The Dark Tower Glossary

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The following terms are used in The Dark Tower, a series of books by Stephen King. The series incorporates elements from several genres, but is in many ways a work of epic fantasy. The author created an original setting, All-World, for much of the books' action, a world with cultures, languages and themes that one new to the series would find unfamiliar.

Contents 1 Dark Tower Glossary 1.1 Char (root word) 1.2 Commala 1.3 Ka 1.4 Ka-tet 1.5 Khef 1.6 Manni 1.7 Roont 1.8 Thankee, Sai 1.9 Thinny

[edit] Dark Tower Glossary

[edit] Char (root word)

"Char" means death in the high speech and is a common root word for death in several dialects. Some examples are the name "Charlie," a suicidal monorail, and "Charyou Tree," a word relating to human sacrifice (in a farming community) to punish one's sins.

[edit] Commala

In Wolves of the Calla, Commala is both a celebration of the harvest season and part of Calla-Speak, a dialect used in the Crescent-Callas of the borderlands between Mid-World and the vast wasteland of Thunderclap. It is used in a surprising number of slang terms, many of them sexual in nature.

One would reference '(sexual) orgasm,' as in 'Did'ee come commala'? (The hoped-for reply being 'Aye, say thankya, commala big-big.') To wet the commala is to irrigate the rice in a dry time; it is also to masturbate. Commala is the commencement of some big and joyful meal, like a family feast (not the meal itself, do ya, but the moment of beginning to eat). A man who is losing his hair is coming commala. Putting animals out to stud is damp commala. Gelded animals are dry commala, although no one could tell you why. A virgin is green commala, a menstruating woman is red commala, an old man who can no longer make iron before the forge is say sorry sof' commala. To stand commala is to stand belly-to-belly, a slang term meaning "to share secrets." (For that matter, why is a fork sometimes a commala, but never a spoon or a knife?) The Commala is also a dance to the goddess Oriza, to bless the rice.

(excerpt from Wolves of the Calla)

[edit] Ka

Main article: ka (Dark Tower)

"It is ka, and ka is destiny." -Ted Brautigan, Hearts in Atlantis: Low Men in Yellow Coats. Ka can be described as destiny or fate, but is more complex than that. It is said to be a wheel that can only be broken by death or by betrayal. But, as Cort put it, those are also spokes on the wheel of ka. The image of ka as a wheel is reminiscent of the philosophy, "what goes around comes around."

Synonyms: Fate, Destiny, Karma, Luck, Kismet, Purpose, chi, and similar to "the Force" in Star Wars

[edit] Ka-tet

"We are ka-tet. We are one from many." Says Roland of Gilead on the day before the Battle of Algul Siento (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower). Ka-tet is the belief that a group of people can be tied together by fate, or ka. (This a concept frequently used by King, even in books that do not use the terms "ka" or "ka-tet"; It, The Stand, and Dreamcatcher are examples; compare with Kurt Vonnegut's Karass) It is said that a group has shared "khef" or the water of life. Sometimes the symbol of water is used literally, as in a ritual Roland and his ka-tet performs the night before the battle of Algul Siento. Roland's ka-tet includes himself, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Oy, and Jake Chambers. This tet was broken after the Battle of Blue Heaven. Donald "Pere" Callahan could possibly be considered ka-tet (or partially ka-tet) at the end of the series. Roland's previous ka-tet included himself, Cuthbert Allgood, Jamie DeCurry, and Alain Johns.

[edit] Khef

Literally the water of life. The idea of khef seems to be an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s word grok from Stranger in a Strange Land. Both khef and grok are used in roughly the same context. It is basically the life force of ka. It's where ka meets the soul. The Manni believe it to be possible to live off this life force. The first book in the series, The Gunslinger, also seems to refer to khef as a form of mental/spiritual discipline; as a fifth-level "khef-adept" (for lack of a better term), Roland was able to use his khef-granted abilities to withstand traveling through vast portions of the desert on far less food and water than any "normal" human would need at a minimum under the same circumstances.

[edit] Manni

The Manni tradition stems from the idea of a multiverse. The Manni are a religious group of ascetics, who, among other things, apparently believe in polygyny, travel between worlds, and the worship of something which they call "The Over" and "The Force". They wear dark blue robes (at other times are referred to being similar in appearance to Quaker and the Amish)and are known for having rather grim/pragmatic views on situations. They also have magical items that allow them to go todash. Though Henchick once notes that they are "sailors on the wind of ka" he had in fact earlier noted that the words "ka" and "ka-tet" were not Manni words, and seemed a little offended when Roland applies these phrases to the Manni situation.

The Manni religion could be the descendant or parallel of modern Christianity, showing another similarity that All-World has with this world. There are numerous references to the "Man Jesus/The Jesus Man" throughout the novels, and the Manni quote certain Bible verses, as shown in The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla. However in The Gunslinger Revised Version the Manni are somewhat differentiated from followers of the Man Jesus when Roland notes, "He was not a Manni, however, nor a follower of the Man Jesus, and considered himself in no way holy," implying that the two are different even if somehow related religions.

[edit] Roont

"Term used by the Folken of the Callas to refer to individuals who have been carried by the Wolves into Thunderclap and had a portion of their brain removed. This removed cerebral tissue was fed to the Breakers to further fortify their mental abilities. This term was first seen in Wolves of the Calla. [1] Roont children come back severely mentally handicapped, experience excruciating growing pains that cause them to grow into giants, then die young." It is implied in the final Dark Tower novel that "roont" is simply "ruined" with a regional Calla accent.

[edit] Thankee, Sai

May also find references online to Say Thankee Sai and Thankee Big Big which essentially mean the same -- Thank you.

The phrase "Thankee, Sai" is used by several characters, including Roland, to mean "Thank you, Sir." The dialect appears to be derived from a combination of American mixed with Old World terminology both European and Asian. The quaint dialect highlights the "almost" mirroring between the Dark Tower universe and our world and may also be King's way of demonstrating the unstoppable evolution of human language. The dialect, which mixes old and new terms, is also a reflection of a Dark Tower theme -- that of old things/old ways enduring into the future even if they remain in a broken or dysfunctional way -- or visa versa -- even in evil times, the good in civilization may endure in very small ways. Thus, some people continue to use and MAY be identified by their polite language.

[edit] Thinny

"An area where the barrier between worlds can be passed despite the absence of a true door. Typically accompanied by an unpleasant sound."[2]

A thinny is a "weak spot" in reality. They are described as looking like large blobs of mercury and emit a warbling sound similar to a musical saw. This sound can set a person's teeth on edge and/or hypnotize the victim. Besides the insanity-inducing buzzing and warbling sound, the thinny plays on a person's thoughts; telling them what they want to hear and promising a fine outcome. Death is more likely. Transportation into other universes is possible by simply walking into a thinny, but this is a rare outcome. Roland encountered a thinny earlier in life, the story of which is recounted in Wizard and Glass. His ka-tet also encounters one just outside Topeka, Kansas, in the reality of The Stand.

The word ini, which appeared in Desperation, may refer to a similar sort of place. Possibly the word ini is derived from Thinny or vice versa.