Towerpedia:Nort

Nort (abbv. surname: Norton, i.e. Mr. Norton) is a fictional character in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Nort was the desert city of Tull's equivalent of the "town drunk". At one time a productive member of the community, Nort ran a honey wagon until his strong addiction to alcohol and later devil-grass robbed him of his ambition. He began with smoking the noxious weed and eventually progressed to chewing it. Those familiar with weed know that this most often ends in total consumption in the addiction, and a much shortened walk toward the clearing at the end of the path. Prior to his "first" death, Nort was described as deathly thin and filthy with a seemingly permanent green coating of weed residue on his teeth, stinking like an omen of his near demise. The children of Tull made sport of him often, setting their dogs on him and laughing. Nort was oblivious to all but the weed, however; he lived in a land of delirium where God only knows what fantasies were perceived in the cruelties of the townspeople.

At the end, Nort no longer ate. He just seemed to hover like a rancid ghost to remind the town of their humanity and how pathetic it was. He died in front of Sheb's, stopping in his tracks as he floated toward the saloon's batwings and vomiting a black stew of blood and decay down his front. The strangest grin shaped his puking lips, and there it remained as Nort fell and died in the fresh mess.

When [AUTOLINK]Walter[/AUTOLINK] --the Man in Black-- passed through Tull in his flight from Roland in The Gunslinger, he found a unique amusement in Nort's recently lifeless corpse, which was lain out for wake on two tables in Sheb's. Telling those present that he would "...show [them] a wonder" (DTI) the Man in Black began to spit upon the corpse, his action inciting many others to do the same, until Nort's lifeless shell was covered head to toe in the glistening spittle of the townspeople's disdain. Walter then began a show of flipping and complicated gymnastics--more likely having to do with his ego than with the magic he was performing - and on his third pass Nort began to stir. To the horror of the drunks and whores in attendance, Nort rose from the dead, and the Man in Black could not have been happier.

Upon returning from the "other side" Nort had his mind closed, remembering nothing of what lay beyond the veil of life. But that dark trickster, Walter, was trig. Ah, trig indeed, and he had other plans for Nort. He closed the risen man's knowledge of the afterlife behind a door in his mind, and the key to that door was a word, a number. All one would have to do is merely whisper the word "nineteen" into the weed-eater's ear and the door would open. Madness would soon follow. This key, the number 19, was left by Walter to Allie, owner of the saloon, with the assurance that no matter how long she pushed it away and fought against it, she would eventually utter the word to Nort.

"Sooner or later you will ask." (DTI)

When Roland reached Tull the Man in Black was long gone, three weeks hence on his journey across the Mohaine. Upon meeting Nort in Sheb's the weed-eater spoke to Roland in the High Speech, the first time the gunslinger had heard the tongue in ages beyond memory. Prompted by this, Roland sought information from Allie, discovering the events of Nort's death and resurrection, and the secret of nineteen.

Upon further investigation, the gunslinger came to find that Nort's return from death was part of a trap lain for him by Walter. In convincing Sylvia Pittston that he was an "angel of God", raising a man from the dead was a convenient device. When the citizens of Tull began their revolt to destroy "the Interloper", it became apparent that Allie had finally given in to her curiosity and said the word to Nort, begging Roland to kill her afterward to free her from the madness. At some point after this, the mobbing people of Tull took Nort to the rooftop of Sheb's and crucified him there with wooden spikes, sending him back--this time permanently--to his rightful death.

Original artwork by boehmke

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References


Furth, Robin. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance. Scribner, 2006. ISBN 0743297342

King, Stephen. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, Book I, Revised). Viking Adult, 2003. ISBN 0670032549