Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (69 page)

By the time our series begins, Walter has taken up another cause in pursuit of his own secret ambition and has become the prime minister of the mad CRIMSON KING. In the name of the Lord of Discordia, Walter convinces MIA to give up her immortality so that she can give birth to MORDRED, who (according to legend) is destined to murder Walter’s longtime enemy and ultimate rival, Roland. However, in creating Mordred (whose amputated foot he hopes to use to unlock the Tower), Walter finally overplays his hand. Once Mordred realizes Walter’s true intentions, he eats him.

One of the most interesting ideas added to Walter’s palaver with Roland in the 2003 version of
The Gunslinger
is the theme of RESUMPTION, a word which we see on one of the new opening pages of the revised volume. Roland believes that his quest for the Tower has been continuous, but Walter implies that it has not. Roland has been repeating the same quest over and over, he just never recalls it. At the end of the Dark Tower series, we learn that Walter is right. Roland is caught in a time loop, constantly reliving the period from the fall of Jericho Hill (or perhaps from his time in the MOHAINE DESERT) to his reaching the Dark Tower. Walter implies that Roland is damned to repeat his own history over and over because he never remembers and never learns. In the final book of the series, Roland proves his nemesis wrong.

I:11–14, I:16–17, I:20–21, I:23, I:29, I:30, I:33–39
(Nort’s story),
I:42, I:54–56
(Pittston),
I:58, I:64, I:73–74, I:76–77, I:78–79, I:82–84, I:86, I:87, I:90, I:93, I:94, I:95, I:112–13, I:119, I:122, I:130, I:131, I:136, I:137, I:138, I:139, I:140, I:142–43, I:149, I:174, I:176–77, I:184, I:186, I:190–216, II:15, II:16, II:20, II:25, II:30, II:31, II:36, II:40, II:55, II:101, II:104, II:316, II:318, II:319, II:324, II:397, III:38, III:41, III:42, III:43, III:46–47, III:48, III:59–62, III:94, III:103–6, III:107, III:172, III:226, III:261, III:417, IV:7, IV:65, IV:106, IV:404–8, IV:421, IV:423
(and The Good Man),
IV:597, IV:624
(the dark man in the west),
E:146, E:209, V:314, V:410, V:412
(as Maerlyn/Marten/Flagg),
V:460–65
(“I am what
ka
and the King and the Tower have made me”),
V:470, V:702, VI:239–40, VI:245–55
(prime minister of the Crimson King),
VI:282, VI:283, VI:284, VI:288, VI:337, VI:405, VII:13
(O’Dim),
VII:106, VII:107, VII:141
(Crimson King’s chancellor),
VII:148, VII:171–87, VII:188, VII:192, VII:250, VII:442, VII:515, VII:518, VII:531, VII:535, VII:762, VII:829, VII:830

WALTER’S ALIASES:

**BROADCLOAK, MARTEN:
Although Marten Broadcloak was STEVEN DESCHAIN’s sorcerer, he was actually an enemy of the AFFILIATION. In a carefully orchestrated bit of treachery, Marten seduced Roland’s mother, GABRIELLE, and then exposed the shameful affair so that Roland—raging that his father had been cuckolded and dishonored—would face his test of manhood years too early. Marten’s hope was that Roland would fail his test and be sent west, into exile. To Marten’s chagrin, Roland succeeded in besting his teacher CORT and won his guns at the unheard-of age of fourteen.

In
Wizard and Glass,
we learn that Gabrielle conspired to kill her husband, Steven Deschain. It seems most likely that her poisoned knife came from Marten. This plot also failed, though at the eventual cost of Gabrielle’s life. (Not long after this event, Roland shot her.) In
The Gunslinger,
we learn that Marten was delivered into Roland’s hands by the Man in Black posing as a sorcerer named Walter. However the person delivered to Roland must have been an imposter, since later in the series we learn that Marten and Walter are the same man.

In the 2003
Gunslinger,
Marten’s identity takes a further twist. Marten is still Steven Deschain’s sorcerer, but he is now also his foremost counselor. But unbeknownst to the elder Deschain, Marten is simultaneously his many-faced enemy.

As JOHN FARSON’s wizard, Marten is actually the force behind the revolutions tearing MID-WORLD’s Affiliation apart. (In the early books of the series KING implies that Marten and Farson may be the same creature, but later this proves not to be true.) Walter is simultaneously the penitent Walter that Roland knew in his youth, and Walter O’Dim, otherwise known as the Man in Black. Hence, like all of his alter egos, Marten is an evil agent of the CRIMSON KING. I:86, I:94, I:95, I:106
(as the good man),
I:125, I:131, I:140
(killed),
I:151–52, I:159–61, I:164, I:167, I:172, I:173, I:175, I:205–6
(possessed by Walter),
I:213, II:103, II:250, II:362, III:41, III:44, III:124, III:417, IV:7, IV:65, IV:107, IV:110–12, IV:163, IV:164, IV:165, IV:223, IV:258, IV:275
(and voice of thinny in Eyebolt Canyon),
IV:436, IV:619
(with Farson),
IV:647–49
(claims to be Flagg),
IV:652–56, IV:665, V:36, V:412
(as Walter/Maerlyn/Flagg),
VII:178,
VII:184, VII:822, VII:824, W:37, W:250–51, W:297–98, W:299, W:300, W:306
(son of a bitch)

COVENANT MAN (BARONY COVENANTER):
The Covenant Man, also known as the Barony Covenanter, was the official tax collector for the BARONY of NEW CANAAN as well as the NORTH’RD BARONY, where the village of TREE was located. He had been the tax collector in those parts for as long as anyone could remember. Every year he arrived on his tall black horse, dressed in his flapping black cloak and black gloves. Tied to his saddle (which was inscribed with silver
siguls
and was worth more than a woodcutter made in a lifetime of risking his neck) was a BASIN of pure silver. The Covenanter looked as thin as Old Scrawny Death, but this didn’t stop him from marking a new fence here, a cow or three added to a herd there. The money he collected was taken in the name of GILEAD, and those who could not pay had their plots repossessed and were turned out on the land, also in the name of Gilead.

The Covenanter’s physical presence was as abhorrent as his calling. His body smelled of old sweat and his breath was rank. His husky voice—which sounded like a deaf man trying to sing a lullaby—issued from a mouth full of large white teeth. The man’s eyes didn’t blink and his lips were as red as those of a woman who had painted her mouth with madder.

As TIM ROSS realized soon after the Covenant Man gave him a magic key to open his stepfather’s trunk (a key that would only work once, which meant that Tim’s spying would inevitably be discovered), the Covenanter liked to play with people, but he was the kind of person who enjoyed breaking his toys. Thanks to the Covenanter’s gift, Tim found his father’s lucky coin in BERN KELLS’s trunk (proof that BIG ROSS hadn’t been incinerated by a DRAGON as Kells claimed, but murdered by his partner), but it also set off the chain of events which led to NELL ROSS (now Nell Kells) being beaten into blindness by her cruel and drunken second husband.

As the WIDOW SMACK stated so eloquently, the Covenanter left only ruin and weeping in his wake. Any help he gave—from showing Tim his father’s corpse floating in a stream on the COSINGTON-MARCHLY STAKE to giving the boy glimpses of his future in one of his silver scrying vessels—was always double-edged. Although the vision Tim had of meeting the magician MAERLYN eventually came true, as did Maerlyn’s gift which restored Nell’s sight, the way these events unfolded was nothing like what Tim had foreseen when he waved the Covenanter’s magic wand (probably made from the gear shift of an old Dodge Dart) over a battered silver PAIL. Tim’s quest to find Maerlyn—which led him through the heart of the ENDLESS FOREST and into the FAGONARD swamp—was fraught with danger, and those beings that the Covenanter implied would help (such as the SIGHE ARMANEETA) turned out to be treacherous. Even Maerlyn, who Tim found near the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN, was under a spell that made him look like a man-eating tyger rather than a wise magician. (Luckily, Tim did not shoot the mage with his four-shot pistol.)

We can’t help but think that the Covenanter’s true skill was wrapping just enough truth in a web of dangerous lies, and of making his cruel play
appear to be altruism. No matter what the circumstances, the Covenanter’s goal was always the same—to trap the unwary and destroy them. It was only luck that saved Tim from the jaws of a dragon, and then again from the certain death of the STARKBLAST. Or then again, perhaps it was
ka
. After all, despite his low birth, Tim was destined to become TIM STOUTHEART, one of Mid-World’s finest gunslingers.

One of the most interesting aspects of Tim Ross’s story is that—although it is a fairy tale and takes place in the land of
once upon a bye
—the Covenanter’s true identity turns out to be none other than that of Roland’s longtime face-shifting enemy, WALTER O’DIM/MARTEN BROADCLOAK. Although when we read the tale we take the Covenant Man’s identity at face value—after all, we know that O’Dim can travel to different levels of the TOWER and has lived far longer than one human lifetime—it is also important to contemplate the possibility that Roland
inserted
his enemy into the tale, and by so doing, made a conscious critique of the political situation of his time.

The grown-up Roland who travels with EDDIE, SUSANNAH, JAKE and OY has encountered O’Dim in many different guises, and knows that the sorcerer served both JOHN FARSON and the CRIMSON KING. Yet even as a young man, Roland knew that Broadcloak’s forked tongue was responsible not only for his own personal tragedy, but also for the hatred and suspicion with which so many people regarded the
tet
of the gun. Hence, it is little surprise that young Roland, like the older Roland, chose to cast Broadcloak as the evil Barony Covenanter—the man who made the good people of Tree resent Gilead so deeply.

Although “The Wind Through the Keyhole” is a fairy tale, it is also history in disguise. Just as Broadcloak betrayed the gunslingers he was supposed to serve, so the Covenant Man poisoned the name and reputation of Gilead by squeezing taxes out of the people of Tree in the name of the ancient Covenant they held with Arthur ELD. Even in the land of fairy tale, people whispered that the Covenanter’s taxes weren’t fair, and that, even if Arthur Eld
had
existed, he was long dead and the Covenant had been paid a dozen times over, in blood as well as silver. Like Broadcloak, the Covenanter knew full well that he was creating a situation in which people were longing for someone like John Farson to appear and actively challenge the rule of In-World. W:112, W:113, W:114, W:117, W:120, W:123, W:126 (old You Know Who), W:131–37
(sowing bad will; 136 foul breath),
W:138, W:139, W:140, W:141
(never ages),
W:144
(indirect),
W:145–48
(Tim goes in search of him),
W:148–64
(153 magic wand, magic basin; 160 wanting to know secrets is his vice),
W:167
(chary man),
W:168–69
(poisoning the name of Eld as Maerlyn),
W:170, W:172
(found Big Ross’s corpse),
W:173, W:175
(great description),
W:179, W:180–83
(leaving Dodge Dart stick, pail),
W:184, W:185, W:187
(Widow Smack gives Tim a gun, calls Covenant Man a devil),
W:188, W:189, W:191, W:192 W:195, W:196, W:198, W:200, W:206, W:207
(indirect),
W:223
(indirect),
W:226, W:236
(indirect),
W:237–38, W:239
(man in black),
W:241, W:242, W:247–49, W:250–51, W:258, W:259, W:264

BLACKIE:
Blackie was the Covenant Man’s horse. W:131–37, W:138, W:150, W:160, W:195

GREEN KING, THE:
Oz, otherwise known as Oz the Great and Terrible, was the sorcerer of the Emerald City in the children’s book
The Wizard of Oz.
Walter occasionally uses this disguise as well. VII:173

PADICK, WALTER:
Walter’s birth name was Walter Padick. He was the son of SAM THE MILLER and grew up on a farm in DELAIN, located in EASTAR’D BARONY. At thirteen, Walter was raped by another wanderer, but refused to return home. Instead, he pursued his dark destiny. VII:184

R.F.:
As we discovered in the first four novels of the Dark Tower series, Roland’s multifaced archenemy often uses pseudonyms whose initials are R.F. This nasty being occasionally uses other initials to disguise himself as well, including W.O. (Walter O’Dim) and M.B. (Marten Broadcloak). In the first books of the series King hints that John Farson (J.F.) may also be an incarnation of Walter, but by the end of the series we come to realize that this is not so. Whatever his real name, R.F. is an agent of Chaos (but we are much nicer in our female incarnations). IV:663–64, IV:666, VII:194

WALTER’S ALIASES BEGINNING WITH R.F.:

The first time we come across the initials R.F. in the Dark Tower series is at the end of
Wizard and Glass,
after our
tet
has left the GREEN PALACE. While drinking Nozz-A-La Cola, EDDIE DEAN discovers a piece of paper flapping by. It turns out to be a note written on the back of
The Oz Daily Buzz.
Surrounded by smile faces is the message:

Next time I won’t leave. Renounce the

Tower. This is your last warning.

And have a
great
day!

The note is signed R.F. Beneath those initials is a small drawing of a cloud and lightning bolt.

The note that the Covenant Man left for TIM ROSS at the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN was signed with the letters R.F./M.B. Constant Readers are familiar with R.F. (after all, many of Walter O’Dim’s aliases begin with those initials), but the letters M.B. could stand for either the Man in Black, or Marten Broadcloak. W:3

FANNIN, RICHARD:
In his form as Richard Fannin, R.F. is described as being inhuman. He has blue-green eyes but blue-black hair that looks like a raven’s feathers. Fannin must be a fairly imposing figure, since even TICK-TOCK, leader of the murderous GRAYS, is afraid of him.