50 Fun Facts About The Gunslinger

The famous opening sentence of Stephen King's The Gunslinger sets its chase across what landscape?

A desert is where the pursuit begins, in a story first printed in a magazine in October 1978. King later joined it with four more stories to make the book.

Stephen King modeled Roland of The Gunslinger on a nameless Western drifter played by which actor?

Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name inspired Roland. King says so in his introduction to the 2003 edition, and in a later book the author tells Roland the same thing to his face.

Which Victorian poet wrote 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came', the poem behind The Gunslinger?

Robert Browning published the poem in 1855, and King read it as a sophomore at university. He set out to write a long romantic novel with the feel of the poem.

Stephen King began The Gunslinger on a ream of paper, found at a library, in which unusual color?

Green was the color of the ream King found at the library in 1970. The book then took him twelve and a half years to finish.

In The Gunslinger, young Roland wins his guns by beating his teacher with what unusual weapon?

A hawk named David was Roland's choice, and he sacrificed the bird to distract his teacher. At 14 he passed the trial earlier than any apprentice before him.

Which British actor played Roland in the 2017 film The Dark Tower, drawn partly from The Gunslinger?

Idris Elba took the role in a film that King and its director describe as a sequel to the books, following Roland on his last trip around the cycle.

The man in black of The Gunslinger is later revealed as which villain of Stephen King's The Stand?

Randall Flagg hides behind many names across King's books. The link is made in Wizard and Glass, and King's 2003 revision of the first novel was adjusted to fit it.

Jake, the boy Roland finds at a way station in The Gunslinger, was killed in which real-world city?

New York is where Jake was pushed into traffic in 1977. He recalls the death under hypnosis, and it is the first link between Roland's world and others.

Roland's heavy revolvers in Stephen King's The Gunslinger have grips made from which fragrant wood?

Sandalwood grips and blued steel mark the guns, which are recognized across Roland's world as a sign of who he is. They are chambered close to a .45.

Which Beatles song lingers as an old tune in Roland's world in Stephen King's The Gunslinger?

Hey Jude is one of the scraps of our world left in Roland's, along with hamburgers, beer and a gas pump worshipped as a god. His world resembles the Old West in another universe.

Which novel, the second in the Dark Tower series, directly follows Stephen King's The Gunslinger?

The Drawing of the Three arrived in 1987, five years after the first book. Early in it Roland loses two fingers of his right hand, which ends his lightning-fast reloading.

Which director made the Western film that Stephen King names as a key inspiration for The Gunslinger?

Sergio Leone made The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which King calls a primary influence in his introduction to the 2003 edition of the novel.

Which animal of Roland's is found dead after his night with the farmer Brown in The Gunslinger?

A mule had come with Roland that far, and its death leaves him to go on by foot. He is collapsing from thirst by the time he reaches the way station.

Which actor played the man in black, opposite Roland, in the 2017 film The Dark Tower?

Matthew McConaughey played the sorcerer who wants to bring down the Tower. The film draws mostly on the first and third novels and moves between Roland's world and ours.

Which fantasy epic does Stephen King name, beside a Western film, as a source for The Gunslinger?

The Lord of the Rings made King want an epic of his own. Tolkien's influence also shows in his place names, such as Mid-World, and in the language he invented for the series.

Which King novel, out a year after The Gunslinger, listed it among his earlier books and sent fans hunting?

Pet Sematary listed the little-known book among King's earlier works, and readers called King and his publishers asking where to find it. A second run of ten thousand copies followed.

Which publisher launched the comic prequel The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born in 2007?

Marvel Comics published the series, plotted by Robin Furth, scripted by Peter David and drawn by Jae Lee. It is set around the flashbacks to Roland's youth.

The title 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came', behind The Gunslinger, quotes which Shakespeare play?

King Lear has the line, spoken as nonsense by Edgar while he poses as the madman Tom o' Bedlam. A childe is a nobleman's son who has not yet been knighted.

At the end of The Gunslinger, the man in black tells Roland's future using which tool?

Tarot cards give Roland the Sailor, the Prisoner, the Lady of Shadows, Death and the Tower. The first few stand for companions he has lost or has yet to meet.

In the series begun by The Gunslinger, Roland's guns were made from the metal of which sword?

Excalibur, in Roland's world, belonged to Arthur Eld, and Roland is the last of his line. The steel of the sword was melted down to make the pair of revolvers.

What is the name of Roland's lost homeland, ruled by his father, in Stephen King's The Gunslinger?

Gilead is the realm whose line of gunslingers ends with Roland. Its fall, when he was still a teenager, already lies far behind him when the novel opens.

How much time has passed when Roland wakes after his talk with the man in black in The Gunslinger?

Ten years have gone by, and only a skeleton lies beside Roland. In King's 2003 revision, Roland wonders whether the remains are a trick.

Which creatures attack Roland and Jake in the tunnels beneath the mountains in The Gunslinger?

Slow Mutants block the track to catch the pair, and Jake clears the way just in time. They also gave their name to the fourth of the stories that make up the book.

What do Roland and Jake ride along the old railway under the mountains in The Gunslinger?

A handcar carries them through the dark. To distract the boy on the way, Roland tells Jake the story of how he earned his guns.

What does Roland take from a skeleton walled up in the way station cellar in The Gunslinger?

A jawbone, which Roland later hands to Jake as a protective charm. A demon in the cellar had spoken to them through the skeleton it came from.

The oracle that Roland consults at the Speaking Ring in The Gunslinger is what kind of creature?

A succubus, and Roland first has to pull Jake out of its reach. He then goes back alone to bargain with it for a look at his fate and the way ahead.

Which real drug does Roland take to fortify himself before facing the oracle in The Gunslinger?

Mescaline steels Roland for the meeting at the Speaking Ring. The oracle answers him with hints about two companions he has yet to meet.

Which narcotic weed do addicts in the town of Tull smoke and chew in The Gunslinger?

Devil grass is usually smoked, but the town drunk has graduated to chewing it, to Roland's disgust. He dies of it in the saloon, and the man in black brings him back to life.

What kind of bird is Zoltan, the pet of the farmer Brown in Stephen King's The Gunslinger?

A raven, and Zoltan shares the hut where Roland stops for the night. It is there, at the farmer's urging, that Roland tells the story of what he did in Tull.

Which Tull bartender befriends Roland and falls into the man in black's trap in The Gunslinger?

Allie tends the bar and tells Roland how a dead man was raised there. In King's revision she begs Roland to end her misery, which softens a colder killing in the 1982 text.

Which fanatical preacher turns the whole town of Tull against Roland in The Gunslinger?

Sylvia Pittston believes the man in black has left her carrying a demon's child. Her sermon sets the congregation on Roland, and he ends up killing everyone in town.

By what first name does Roland know the man in black he hunts in Stephen King's The Gunslinger?

Walter is the name he uses in Tull, in full Walter o'Dim. At the end he tells Roland that he is only a pawn of a greater enemy who controls the Tower.

Which court wizard seduces Roland's mother and goads the boy into an early trial in The Gunslinger?

Marten served Roland's father while secretly working against him, and hoped the boy would fail the trial and be exiled. He is later unmasked as the man in black himself.

Which brutal teacher trains young Roland and his friends as gunslingers in The Gunslinger?

Cort punishes his pupils with blows and hunger, and a boy must beat him in combat to earn his guns. Roland takes the test at 14, earlier than any apprentice before him.

Which childhood friend helps young Roland expose the cook Hax as a traitor in The Gunslinger?

Cuthbert and Roland sent the cook to the gallows for serving the rebel known as the Good Man. Carefree and quick to joke, Cuthbert often irritated the humorless Roland.

Which real gasoline brand names a pump that is worshipped as a god in Stephen King's The Gunslinger?

Amoco, a real American oil company, lingers in Roland's world as the name of a god. It is one of the hints that his land is a decayed relative of our own.

Where does Roland arrive on foot in the final pages of Stephen King's The Gunslinger?

A seashore: Roland walks to the edge of the Western Sea, sent that way by the man in black. The next novel opens on the same beach less than seven hours later.

Which magazine first published the five stories that Stephen King combined into The Gunslinger?

Fantasy & Science Fiction ran the stories between 1978 and 1981. King dedicated the finished book to Edward Ferman, the magazine's long-time editor.

Which fantasy artist painted the cover and illustrations for the first edition of The Gunslinger?

Michael Whelan came back more than 20 years later to illustrate the seventh volume, The Dark Tower, which ends Roland's story.

Which King novella from the 1998 anthology Legends is set before the events of The Gunslinger?

The Little Sisters of Eluria finds a wounded Roland nursed by nuns who turn out to be vampires. In 2009 it was published in one volume with the revised first novel.

What did Stephen King call the language he invented for Roland's world in the Dark Tower series?

High Speech gives the books words such as sai, a term of respect like sir or ma'am. King's taste for an invented tongue owes something to Tolkien.

Which short word means destiny or fate in the Dark Tower series that begins with The Gunslinger?

Ka is the force Roland follows on his road, and the word itself comes from Egyptian mythology. A group of people bound together by it is called a ka-tet.

Which Tull drunk does the man in black raise from the dead before Roland arrives in The Gunslinger?

Nort dies twice: the man in black revives him in front of the saloon's regulars, and he is dead again by the time Roland leaves Tull.

Which one-word subtitle did Stephen King give The Gunslinger in its revised 2003 edition?

Resumption appears alone on the last page before the text begins. King confirmed it as the subtitle later, in the foreword to the fifth book of the series.

Which small fantasy press first published The Gunslinger as an illustrated limited edition?

Donald M. Grant took the book after King offered it in 1981, thinking the stories would not appeal to his mainstream readers. The deal gave the press hardcover rights to the stories still to come.

Which filmmaker directed and co-wrote the 2017 film The Dark Tower, drawn partly from The Gunslinger?

Nikolaj Arcel signed on in 2015, after eight years of false starts under other filmmakers. Ron Howard, who had been due to direct, stayed on as a producer.

Which number does the man in black leave behind as a deadly trap word in Tull in The Gunslinger?

Nineteen, said to the man he raised from the dead, would make him tell what he saw in the afterlife. King added the trap in his 2003 revision; the bartender cannot resist it, and the answer drives her mad.

What name does Tull's preacher give Roland in the sermon that turns the town on him in The Gunslinger?

The Interloper is the preacher's name for an evil outsider the town should cast down, and the congregation takes it to mean Roland. He has to shoot his way out.

The water pump at the abandoned way station in The Gunslinger runs on what leftover power source?

An atomic slug still drives the pump long after its builders vanished. Relics like it show that Roland's world once had technology much like ours.

Because The Gunslinger joins five magazine stories into one book, it is an example of what kind of novel?

A fix-up is a novel built from stories first published separately, and King lightly revised each one for the book. The five had run between 1978 and 1981.