“The Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower Came,” an 1859 painting by Thomas Mortan, illustrates a famous scene from an old Scottish fairy-tale, in which appears one of my favorite words: widdershins. “Widdershins” means to travel counter-clockwise, or in the northern hemisphere, in the path opposite the sun. It referred to a leftward-proceeding direction, and left has meant “the wrong way” in Western traditions. (“Sinister” means “left” in Latin) In the tale “Childe Rowland,” Rowland’s sister is swept into the Elf King’s world when she inadvertently travels widdershins around a church, and Roland has to travel to the Dark Tower to set her free.
