'Spoilers' Rolands travel time from Gilead to the Western Sea

[LovesSweetExile]

Ok, so just finished the series, apart from the mind boggling (but awesome) ending, there's one of a million things I am confused about.

So we all guess that Roland is probably a thousand years old, so therefor, I am guessing the battle of Jericho Hill occured not to long after Wizard and Glass, assuming Roland was still a young man, he states in The Drawing that it has taken him 20 years to reach the western sea, now what I am confused about is that Blaine stated that 'THERE HAS BEEN NO GUNSLINGER IN MID-WORLD FOR 300 YEARS' so that doesn't really make sense since Roland is the last true Gun Slinger, so basically, what was Roland doing in Gilead for the past 980 years? chasing Flagg? surely the rebellion couldnt have lasted that long?

Any Idea's?

[disel24]

if you read through the series again you'll notice that the last time a 'true gunslinger' was seen continues to get longer and longer. I have a couple of theories and one of them is that they mean one hasn't been seen in that part of the world.

However, things to consider, time is funny, and gets funnier the longer the series goes and the second thing is that if the ending holds true (If you're reading this thread and haven't finished the series, say sorry) then those that have seen him make his trek over and over again are dead. It could be that the gunslinger that they heard rumors of was roland HIMSELF continuing his cycle.

[LovesSweetExile]

Yes I understand time is funny, but 20 years in our time surely can't be as long as 980 years in mid world, its not obviously, as it states in song of Susannah, its the 980 year gap that puzzles me.

[pathoftheturtle]

...I understand time is funny...

I'm not sure you do. It's so funny that I'm not sure that anyone understands how it works; not Roland, not Walter, not Stephen King, not Einstein or Hawking, certainly not Robin Furth. Some points to keep in mind, though:

1. Even within Mid-World, time may pass differently in different areas, and there need not always be a steady ratio between them. That's what the slippage of the failing of the Tower equals. Any day from Roland's point of view might be a year in Lud, or vice versa. There might be (usually) a more steady relationship when comparing different universes, where it is apparently natural for time to have different rates, even when the Tower is at peak health, but that probably varies a lot, as well.

2. The palaver with the man in black at the end of DT1 occured within a "fistula of time" and it's pretty well established that hundreds of years passed everywhere else at that point.

3. The Fall of the gunslingers at Jericho Hill is common knowledge in that world; Roland's survival is not. Most folken (and probably Blaine, too) would believe that the last gunslinger died at that battle, in whatever year it was that it took place.