The Gunslinger
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50 free The Gunslinger trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Stephen King's The Gunslinger is the strange, spare book that opens his Dark Tower series: part Western, part fantasy, part horror. It follows Roland, the last of his kind, on the trail of the man in black, and it sets up one of the longest stories King ever told. This quiz covers the whole book: the people Roland meets on the road, his memories of the training that made him, the boy Jake, and the long talk that ends the chase. It also looks behind the page at how King came to write it, where the stories first appeared, and what changed when he revised it. It suits readers who have just finished the novel, long-time Dark Tower fans, and book clubs working through the series.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The famous opening sentence of Stephen King's The Gunslinger sets its chase across what landscape?
A desert
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.
Q 02Stephen King modeled Roland of The Gunslinger on a nameless Western drifter played by which actor?
Clint Eastwood
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.
Q 03Which Victorian poet wrote 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came', the poem behind The Gunslinger?
Robert Browning
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.
Q 04Stephen King began The Gunslinger on a ream of paper, found at a library, in which unusual color?
Green
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.
Q 05In The Gunslinger, young Roland wins his guns by beating his teacher with what unusual weapon?
A hawk
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.
Q 06Which British actor played Roland in the 2017 film The Dark Tower, drawn partly from The Gunslinger?
Idris Elba
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.
Q 07The man in black of The Gunslinger is later revealed as which villain of Stephen King's The Stand?
Randall Flagg
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.
Q 08Jake, the boy Roland finds at a way station in The Gunslinger, was killed in which real-world city?
New York
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.
Q 09Roland's heavy revolvers in Stephen King's The Gunslinger have grips made from which fragrant wood?
Sandalwood
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.
Q 10Which Beatles song lingers as an old tune in Roland's world in Stephen King's The Gunslinger?
Hey Jude
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.
Q 11Which novel, the second in the Dark Tower series, directly follows Stephen King's The Gunslinger?
The Drawing of the Three
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.
Q 12Which director made the Western film that Stephen King names as a key inspiration for The Gunslinger?
Sergio Leone
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.
Q 13Which animal of Roland's is found dead after his night with the farmer Brown in The Gunslinger?
A mule
Q 21What is the name of Roland's lost homeland, ruled by his father, in Stephen King's The Gunslinger?
Gilead
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.
Q 22How much time has passed when Roland wakes after his talk with the man in black in The Gunslinger?
Ten years
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.
Q 23Which creatures attack Roland and Jake in the tunnels beneath the mountains in The Gunslinger?
Slow Mutants
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.
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.
Q 14Which actor played the man in black, opposite Roland, in the 2017 film The Dark Tower?
Matthew McConaughey
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.
Q 15Which fantasy epic does Stephen King name, beside a Western film, as a source for The Gunslinger?
The Lord of the Rings
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.
Q 16Which King novel, out a year after The Gunslinger, listed it among his earlier books and sent fans hunting?
Pet Sematary
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.
Q 17Which publisher launched the comic prequel The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born in 2007?
Marvel Comics
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.
Q 18The title 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came', behind The Gunslinger, quotes which Shakespeare play?
King Lear
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.
Q 19At the end of The Gunslinger, the man in black tells Roland's future using which tool?
Tarot cards
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.
Q 20In the series begun by The Gunslinger, Roland's guns were made from the metal of which sword?
Excalibur
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.
Q 24What do Roland and Jake ride along the old railway under the mountains in The Gunslinger?
A handcar
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.
Q 25What does Roland take from a skeleton walled up in the way station cellar in The Gunslinger?
A jawbone
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.
Q 26The oracle that Roland consults at the Speaking Ring in The Gunslinger is what kind of creature?
A succubus
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.
Q 27Which real drug does Roland take to fortify himself before facing the oracle in The Gunslinger?
Mescaline
Mescaline steels Roland for the meeting at the Speaking Ring. The oracle answers him with hints about two companions he has yet to meet.
Q 28Which narcotic weed do addicts in the town of Tull smoke and chew in The Gunslinger?
Devil grass
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.
Q 29What kind of bird is Zoltan, the pet of the farmer Brown in Stephen King's The Gunslinger?
A raven
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.
Q 30Which Tull bartender befriends Roland and falls into the man in black's trap in The Gunslinger?
Allie
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.