and TAHEEN guards, are plagued by skin diseases and other illnesses. (It seems likely that they suffer some of the effects of radiation sickness as well.) In Thunderclap, even the most minor skin abrasions can turn septic and deadly.
Since there is no sun in Thunderclap, the Devar-Toi’s residents are dependent upon a mechanical (or atomic) sun, which runs on what might as well be the world’s largest egg timer. Unfortunately for them, it is wearing down and occasionally goes on the blink, creating pseudo-eclipses and general depression and panic.
IV:570–73, IV:580, IV:628, IV:666, V:5, V:6, V:7, V:12, V:16, V:22, V:26, V:113, V:117, V:136–37, V:144, V:149, V:150 (vampires, bogarts, taheen), V:152, V:182, V:207, V:225, V:226, V:249, V:291, V:312, V:368, V:390, V:401, V:413, V:422, V:452 (dark land is root of association between vampires and low men), V:481, V:484, V:509, V:557, V:562, V:574, V:586, V:601, V:610, V:615, V:655, V:659, V:703, VI:13, VI:246, VI:247, VI:248, VII:51, VII:52, VII:58, VII:148, VII:152, VII:178, VII:190, VII:195, VII:200–416 (setting; individual references are as follows: 200, 203, 210, 215, 223, 230, 247, 258, 261, 266, 282, 288, 289, 290, 306, 333, 337, 356, 357, 404, 416), VII:485, VII:494, VII:507, VII:510, VII:514, VII:531, VII:536, VII:559, VII:563, VII:581, VII:594, VII:736, W:3, W:10 (great darkness), W:307
CAUSEWAY, THE: See CALLA BADLANDS, listed separately
DEVAR-TOI: See DEVAR-TOI, listed separately
DOGAN, THE: See DOGAN, listed separately
THUNDERCLAP STATION: See DEVAR-TOI, listed separately
THUNDERCLAP STATION
See DEVAR-TOI
TODASH
In Wolves of the Calla, we are told that traveling todash is similar to the state of lucid dreaming. However, unlike lucid dreaming, both body and mind travel todash. As we see when EDDIE and JAKE travel to NEW YORK CITY via todash at the beginning of Wolves of the Calla, the body of a person in the todash state fades out of existence in a series of jerky pulses and is replaced by a dull gray glow. Those not traveling, but sleeping or sitting near a todash traveler, may hear a kind of low crackling or electrical buzzing. Entry into the todash state is signaled by the chiming of the kammen, or the todash CHIMES.
The blue-cloaked MANNI are well acquainted with traveling todash. Many (such as the Manni dinh, HENCHICK) have even seen the todash tahken, or the holes in reality. Some spheres of MAERLYN’S RAINBOW also facilitate traveling via todash. Most notorious of these is BLACK THIRTEEN. A desperate person can also travel todash without the aid of any magical instrument. During the five years following the death of his beloved friend LUPE DELGADO, FATHER CALLAHAN traveled along the todash turnpikes of America, also known as the HIGHWAYS IN HIDING.
Although traveling todash is practiced by the magnet- and plumb bob– wielding Manni, it is not without risks. Todash space is the void place between worlds, or the equivalent of the monster-filled hollows between the walls and floors of the DARK TOWER. Below CASTLE DISCORDIA is a doorway that leads directly to todash space. Although the OLD ONES considered this door a mistake, the CRIMSON KING makes good use of it. He has his bitterest enemies thrown into the null lands, so that they will wander in that nothingness, blind and mad, until they are devoured by todash’s many monsters.
According to MORDRED DESCHAIN, the nastiest of the todash monsters are known as the Great Ones. CONSTANT READERS familiar with STEPHEN KING’s short story “The Mist” will probably recognize these todash monsters. In that tale, the military personnel responsible for the Arrowhead Project ripped a hole in reality. What leaked through was a cross between todash space and the horror of a monster-infested THINNY.
V:48–70 (New York), V:78–81 (described), V:84, V:88–97 (89 Manni; 90 Wizard’s Rainbow; 91–97 Eddie and Jake describe), V:105 (holiest of rites, most exalted of states), V:110, V:114–16, V:139, V:165 (like being stoned), V:166, V:172–97 (New York), V:201, V:236, V:257, V:271, V:275, V:284, V:314, V:469, V:470, V:502, V:505, V:507, V:511, V:515, V:516, V:539, V:546, V:549, V:558, V:599, V:709, VI:12, VI:18, VI:37, VI:81, VI:82, VI:119, VI:131, VI:248–49 (doors to todash darkness or todash space), VI:251, VI:265 (Beams as anti todash), VI:281, VI:301, VI:307, VI:326 (can get lost forever there), VI:328–31 (Black Thirteen brings todash darkness; it disappears when Thirteen sleeps), VI:375, VI:378, VII:20, VII:21, VII:23 (chimes), VII:32, VII:38, VII:196, VII:407, VII:531, VII:539, VII:542 (writing as a benign todash), VII:557, VII:559, VII:567, VII:582, VII:711, VII:747 (todash space), VII:749, VII:754, VII:779
CHIMES, THE (KAMMEN): In the MANNI tongue, kammen means “ghosts.” Hence, the DOORWAY CAVE is known as kra kammen, or “house of ghosts,” because of the voices that echo within it. Those traveling todash are assailed by the beautiful but bone-vibrating sound of the kammen, or todash bells. Their painful music is reminiscent of the warble of the THINNY. Evidently, when the box containing BLACK THIRTEEN is opened, the kammen begin to chime. The sound is both overwhelming and maddening. V:48, V:53, V:65, V:67, V:68, V:69, V:90, V:139, V:167–68 (bells), V:171, V:174, V:184, V:196, V:197, V:268–69, V:275, V:283, V:299, V:317, V:413, V:414, V:432, V:457, V:458, V:459, V:462, V:515, V:516, V:540, V:546, V:591, V:592, V:597, VI:81, VI:98, VI:307, VI:326, VI:327, VI:328, VI:378, VII:20, VII:21, VII:23, VII:28, VII:36, VII:288, VII:539, VII:540, VII:562, VII:564
DOOR TO TODASH DARKNESS: See CASTLE DISCORDIA
END-WORLD (VIA BLACK THIRTEEN): See END-WORLD, listed separately
CASTLE OF THE KING (VIA BLACK THIRTEEN): See CASSE ROI RUSSE, listed separately
MAINE (VIA BLACK THIRTEEN): For page references, see MAINE (STATE OF), in OUR WORLD PLACES
EAST STONEHAM: East Stoneham is a small town forty miles north of PORTLAND. This is where CALVIN TOWER and AARON DEEPNEAU go to hide from BALAZAR’S MEN. PERE CALLAHAN visits East Stoneham courtesy of Black Thirteen and the UNFOUND DOOR. This town is also the site of Roland and EDDIE’s battle with Balazar’s thugs. For page references, see MAINE (STATE OF): OXFORD COUNTY: STONEHAM, in OUR WORLD PLACES
EAST STONEHAM GENERAL STORE: For page references, see MAINE (STATE OF): OXFORD COUNTY: STONEHAM, in OUR WORLD PLACES
METHODIST MEETING HALL: For page references, see MAINE (STATE OF): OXFORD COUNTY: STONEHAM, in OUR WORLD PLACES
POST OFFICE: For page references, see MAINE (STATE OF): OXFORD COUNTY: STONEHAM, in OUR WORLD PLACES
MEXICO (VIA BLACK THIRTEEN):
LOS ZAPATOS (VIA BLACK THIRTEEN): In the years before our tet reached CALLA BRYN STURGIS, FATHER DONALD CALLAHAN traveled here, propelled by BLACK THIRTEEN. Los Zapatos is also the village where we find BEN MEARS and his eleven-year-old companion, MARK PETRIE, at the beginning of ’Salem’s Lot. (The body of the novel is told in retrospect.) Los zapatos means “the shoes.” For page refe
rences, see MEXICO: LOS ZAPATOS, in OUR WORLD PLACES
NEW YORK (VIA BLACK THIRTEEN): For page references, see NEW YORK CITY, in OUR WORLD PLACES
DIXIE PIG: See DIXIE PIG, listed separately
GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE: For page references, see NEW YORK CITY, in OUR WORLD PLACES
FOOTBRIDGE (LaMERK INDUSTRIES): For page references, see NEW YORK CITY, in OUR WORLD PLACES
LOT, THE (FORTY-SIXTH STREET AND SECOND AVENUE): See LOT, THE, listed separately; see also ROSE, THE, in CHARACTERS
SECOND AVENUE—FORTY-SIXTH STREET TO FIFTY-FOURTH: According to EDDIE DEAN and JAKE CHAMBERS, these eight blocks function as one large DOORWAY BETWEEN WORLDS. For page references, see NEW YORK CITY, in OUR WORLD PLACES
TODASH HOSPITAL (ROOM NINETEEN): V:423
TODASH TAHKEN: The holes in reality. V:413
TODASH TURNPIKES (USA): See HIDDEN HIGHWAYS, listed separately
TOPEKA
See KANSAS, in OUR WORLD PLACES
TOWER
See DARK TOWER
TOWER KEYSTONE
See DARK TOWER and KEY WORLDS/KEYSTONE WORLDS
TOWER ROAD
See EMPATHICA, WHITE LANDS OF
U
UNDERSNOW
See EMPATHICA, WHITE LANDS OF
UNFOUND DOOR
See DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS: MAGICAL DOORS: UNFOUND DOOR; see also DOORWAY CAVE
UNFOUND DOOR TO LAND OF MEMORY
Inside each of us there is an UNFOUND DOOR, and memory is the key which opens it. When we find that door, we find forgotten parts of ourselves.
VI:352–53, VI:362
UPLANDS
See EMPATHICA, WHITE LANDS OF
V
VACANT LOT
See LOT, THE
W
WALTER’S MIND-DOGAN
See DOGAN
WASTE LANDS
The Waste Lands are those desolate lands located beyond LUD. These horrible areas—too poisoned to support life as we know it but full of mutants and monsters—are man-made. It seems that they were the result of one of the GREAT OLD ONES’ wars. We already know that BLAINE, the computer mind of LUD, has access to chemical and biological weapons, but what was loosed upon the Waste Lands was worse than these. It was, Blaine assures EDDIE, even worse than a nuclear catastrophe. See also DRAWERS.
III:109 (little “w”), III:248, III:405–20 (travel through via Blaine), IV:3, IV:13–14 (and Candleton)
WASTE LANDS EAST OF THE RIVER WHYE
See CALLA BADLANDS
**WAY STATION
The Way Station, where Roland finds JAKE, was once a stopping point for the Coach lines that ran across the MOHAINE DESERT. By the time our story takes place it has been deserted for years. The station consists of two buildings (a stable and an inn) surrounded by a fallen rail fence whose wood is so fragile that it’s rapidly thinning into desert sand. Luckily for both Jake and Roland, the station’s water pump still works. (In the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, we find out that this pump was made by NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS.) In the building’s cellar, Roland faces down the SPEAKING DEMON.
Both Jake Chambers and FATHER CALLAHAN end up in the Mohaine Desert’s Way Station after they “die” in our world. According to Roland’s longtime nemesis WALTER, this Way Station is “a little rest stop between the hoot of [our] world and the holler of the next.” When Callahan arrives in the Way Station, Walter is waiting for him. Walter gives Callahan BLACK THIRTEEN, then forces him to enter the UNFOUND DOOR. When Callahan regains consciousness, he finds himself with the MANNI of CALLA BRYN STURGIS.
I:72–81, I:83–92, I:93, I:122, II:319, III:43–46, III:47, III:48, III:59, III:60, III:62, III:91, III:106–7, III:128, III:132, III:263, IV:106, V:458–65 (460 hoot and holler), V:470, VI:290, VI:327, VI:389, VI:391, VI:399, VII:826
CELLAR: I:87–88
WAYDON CASTLE
See RIVER BARONIES, in MID-WORLD PLACES
**WEST END OF THE WORLD
The West End of the World is an almost unreachable place. Hence the expression “Where else would I be? The West End of the World?” At the end of the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, we learn that the WESTERN SEA is the western edge of the world.
III:339
WESTRING
See EMPATHICA, WHITE LANDS OF
WHITE LANDS OF EMPATHICA
See EMPATHICA, WHITE LANDS OF
WIZARD’S GLASS
See MAERLYN’S RAINBOW, in CHARACTERS
WOLF GARAGE
See DOGAN: FEDIC DOGAN and CASTLE DISCORDIA
WOLF STAGING AREA
See DOGAN: FEDIC DOGAN and CASTLE DISCORDIA
APPENDIX I MID-WORLD DIALECTS
CONTENTS
Introduction
A Brief Note on the Use of Appendix I
High Speech Terms and Symbols
Mid-World Gestures
Mid-World Argot, Roland’s Versions of Our Words, and Terms Used in This Concordance
Manni Terms
Calla Bryn Sturgis Dialect
End-World Terms
Language of the Little Sisters of Eluria
INTRODUCTION
High Speech (also called the “Tongue”) was the ancient, ritualized language of Mid-World. Low speech—also called the common tongue or the vulgate—was the speech of everyday interaction, but High Speech was the language of gunslingers. It was also the language of ritual and magic.
Although not confined to the court of Gilead (Sylvia Pittston of Tull and Aunt Talitha of River Crossing both speak the Tongue), it was, primarily, bound to the hierarchies and courtly codes of In-World. While we can assume that Fair-Day Riddling was conducted in low speech, and while the common tongue contained many fascinating terms and phrases, the spiked letters of High Speech carried the heart of Roland’s culture. With one notable exception (explained in the pages that follow), each word in the Tongue had multiple meanings. These meanings were so varied that they were (and are) difficult to explain to those born outside of Mid-World.
Like other sacred languages, the words and phrases of High Speech imply an entire philosophy of life, and the speaking of it was ritualized. Gunslinger apprentices were not allowed to utter its words publicly until after they had won their guns. To do so before proving themselves in the yard behind the Great Hall was considered an affront to all that their culture held sacred. As was said earlier, High Speech was the language of gunslingers, but it was also the language used to address spirits, demons, and dinhs. If the glorious history of Roland’s world is now no more than the wreckage of a sunken ship, then High Speech is one of the sacred relics that washed up on the shores.
A BRIEF NOTE ON THE USE OF APPENDIX I
For each word or phrase listed in this appendix, I have provided at least one page reference so that you can view the relevant word, object, or phrase in the context of the Dark Tower series. My hope, in so doing, is to enrich your enjoyment of Mid-World’s diverse dialects. In instances where the word or phrase under discussion receives a lengthier description elsewhere in the Concordance, I direct you to the entry and section where an in-depth discussion of the subject is available. A word in all capitals within an entry indicates that word has an entire entry devoted to it within Appendix I. If a word or phrase comes from the 2003 version of The Gunslinger but does not appear in the 1982 edition, then I have marked that entry with a double asterisk (**).
Since in Mid-World, as in our world, dialects often share words and expressions, some terms could be placed with equal validity in more than one subsection. In such cases, I have tried to place the questionable term in the most general category. For example, if a word is used in Calla Bryn Sturgis but is also used elsewhere in Mid-World, it can be found in the “Mid-World Argot” subsection. Similarly, if a word is used by the Manni but is also related to a High Speech term, then the word will be found in the “High Speech” subsection.
If you are unsure where to find a particular word or phrase, then the following guidelines may help. For words and
phrases that sound similar to ones from our world, begin in “Mid-World Argot.” If you don’t find what you’re searching for there, move to “Calla Bryn Sturgis Dialect.” Finally, try “End-World Terms.” For words and phrases that are definitely in High Speech or a similar language, begin searching in “High Speech,” then proceed to “Manni Terms.” Last of all, try “End-World Terms.” If you are searching for a hand motion or gesture which Roland uses, begin with “Mid-World Gestures.”
I apologize to those Constant Readers who would have preferred a single, straightforward alphabetical listing of all the unusual words and phrases found in the Dark Tower series. That was one organizational option, but in the end, I decided that it would be more enjoyable—both for me and for you—if I tried to capture at least a bit of Mid-World’s magic, a glammer cast as much by the variety of cultures we encounter there as by the story line itself.
HIGH SPEECH TERMS AND SYMBOLS
: This scrollwork means UNFOUND. VII:739, VII:820
: This scrollwork means FOUND. VII:820
: This scrollwork means WHITE. It was Arthur Eld’s DINH mark and is found near the muzzle of Roland’s guns. VII:501
: This letter sounds like S in the Low Speech. However, it seems likely that the letter itself is in High Speech. (In the earlier draft of The Wind Through the Keyhole, it was listed as a High Speech letter.) W:236
: These lines are taken from the note that Gabrielle Deschain left for her son at the women’s retreat of Serenity. The words mean: I forgive you everything. Can you forgive me? W:309