Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (112 page)

FORSPECIAL (FORSPECIAL PLATE):
The plate which Odetta Holmes/Susannah Dean’s mother gave to Susannah’s aunt (Sister Blue) as a wedding present. Soon after the wedding, little Odetta was hit on the head by a brick dropped by the psychopath Jack Mort, giving birth to Odetta’s second personality, Detta Walker. For some reason, Detta Walker blamed Sister Blue for her accident and so broke the
forspecial
plate. The
forspecial
bore a marked resemblance to the flying ORIZAs hurled by the Sisters of the Plate in the borderland CALLAS. V:74, V:329, V:370

**FOT-SULS:
Roland’s version of Jake’s word for the phosphorescent man-made “fossils” embedded in the rock below the Cyclopean Mountains. It probably refers to neon tubing.

FOTTERGRAFS (FOTERGRAFFS, FOTTERGRAFFS):
Technically speaking, this is not a Mid-World term at all but Roland’s rather garbled version of our word “photograph.” II:344, II:345, IV:74, V:104, VII:41, VII:496

FOUR-SHOT:
A four-shot revolver. The one that the Widow Smack gave to Tim Ross was about a foot long. The gripping handle was made of wood, the trigger and barrels were of dull metal. It had four barrels bound together by a band of what looked like brass. The holes at the end, where the bullets came out, were square. W:186–87

**FRESH COMMALA:
Another term for the season of Sowing, also known as New Earth.
See
COMMALA
,
in
HIGH SPEECH, GILEAD FAIR-DAYS,
at the beginning of this
Concordance,
and
MID-WORLD HOLIDAYS
,
in
APPENDIX IV.

FRESH EYES SEE CLEAR:
This is actually Susannah Dean’s saying. It means that a person seeing a situation for the first time has a clearer understanding because he or she isn’t bogged down by small details. VII:121

FULL EARTH:
Full Earth is the season which comes after MID-SUMMER but before REAP. It is the time of ripening. According to Andy, the Calla Bryn Sturgis’s duplicitous Messenger Robot, it is a propitious time for finishing up old business and meeting new people. The red HUNTRESS MOON is a Full Earth moon.
See also
GILEAD FAIR-DAYS
,
at the beginning of this
Concordance. V:2, V:6, W:121

FULL OF HOT SPIT AND FIRE:
Full of life and energy, but in this case, the energy is like lightning. VII:509

GAMRY BOTTLED GAS:
The Old People used this fuel to fire up their talking grills. Our KA-TET is forced to use some while hunkering down in a campsite on Can-Steek-Tete, near the DEVAR-TOI. Eddie Dean finds the talking grill exceptionally annoying. VII:318

GAN BORE THE WORLD AND THE WORLD MOVED ON:
A saying often used in Mid-World. Gan gave birth to the world from his navel, then tipped it with his finger and set it rolling. This forward movement is what we perceive to be time.
For more information about Gan, see
GAN
,
in
CHARACTERS. VI:295

GAN’S BLACKBIRDS (CASTLE ROOKS):
Gan’s blackbirds are scavenger birds which feed upon the bodies of the dead. Often called Castle Rooks (though never Royal Rooks), they haunt execution yards. Le Casse Roi Russe is home to many, many of these sinister birds. Their cry sounds like “Croo, croo!” VII:585

GAN’S BLOOD:
This is an exclamation equivalent to
My God
or
By God.
W:247

GENTLE FELLOWS:
Gentlemen; wellborn men. W:44

GHOSTS ALWAYS HAUNT THE SAME HOUSE:
This explains why ghosts don’t take vacations. A person who dies in a place under unhappy circumstances remains there, quite possibly because he or she does not understand that he or she is dead. Roland uses this term to explain why the VAGS (or vagrant dead) always remain close to the places where they died. V:288

GHOSTWOOD:
Ghostwood is another name for black ironwood, which is heavier than the usual ironwood. Black Thirteen’s box is made of ghostwood. V:316, VI:83

GILLY:
See
JILLY
,
below

GIVE YOU PEACE:
See
MID-WORLD GESTURES

GIVE’EE:
To give thee, or to give you. (I wish I had more food to give’ee.) W:16

GLAMMER:
Magic or enchantment. Susannah Dean thinks that
glammer
has its own rules. Unfortunately, we mere mortals rarely comprehend them.
See entry under
MANNI TERMS
. I:211, V:469, VII:690

GLEEP:
To have a gleep is to have a long look, a stare, a gape, etc. W:54, W:279

GOAT MOON:
Also known as “Goat with beard.” In our world, it would be the February moon. It is the moon under which Eddie Dean was born. V:138, V:530

GOBBLE O’CLOCK:
This is an Eddie Dean saying for,
it’s dinnertime!
W:7

GOD-DRUMS:
As we learned in
The Waste Lands,
the Grays of Lud broadcasted the god-drums throughout the city so that their enemies, the Pubes, would kill each other. The Pubes believed that the god-drums were the voices of the ghosts in the machines, which demanded human sacrifice. If they didn’t ritually sacrifice one of their band each time the drums began, the dead would rise up and devour the living. In actuality, the Grays only thought they played the god-drums. The whole sadistic scenario was the creation of Blaine, Lud’s mad computer brain. (Lud’s Blaine was the same as Blaine the Mono.) Sadly, the god-drums were nothing more than the backbeat of ZZ Top’s song “Velcro Fly.” As Eddie Dean wryly observed, the Pubes killed each other for a song that never even made it as a single. VI:205

GODS-A-GLORY:
“Oh my God” or “Oh my gosh!” V:332

GOLGOTHA:
A place of the skull, or a dead place. I:197

GOMPA HOLE:
A horse that steps in a gompa hole will probably break his leg. W:92

GONE DAYS:
Those days are gone, and you can’t do anything to change them or to bring them back. V:101, W:31

GONE WORLD, THE:
This phrase refers to the world from which our own world has “moved on.” It is equivalent to “the olden days.” For the people of Mid-World and the borderlands, the gone world was a better world. Gilead is part of the gone world, hence Roland himself is also part of the gone world. V:214

GONICKS:
This is Mia’s word. We are not given a translation. VII:64

GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD SWILL:
The Pubes of Lud use this term instead of “Good riddance to bad rubbish.” III:324

GOOK:
A deep well. Common law says that any traveler may drink from a gook without let or penalty. W:18

GOOSE JUST WALKED OVER YOUR GRAVE (A GOOSE JUST WALKED OVER YOUR GRAVE):
This phrase is equivalent to “A cat just stepped on my grave.” In other words, you had a sudden eerie, inexplicable chill. VII:315

GORMLESS:
Stupid or foolish. W:134

GRAF:
An apple beer that seems to be a specialty of Mid-World. It is offered to Roland, Susannah, Eddie, and Jake when they visit the elderly people of River Crossing. It is also served in Hambry. Mid-World is full of orchards (both Roland and Tick-Tock have memories of them), so it makes sense that the Mid-World drink of choice should be a kind of hard cider. III:234, V:127, W:123

GRANDFATHER FLEAS (LITTLE DOCTORS):
Grandfather Fleas are the parasitic bugs which feast on the GRANDFATHERS’ leftovers. If you see Grandfather Fleas, you know that the Grandfathers can’t be far away.
For more information, see
VAMPIRES
: TYPE ONE: GRANDFATHER FLEAS,
in
CHARACTERS

GRANDFATHERS:
The Grandfathers are TYPE ONE VAMPIRES. They are the nastiest of the demons that the receding PRIM left stranded upon the shores of Mid-World. The Grandfathers are monstrous-looking creatures. They have shriveled faces and black, oozing eyes. They have so many teeth that they can’t close their lips, and even their skin is scaled with teeth. These Type Ones don’t just drink human blood—they eat human flesh as well.
For more information, see
VAMPIRES
: TYPE ONE,
in
CHARACTERS

GRANTHER:
Grandfather. W:80

GRASS-EATERS, GRASS-EATING LOOK:
Roland thinks that most civilians look more like grass-eaters, or sheep, than people. VI:131, VII:39

GRAYS:
See
GRAYS
,
in
CHARACTERS

GREAT DARKNESS:
The End-World region of Thunderclap. W:10

GREAT FIRE:
See
GREAT POISONING
,
below

GREAT GROTTING IDIOT:
A Mid-World insult. If you call someone a great grotting idiot you are telling them they are a big dummy. W:69

GREAT LETTERS:
The letters of High Speech. V:93, VII:494

GREAT POISONING (OLD WAR, THE GREAT FIRE, THE CATACLYSM):
This horrific event took place more than a thousand years before the grandparents of the River Crossing folks were born. It caused the animal, plant, and human populations of Mid-World to give birth to muties, and it made great swaths of land turn into wasteland. It was the beginning of all Mid-World’s troubles. III:284–85

GREATER DISCORDIA:
See
PRIM
,
below

GREEN CORN A-DAYO:
See entry in
CALLA BRYN STURGIS DIALECT

GREENSTICKING:
To put pressure on someone, or “to twist an arm.” V:92

GREEZY:
This is Lud-speak for “greasy.” III:327

GROUND-SHAKERS:
Many of the railroad tracks of the Western Line have been destroyed by washout and ground-shakers, in other words by floods and earthquakes. W:40

**GROW BAG:
A grow bag is a magical purse that grows money. Roland’s grow bag was given to him by his father, Steven Deschain. Roland’s purse can be emptied three times, as we see in Calla Bryn Sturgis when Roland gives money to his three KA-TET mates. The first time the purse spills silver, the second time it spills gold, and the third time it spills garnets. We don’t know whether the grow bag always grows the same riches or whether it responds to the needs of the receiver. At the end of the 2003 version of
Gunslinger,
while he holds palaver with Walter in the golgotha, Roland hints that his grow bag can grow tobacco as well as money and gems. V:401

GUARD, THE:
This is a gun-holding position used by gunslingers. In the guard position, the gun barrel rests on the hollow of the left shoulder. VII:192

GUARD O’ THE WATCH:
An officer of the law. Roland uses this term for both the guards of his world and the police of ours. I:109, VI:258, VII:463

GUIJARROS:
In Spanish this means cobbles or pebbles. Both the stone walls and the cracked
guijarros
of Rhea’s roof are slimed with mold. IV:394

GULLYWASH:
This is Gasher-speak and is probably part of Lud’s slang. It seems to mean penis. III:298

GUNBUNNY:
A gunbunny is a gunman. W:272

GUNNA:
See entry in
HIGH SPEECH

GUNNIE (YOUNG GUNNIE):
Young gunslinger. W:49

GUNSLINGER BURRITOS:
The vegetarian wraps which Roland makes for his KA-TET while they are traveling. Eddie Dean prefers meat. V:134, W:7

GUNSLINGER LITANY:
Every gunslinger must learn to recite the following litany: “I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.” III:14, III:68, V:155–56

GUNSLINGER QUESTIONS:
See
WILL YOU OPEN TO US IF WE OPEN TO YOU?

HACI:
Short for
hacienda
or house. IV:191, W:47

HAI:
This is the term Roland uses to call his hawk, David. I:169

HARD BISCUIT:
If you pay for something in hard biscuit, you are paying in silver or gold, not SCRIP. W:101

HARD COIN:
Money, not SCRIP. W:114

HARD RAIN MAKES FOR QUEER BEDFELLOWS AT THE INN (A HARD RAIN MAKES FOR QUEER BEDFELLOWS AT THE INN):
We have a version of this saying in our world too: “Necessity makes for strange bedfellows.” VII:791

HARRIERS:
Bandits or outlaws. The harriers of Mid-World rob, loot, murder and destroy. The Grays are harriers, as are the Big Coffin Hunters. Harriers blinded Mercy of River Crossing with a branding iron because, they said, she was “looking at em pert.” III:226, III:230, V:92, VI:131, W:10

HAVE YOU THUDBRAINS NOT KENNED EVEN YET WHO’S IN CHARGE OF THIS RAREE?:
Haven’t you stupid men realized yet who is in charge of this operation? W:274

HE KEPT HIS FACE WELL:
His face didn’t betray his emotions. V:205

HE’S MADE OF LIES FROM BOOTS TO CROWN:
This is the Widow Smack’s assessment of the evil Covenant Man. W:175

HEAD CLEAR. MOUTH SHUT. SEE MUCH. SAY LITTLE:
Roland’s advice to Jake when the boy is about to go and stay at Eisenhart’s ranch. V:205

HEADKNOCKER:
A kind of club or nightstick used by Sheriff Peavy and other sheriffs. Headknockers are usually made of IRONWOOD. W:285

HEAR HIM VERY WELL:
Listen to what he’s saying. VI:193

HEART OF THE BEAM:
See
BARREL OF THE BEAM
,
above

HEART-STORM:
See
BRAIN-STORM