agreeOriginally Posted by maerlyn
Hi klokateer and welcome to the site.
Personally, I think Roland is ageless at this point in his quest. His body may possibly be of a man in his forties but how can one actually know? we don't know for sure how many times he's been on his path.
EDIT:
I know this is a really big thread but it is filled with all sorts of good stuff. Take a good ten minutes and go through it when you have a chance.
"First comes the smiles, then lies. last is gunfire"
- Roland Deschain, of Gilead
Spoiler:your quite right, i bow to you my friend
It still is a hint that he is no spring chicken, in that everyone assumes it to be age until they learn about 6/19/1999.
Another indication is when DT6 says that he looks like he could be Stephen King's father.
And Candy, both Roland and Rosalita act like its pretty normal for a man Roland's age to be getting the rheumatiz (can't remember the spelling) so I think your point is a valid one. It was something that Roland had worried about before and he didn't seem surprised by it's prospect, only disappointed that something natural would prevent him from gaining the tower.
HA HA!!! I unbow then, if there is such a thing
Anyway... do you think people celebrated birthdays in Gilead? Or did the world move on so much that it would have been impossible? Maybe they just didn't give a damn about it.
Roland would have understood.
Why not? We know for sure how old everyone was in Roland's recollections, and we know that they did have celebrations; why not birthdays? Especially in a traditional society where coming of this or that age is always an important milestone.
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is exactly what my train of thought was on the topic at hand...whenever Roland met new people they would always say how long ago Gilead had fallen (I think it was Joe Collins that said it must have been thousands of years ago).well the only way i've been judging Rolands age is with the fall of Gilead - and i really like to think that it was thousands of years before we met Roland in The Gunslinger...
Spoiler:
It's just so damn hard to imagine Roland sitting in front of a birthday cake.
I know... I know... maybe their traditions were different.
Roland would have understood.
'Fraid so."...filthy old rheumatoid arthritis, which kills so much of what could be good in the old ages of men and women who are otherwise healthy..."
-- Pet Semetary
No birthday cake for Roland? Surely Gan isn't that unkind?It's just so damn hard to imagine Roland sitting in front of a birthday cake.
I know... I know... maybe their traditions were different.
in THE COMPLETE CONCORDENCE by robin furth there is a timeline or mid-world and in it roland is 337 at the end of the jorney due to in the first book after meeting with the man in black he sleeps for many years and it is an estimate done by robin an asscoicate sai king. a very book to browse it has every from mid world to end world to ours chacters place portals and much more
337? Gee, you'd think that arthritis would be the least of his problems.Thanks for looking that up, Ka mai. Raises the interesting point that the question of Roland's age can be seen in different ways; physical and objective.
Ms. Furth notes the assumptions she decided to make in creating that timeline, and the fact that there remain various uncertainties about what it covers, to say nothing of the possible implications of the [cough]DT7 spoiler[/cough]. Still, this is all highly interesting for us fans.
337 sounds just fine! I couldn't believe that he could be just 40+. Roland is more than that (for me atleast)
I am the one I am the one
The godlike terror train
The superior, artificial brain
Feel free to call me Blaine!
i agree with this, while on one hand Roland physical body is around the 40ish mark for me, he is also oldie worldie and the way he acts would suggest really very old indeed (oldie worldie i wanted to say)337 sounds just fine! I couldn't believe that he could be just 40+. Roland is more than that (for me atleast)
My Take
First this is my first post so hello to all. Found this site on accident but it seems very interesting. Now on to the show. I was reading your various post and had some ideas on the subject.
First as to Roland being a singular person in the cosmos.
It's been awhile since I have read some of the older books but I am almost positive that is stated in the series that Roland's world as well of the world that Stephen King lives in are more then the other worlds. At least it is alluded to by the only danger to the tower is the destruction of the rose in SK world or the destruction to the actual tower in Roland's world. So I would argue that even if there are other people in the multiverse that resemble Roland or even live lives similar would it really matter. No matter if the Roland of another world obtained the tower or cried off the quest it would not make any difference in the scheme of things. It's like our worlds version of King Author. Does it matter if the story comes from a real person that existed on or "world" or that the story comes from the ultimate game of telephone between worlds. If our King Author was real it would just be distorted reflection of the real struggle on Roland's primary world. It would have no impact on the multiverse other then giving us on our "world" a glimpse of the struggle going on for our very existence. Of course we just think thats a fairy tale. If is a game of telephone it's nothing but a misinterpreted tale of our connection of GOD.
Second now that I spouted that whole thing on whether it matters or not here is my opinion.
I think that Roland is a singular entity. His being the one of the primary worlds I believe that he is Gan's personal champion of that world. That's the simple answer. Now here is where you really get into my personal ideas of the whole story. I look at Roland much like one his guns at his side, and the dark tower series as a whole as the forge that made that gun. I believe that with the apocalypse approaching with the fall of the dark tower Gan has decided to forge his champion. So he takes Roland and puts him into this loop to forge him into the being he needs him to be. I look at it much like the story of the Jesus-man. To be the savior of the people the God of our world need a mortal champion. During the forging of the Jesus-Man he was lead to the top of a mountain (Tower?) and tested for 40 days and 40 nights or in layman terms a long time but no one knows how long. Anyway we do not know what these test consist of but we know from the bible in or "world" that the Jesus-man leaves the mountain tried and tested and is able to do what needs to be done to save the people of our "world". I believe that Roland's trip threw the Tower is his version of the mountain top preparing him for the real test to come.
I know I may have went a bit off topic but I hope I got my idea of what I was trying to say across. Please let me know what you think or if you need me to clarify anything. Also I in no way intend to offend anyone's faith. This is just my opinion of the story not my world views on the state of God, Jesus, or any thing else you may believe in. If you find anything I wrote offensive I do cry your pardon.
You haven't - at least, not mine. Although I suppose that Jesus himself is infinitely more than just a "mortal champion", I have always suspected Roland's strong kinship with RCatholic saints, such as St.George, St.Ignatius of Loyola, St.Joan of Arc and manly more. Humanity reaches its ultimate degree in a saint; thus Roland is a saint and an ultimate himan being for me, not a divine entity of any kind.
(it was one hell of a first post, by the way...)
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's for sure.(it was one hell of a first post, by the way...Welcome to tdt.com!
So, does that mean that the new Roland we see at the end won't need to save the Tower again? Or that those same allusions won't be drawn the next time around?
I know that what you're talking about, the "keystone" concept, is what the books say. It just never made sense to me. What I think is that what the Roland we saw was told was just what he needed to hear. His version of the Tower was the only one that mattered to him, because the other versions of it need to be saved by the other versions of him. IMHO, the keystones are relative.
im thinking he is around 55 physically, due to his age when he was in hambry, the 20 years of travelling he spoke of, and the fact that at jericho hill, he was 25. he also said he felt 10 years older after he and walter spoke at the end of book 1. He also has the dry twist, which also makes me think that he is older. And his hair is turning gray.
There were 9 separate threads in this section, all discussing Roland. Some of them had died away a few pages back. So, over the next day or so I'll merge the rest of them in here and then summarise, with a bit of c&p-ing, the main points of discussion so far
Rolands survival skills
Greetings.
After rereading The Dark Tower I was amazed (again) at the skills Roland has for surviving almost anywhere. The scene with the deer and the skinning/preparing of the hides/meat was amazing!
My question is this: are the skills Roland displays based on any real survival skills one could use? A couple examples:
the 'cold' tanning of the hides with the animals brains
the use of ash to help small wounds
will the kidneys help with coughs, etc.
Also, this thread could be for not only listing/ verifying the skills Roland displays on his quest, but also for skills beginner survivalists wouldn't know!( as I am curious to know if the 'cold' tanning of the hides would really work)
One real piece of survival to get the ball rolling!
You can get clean water from almost anywhere ( even from saltwater, leaves, pondwater, etc.) by using a solar still. Which is basically a shallow dish(or small hole in the ground) with a cup in the center and a tarp/plastic covering with a rock/weight so that the dip is over the cup. This will cause the water (from saltwater, urine, even healthy leaves) to evaporate upwards to the tarp and drip into the cup if it is in direct sunlight!
Roland uses a lot of good survival tricks.
Cold tanning or "brain" taning has been discussed in a way previous thread. But it is rather effective way of tanning hides that has been used by native americans for melinenia... However it is rather time consuming and dose not happen as quickly in the sereis.
Emergancy weapons oil can be found in your pantry. Olive oil Is quite an effective weapons oil and was used in colonial america as such. Keep your weapon clean and oiled and it will save your life!
Thankee lead dealer! I know a few of the things SK describes ( rock scrapers, bone needles, etc. ) are realistic, but also that ( at least in some things *cough* rolands guns *cough*) SK seems not to have done much research beforehand (not a bad thing per se, just a funny thing!)! Just curious if some of the mentioned skills would help or complicate things in a survival situation!
Whats wrong with Roland's guns? Honestly, from what I recall they've never been particularly well described.
Robin Furth apparently spent quite a bit of time researching the deer-skin section of DT7 for King, so I expect that most of it is fairly accurate.
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