“Once, in a kingdom called Delain, there was a King with two sons.”

The novel begins with the word “Once,” invoking the phrase “Once upon a time” and signaling to the reader that they are about to read a fairytale. The line also establishes the setting of the story and introduces three of the main characters. However, the sentence is also misleading because very rarely do Roland, Thomas, and Peter ever inhabit the same scene—especially without the unspoken other character here: Flagg.

“What your father does is right, for he is the King, and what you do when you are King will always be right.”

In one of her lessons to Peter, Sasha explains that Roland can do whatever he wants because he is king. Kings can do whatever they want and get away with it, and that is why it is “right,” but that does not mean what Roland does is good or just or kind. That is why it is important for a king to be good, just, and kind, so those things become what is “right” in a kingdom.

“Time only passes faster in histories, and what is a history except a grand sort of tale where passing centuries are substituted for passing years?”

The narrator of the novel is telling a kind of history, so the narrator must decide what scenes to describe and what scenes to skip over to hurry the story along.