Maerlyn, Possibly Split?

[Prince of Darkness]

Hi,

I had a wacky thought yesterday, and began thinking that perhaps Maerlyn (the wizard who created the Bends o' the Rainbow), unlike our version of Merlin who fell asleep in a cave and has been doing so forever, actually split himself up into many demons.

This could, in part, explain why King said, in Wolves of the Calla:

"With the Tick-Tock dead, the real Wizard steps forward. It's Roland's ancient nemesis, Marten Broadcloak, known in some worlds as Randall Flagg, in others as Richard Fannin, in others as John Farson (the Good Man)."

And then, again, in The Dark Tower:

He [Flagg] had done his service to Farson.

Now, my guess is that perhaps Maerlyn had split his soul into many parts when his job was done, and that these parts - or demons, if you will - inhabited Walter Padick after he was raped when he fled Delain, and did so with John Farson, and maybe even Roland, too.

Say, perhaps, by looking too deep into a Bend o' the Rainbow, one of Maerlyn's demons inhabited you. This would, then, explain why Roland is so evil-hearted, and why he has to defeat the Ageless Stranger. The Ageless Stranger, as we know, is Maerlyn, yet he is nowhere to be found. Also, in The Gunslinger, Walter says:

"Yar. He darkles. He tincts. He is in all times. Yet there is one greater than he."

And, again, in the Coda of The Dark Tower, Gan says:

But not for you, gunslinger. Never for you. You darkle. You tinct. May I be brutally frank? You go on.

Now this leads me to think that mayhap Roland is imbued with one of these demons of Maerlyn (thirteen, maybe, one for each Bend o' the Rainbow), and that perhaps his job in redoing his quest over and over is to expel this from his soul and be clean.

Because Roland is said to be this Ageless Stranger, and must slay him, too. Renew himself, so to speak.

The many demons would explain Flagg's different personas, and that perhaps there are many, but they are all in some way connected by that thread of Maerlyn's evil in their hearts and souls.

My conclusion? Maerlyn split himself, and the evil in his soul, into the Bends o' the Rainbow, after he vanished from All-World. Those that then looked into the Bends o' the Rainbow and marveled at them became imbued with these parts of Maerlyn's evil soul. Flagg, Fiegler, Farson, Padick, and all the rest. Roland then, too, has one of these parts in his heart, and his journey is actually to expel it - at least in part.

This is speculation, and only founded by what I know of The Dark Tower. If you're gonna recommend further reading, spare the post I unfortunately don't have the money for such luxuries at the time. But I will get down to reading all of it... in time.

If you have thoughts, please share them.

Long days and pleasant nights

[JohnDalglish]

[QUOTE=Prince of Darkness;308887] If you're gonna recommend further reading, spare the post I unfortunately don't have the money for such luxuries at the time. But I will get down to reading all of it... in time.
/QUOTE]

Hi,

'My name is Legion?'.

And I'd check out your local public library for Robin Furth's invaluable Concordance.

Long days and pleasant nights

[sam peebles]

I think in the comic book the Sorcerer by Robin Furth she explains a little more in depth about Maerlyn and Marten.

It is mentioned that Marten is Maerlyn's son (I believe). Maerlyn did contain spirits into the Bends o' the Rainbow, although they don't appear to be his own. One of them was his daughter (who is very much NOT human), the half sister of Marten, who inhabited the Grapefruit, and tried to posess both Roland and his father.

[Prince of Darkness]

Hi,

I certainly will, John.

And thank you, Sam Peebles, I really didn't know that.

Once again, just speculation, folks. But it felt good to get it out of my system and have opinions on it.

Long days and pleasant nights

[BlackThorn]

Legion was the name of The Crimson King, at least one of the lies told by Marten in the first and second versions of The Gunslinger.

(the revised and expanded counts as version three, if you want to get technical... the original chapters in a sci-fi magazine didn't have a few elements put into the first book version)

At least we're led to believe it's a lie. It is a dead end to the story, and was changed when King re-adapted the book for the finished version of the series.

Otherwise... Marten at one point explains to us when he's speaking through his own mind, that he was never that one... (referring to Merlin or Merlyn). In Roland's world, Merlyn always seemed to be some creature that had a great hand in building all the magics and powers and wonders of their world, and universe, and universes really. Yet we come to understand he was not the hero, noble good-guy type as our Merlin the magic user is known to be. And this is reemphasized in the Dark Tower Comic Series as well. In a short story in that, Merlin creates the rainbow of the oriel windows in the tower, but smears evil on it before it is shattered, or something similar in nature.

Merlyn might have led to the worlds creation and structure, but it wasn't a positive act in nature, there was something despicable to his acts...

But it never comes out completely. It's almost like second hand stuff we hear, every time, even when it's from main characters explaining things factually... they don't really know anymore either. Nobody really does.

[Magevro]

I always assumed when Marten said "I was never THAT one" that he meant just "Merlin", not Maerlyn.