Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (95 page)

In the seventh book of the Dark Tower series, we learn that Tower, Beams, and the red ROSES of CAN’-KA NO REY (the Red Fields of None in which the Tower sits) are all part of one living force field. The song and perfume of the Roses feed the Beams, and the Beams, in turn, feed the Roses. Both Roses and Beams spin out from Gan, the living body of the Dark Tower. As Roland approaches his life’s goal, he sees two jutting steel posts atop the Tower. The Beams emanate from these posts.

In the novel
The Wind Through the Keyhole,
TIM ROSS follows the LION-EAGLE BEAM from the ENDLESS FOREST to the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN. This is the same Beam that passes near GILEAD. In
Wind Through the Keyhole
we learn that STARKBLASTS like to follow the Beam Paths.
(For information about the
AVEN KAL,
or tidal wave along the Beam
,
See
APPENDIX I.
)

III:39, III:73–77, III:80–86, III:122, III:130, III:149–52, III:155, III:158–65
(following the Beam. Direct references on 158, 164),
III:166, III:170–76, III:178–82, III:191, III:194, III:219–32
(following. Directly mentioned on 232),
III:238, III:243, III:253–70
(following the Beam. Directly mentioned on 262, 264, 266, 269),
III:273–301
(leave the Beam. Directly mentioned on 285),
III:309
(Street of the Turtle corresponds to Beam),
III:310–12, III:331, III:337
(Grays tunnel follows it),
III:349, III:350, III:400–420
(Blaine follows path of the Beam. Directly mentioned on 404),
IV:3–61
(Blaine follows path of the Beam. Directly mentioned on 14, 34 electricity at Falls of the Hounds, 49),
IV:62–78 (ka-tet
follows Beam through Topeka. Directly mentioned on 72),
IV:79 (ka-tet
falls off the Beam),
IV:96, IV:659–68, V:8, V:29, V:31, V:36, V:37–47
(following; 38 near it but not on it, 39),
V:72, V:93, V:97,
V:99, V:101–69
(on or near Path; directly mentioned on 101, 110, 121–22, 126, 129, 160),
V:183, V:192
(indirect),
V:193, V:539, V:562, V:563, V:604, V:638, V:660, V:661, VI:3, VI:12–18
(Beamquake; 14 Beam portals; 16 fish and rat),
VI:21, VI:33, VI:40, VI:83, VI:108, VI:109–144
(discussed),
VI:117, VI:118, VI:148, VI:211, VI:265–303
(heart of the Beam; 265, barrel of the Beam and King’s house),
VI:318, VI:319, VI:336, VI:353, VI:359, VI:394, VII:17, VII:20–28 (aven kal
—Beamquake; 21 Bear-Turtle Beam; 22 voice of the Beam),
VII:32
(Beamquake),
VII:33, VII:34, VII:40, VII:77, VII:92, VII:117, VII:121, VII:148, VII:150
(Beamquake),
VII:188
(Beamquake),
VII:195
(Shardik’s portal),
VII:208, VII:212, VII:214, VII:232
(Bear-Turtle, Eagle-Lion, Wolf-Elephant),
VII:234, VII:237, VII:244
(Shardik/Maturin),
VII:251, VII:272
(Bear-Turtle),
VII:291
(Bear-Turtle),
VII:292
(Wolf-Elephant),
VII:295
(Bear-Turtle is Shardik’s Beam; Elephant-Wolf is Gan’s Beam),
VII:296, VII:297, VII:300, VII:301
(Shardik’s/Gan’s),
VII:304, VII:305, VII:306
(Gan, Shardik),
VII:317, VII:330, VII:333–36
(Beam Boy),
VII:360, VII:378, VII:381, VII:387–88
(Gan’s),
VII:389, VII:391, VII:392, VII:401, VII:406, VII:409
(Bear/Turtle),
VII:428
(Beamquake),
VII:438, VII:442, VII:455, VII:458, VII:476, VII:477, VII:505, VII:506, VII:518
(Beamquake),
VII:551
(following it toward place of Turtle),
VII:574, VII:577–803
(Roland and his companions follow the Beam through the badlands, the White Lands of Empathica, and all the way to the Tower. Page numbers that follow are for direct references),
VII:582, VII:587, VII:592, VII:593, VII:594, VII:606, VII:609, VII:610, VII:617, VII:620, VII:624, VII:647, VII:658, VII:661, VII:663, VII:670, VII:691, VII:705, VII:706, VII:757, VII:780, VII:782, VII:786, VII:813, VII:819, VII:825, W:3–17
(Roland and his
tet
follow),
W:23–24
(and starkblast),
W:220, W:221–55, W:307

BERMUDA TRIANGLE

EDDIE thinks that DAVID QUICK’s Nazi airplane arrived from our world via a time/space warp similar to the Bermuda Triangle. Eddie calls this huge doorway between worlds the Roland Zone. The THINNIES, found in both the alternative KANSAS where BLAINE terminates and in the HAMBRY of Roland’s youth, also make Eddie think of the Bermuda Triangle. As is purported to happen in the Triangle, people, animals, and machinery can disappear into a thinny and never be seen again.

III:275, IV:86

BLACK THIRTEEN

See
MAERLYN’S RAINBOW
,
in
CHARACTERS

BLUE HEAVEN

See
DEVAR-TOI

BLUETOWN

See
DEVAR-TOI

BOG

See
MID-FOREST
(MID-FOREST BOG),
in
MID-WORLD PLACES

BOOM-FLURRY HILL

See
EASTERN PLAIN
(CALLA BADLANDS)

BREAKER U

See
DEVAR-TOI

BRIDGE OVER THE ABYSS

See
CASTLE DISCORDIA
and
FEDIC

CALLA BADLANDS (EASTERN PLAIN)

Located east of the RIVER WHYE, the dry wastes of the Eastern Plain form a border zone between CALLA BRYN STURGIS and THUNDERCLAP. The CALLA DOGAN is situated here. Although the Calla
folken
maintain that they could once see mountains beyond the Eastern Plain, by the time our
tet
reaches the BORDERLANDS, all that is visible beyond the plain is a vast darkness. The train which returns ROONT children must cross this desert land before it reaches the banks of the Whye.

V:149, V:153
(plains),
V:207, V:386, V:445, V:574
(region leading to Thunderclap),
VI:72

BOOM-FLURRY HILL:
The giant, carnivorous, cactus-like BOOM-FLURRY guard this wrecked section of the EAST ROAD, which leads from the RIVER WHYE to the CALLA DOGAN. V:561–62, V:567–68, V:571, V:577

CALLA DOGAN (NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS NORTHEAST CORRIDOR ARC QUADRANT OUTPOST 16):
See
DOGAN
, THE,
listed separately

DEVIL’S CAUSEWAY:
The Devil’s Causeway is the train bridge which crosses the RIVER WHYE. The CALLA’s ROONT children cross it in flatcars once they are released from THUNDERCLAP. V:562

CALLA DOGAN

See
DOGAN
: CALLA DOGAN (NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS NORTHEAST CORRIDOR ARC QUADRANT OUTPOST 16)

CAN CALYX

See
DARK TOWER

CAN STEEK-TETE

See
DEVAR-TOI
: STEEK-TETE

CANDY HOUSE

See
GINGERBREAD HOUSE

CAN’-KA NO REY

See
DARK TOWER

CANNIBAL ISLES

According to EDDIE DEAN, the people of the BORDERLANDS are so civilized that they make the city of LUD, with its warring GRAYS and PUBES, look like the Cannibal Isles in a boy’s sea story.

V:135

CARA LAUGHS

See
DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS

CASSE ROI RUSSE (LE CASSE ROI RUSSE, LE CASSE ROI ROUGE, COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING, FORGE OF THE KING, RED KING’S CASTLE, CASTLE OF THE KING)

According to the old legends, the CRIMSON KING’s castle is called Le Casse Roi Russe. When SUSANNAH DEAN first sees its pulsing crimson glow from the ALLURE of CASTLE DISCORDIA, MIA tells her not to stare at the Forge of the King, since the Lord of Discordia can fascinate, even at a distance.

By the time Susannah, OY, and Roland reach its cobbled forecourt, the forge has been extinguished and the Red King has galloped toward the DARK TOWER, but the castle is not completely deserted. Left to greet the remaining members of our
tet
is an UFFI, or shape-shifter, who has split himself into three and taken on the form of our
kas-ka Gan,
STEPHEN KING (albeit in triplicate). In the end, this false uffi proves not to be a shape-shifter at all, but three servants of the Red King (AUSTIN CORNWELL, BRASS, and COMPTON) disguised by
glammer.

The Crimson King’s wide cobbled forecourt is painted with the king’s
sigul,
a staring crimson eye, and is guarded by two deserted watchtowers. Before this outer courtyard is an unpleasant-smelling river (which serves as a moat), and beyond the moat, an inner courtyard. Beyond the courtyard, the castle rises in a jumble of towers, turrets, and walkways, which remind Susannah of turnpike entrances and exits. However, the center of the castle, from which this mind-boggling architecture sprouts, is quite plain, its only decoration being the staring eye carved into the keystone of the main entrance’s arch.

As its name suggests, Le Casse Roi Russe is built of deep red stone, which, over the years, has darkened to near black. The sills of its oddly narrow windows are haunted by castle rooks (birds known to feed from bodies of hanged men). Crossing the castle’s yellow-foamed moat-river is a humped stone bridge. Here, the false uffis await our friends, and it is here that two of them die under Roland and Susannah’s guns.

V:236, V:470, VI:13
(Court of the Crimson King),
VI:102
(Forge of the King),
VI:105
(King’s Eye),
VII:47, VII:150, VII:173, VII:300, VII:559, VII:580, VII:581, VII:585
(Roi Rouge),
VII:589, VII:590, VII:592, VII:595
(described),
VII:599–617
(600, described),
VII:618, VII:619–24, VII:625, VII:703, VII:823
(indirect)

CASSE ROI RUSSE RIVER:
This foul-smelling river flows around a number of fangy black rocks. Its foam is yellow instead of white. VII:597, VII:600

CASTLE TOWN:
This evil town surrounds Le Casse Roi Russe. The cottages are narrow and steep-roofed; the doorways are thin and abnormally high. Many of the buildings are haunted by
housies.
VII:590
(ruined city near castle),
VII:591, VII:592–600, VII:619, VII:624
(named),
VII:630, VII:631, VII:703

CASTLE DISCORDIA (CASTLE ON THE ABYSS, THE LAST CASTLE, MIA’S CASTLE, ROOMS OF RUIN)

The first time SUSANNAH DEAN hears the name of this castle is when it is spoken by her demon possessor, MIA. However, even before she and Mia wander along the castle’s ALLURE, Susannah (possessed by Mia) had journeyed to the castle’s phantom BANQUETING HALL so that she could feed the CHAP growing inside her. (At the time, we knew of this imposing architectural nightmare only as Mia’s castle.) Although throughout much of
Wolves of the Calla
we assume that this castle is a dream place which Susannah-Mio visits to fool herself into thinking that the bog frogs and binnie bugs she eats are actually succulent roasts and caviar, in
Song of Susannah
and
The Dark Tower,
we discover that Castle Discordia is a real place, located deep in END-WORLD.

The version of Castle Discordia which Susannah visits to feed her chap is illuminated by electric flambeaux and has long stone corridors floored with black and red marble. It contains the Rooms of Ruin, which we already know about from EDDIE DEAN’s poem fragment, recited first at SHARDIK’s portal and then later on his deathbed in the PROCTOR’S SUITE of the DEVAR-TOI. Beneath the castle lie crypts, as well as some slo-trans engines created by NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS. From the Allure, or wall-walk around the inner keep, one can see southeast to the FORGE OF THE CRIMSON KING.

In its heyday, Castle Discordia would have been well defended. Behind its inner keep is a terrible drop leading to the huge, needle-like rocks of the DISCORDIA. On the other side of the ruined keep are two towers (one of them broken), and beyond the towers is the deserted village of FEDIC. Beyond the village is an outer wall, and beyond the outer wall is the DEVIL’S ARSE, a great crack in the earth filled with monsters that cozen, diddle, increase, and plot to escape. The bridge that once crossed this abyss exists no longer.

Like Fedic, Castle Discordia is located on the far side of THUNDERCLAP, on the PATH OF THE BEAM, on V SHARDIK, V MATURIN. It is the last castle (besides that of the RED KING himself) before reaching the soot-colored DARK TOWER, which rises in its field of shouting red ROSES. According to NIGEL THE BUTLER, Castle Discordia and the FEDIC DOGAN are connected by underground passages. Together, they contain 595 operational DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS. At least one of these doors leads to TODASH SPACE. Another leads to THUNDERCLAP STATION.

V:71–77
(Mia is there),
V:370–76, V:385, V:390, V:391, V:478, VI:79, VI:101–18
(on the Allure),
VI:124, VI:229, VI:230, VI:232
(Allure),
VI:236, VI:240
(Allure),
VI:243, VI:247
(passages),
VI:248
(Rooms of Ruin),
VI:249, VI:254, VI:255
(Allure),
VI:364, VI:371, VI:373, VI:374–76
(walkway),
VII:52, VII:67, VII:151, VII:158, VII:531
(Allure),
VII:539, VII:540, VII:549, VII:554, VII:560–76
(tunnels beneath),
VII:577, VII:580, VII:590, VII:595
(Allure),
VII:619, VII:658, VII:808

BANQUETING HALL:
For MIA and SUSANNAH, the Banqueting Hall is
the most important room in Castle Discordia. Here, the dreaming pair comes to feed the CHAP growing inside their shared womb. The Banqueting Hall is forty yards wide, seventy yards long, and is illuminated by brilliant electric torches in crystal sheaths. It also contains a vast ironwood table laden with delicacies both hot and cold. Before each of the several hundred chairs is a white plate with delicate blue webbing. These plates resemble both the deadly weapons flung by the SISTERS OF ORIZA and the
forspecial
plate given by ODETTA HOLMES’s mother to SISTER BLUE. Standing before the Banqueting Hall where Mia/Susannah feasts is a statue of ARTHUR ELD. It is made of chrome and rose-colored marble. Somewhere in this castle stands an old throne drenched in ancient blood. V:71–77, V:83, V:85, VI:174, VI:198, V:370–76, V:478, V:659, V:674, VI:79