Eddie Dean

Although he was born in Brooklyn, New York, black-haired, hazel-eyed Eddie Dean reminded Roland of his two previous ka-tet mates, Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns. Like Cuthbert, Eddie loved to make stupid jokes, but like Alain, he also frequently experienced brilliant flashes of intuition. As the human incarnation of the Tarot card known as The Prisoner, Eddie’s part in Roland’s adventures was foretold by the wizard Walter, also known as the Man in Black.

In his original where and when of 1987, New York, Eddie was a heroin addict and a drug runner for the mobster Enrico Balazar—a job he took in large part to support his bullying but beloved junkie-brother, Henry Dean. Despite Eddie’s nasty drug habit, Roland recognized the younger man as a born gunslinger and compared him to a good gun sinking in quicksand. However, after Roland transported Eddie into Mid-World via one of the magical doors located on the shores of the Western Sea, Eddie overcame his addiction and became a devoted member of Roland’s ka-tet.

Roland often called Eddie ka-mai, or ka’s fool, yet Eddie’s anarchic sense of humor and overwhelming devotion to both love and the quest were essential to Roland’s success. It was Eddie’s terrible jokes that fried the circuits of Blaine, the Insane Mono, allowing our ka-tet to escape the machinations of this seriously suicidal machine. But it was also Eddie who drew the door and carved the key that allowed Jake Chambers to reenter Mid-World.

Without Eddie’s intuition to guide him, Roland would never have seen the formation of the Tet Corporation (Tet was Eddie’s brainchild), nor would he have met his maker, Stephen King. In fact, without Eddie, Stephen King as we know him might never have existed. When Roland and Eddie visited our favorite kas-ka Gan in Maine, 1977, they learned that their author saw both Eddie Dean and Cuthbert Allgood when he was seven years old. Roland’s two tet-mates saved Stephen King from the clutches of the Crimson King and turned him away from the grim seductions of Discordia.

Of all Roland’s tet-mates, Eddie was the most reminiscent of the traditional Arthurian knight. While he shared Roland’s desire to reach the Tower, he believed that his ultimate purpose was not to serve his ka-tet, or even his wife, but to protect the Rose, which is both our world’s incarnation of the Dark Tower and the most fundamental symbol of love.

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