Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} His Dark Materials Northern Lights by Philip Pullman His Dark Materials. The novel begins in an alternate world that is similar to Earth. Lyra Belacqua, a young girl who has been given shelter by the scholars at Jordan College at Oxford University, and her “daemon,” Pantalaimon, hide in an off-limits wardrobe in the Headmaster’s rooms. (In Lyra’s world, daemons are the external forms of people’s souls.) Lyra and Pantalaimon learn that Lord Asriel, Lyra’s uncle, is about to be poisoned by the Headmaster for mysterious reasons. They warn Lord Asriel in time to save his life. Later, they overhear Lord Asriel telling the scholars at Jordan about a strange substance he is researching called “Dust.” Lord Asriel is able to convince the scholars to fund his further explorations of Dust, which require him to travel to the northernmost reaches of the globe. All of this greatly excites Lyra’s curiosity about Dust. Later, mysterious kidnappers whom Lyra and her friends call “Gobblers” take Lyra’s best friend, an Oxford boy named Roger Parslow. Lyra wants to go look for Roger, but before she can, a woman named Mrs. Coulter, who appears initially to be some kind of benefactress, spirits her away to London. Before Lyra leaves Oxford, the Headmaster gives her a golden compass called an alethiometer, which Lyra does not know how to use. Arriving in London, Lyra is at first enchanted by Mrs. Coulter, but Lyra’s rebellious nature, as well as her suspicions about Mrs. Coulter’s vicious daemon, lead her to flee Mrs. Coulter’s house. Lyra wants to go north and learn more about Dust. Before she can, however, she falls in with the Costas, a family that is part of a clan of people known as Gyptians, who live in boats and travel on the rivers. The Costas have also lost a boy to the Gobblers. The Costas take Lyra to meet John Faa, the king of the Gyptians, who is planning an expedition north in search of the Gobblers and the missing children. From her meeting with John Faa, Lyra learns that Ma Costa (the mother of the Costa family) looked after her when she was a baby and that Lord Asriel is her father and Mrs. Coulter is her mother. Lyra convinces the Gyptians to take her north with them on their quest to recover the captured children. On the way there, Lyra learns how to use the alethiometer—a device that allows her to see into the past, present, and future— with the help of Farder Coram, a wise old Gyptian man. Their journey north also throws Lyra into contact with a man named Dr. Lanselius, the representative of a powerful clan of witches. Lanselius tells Lyra that she has a great destiny before her. Lanselius also introduces her to Iorek Byrnison, an armored bear who is the exiled king of his clan. Iorek agrees to travel with Lyra and the band of Gyptians, who also take up with Lee Scoresby, a Texan who owns a balloon. They continue to move north. On their way to Bolvanger, where the Gobblers work, a menacing clan known as the Tartars attack Lyra and the Gyptians. The Tartars steal Lyra and bring her to Bolvanger, where the Gobblers keep the children they have kidnapped. Here, Lyra finds Roger and also discovers the sinister secret of the Gobblers: they cut daemons and children apart in a process known as intercision. Furthermore, Lyra learns that Mrs. Coulter is in charge of the activities at Bolvanger. Lyra leads the children to freedom, but Mrs. Coulter pursues her. Lee Scoresby rescues Lyra, Roger, and Iorek Byrnison with the help of Serafina Pekkala, a beautiful witch. They fly away from Mrs. Coulter and are on their way to rescue Lord Asriel, who is being held prisoner by the armored bears, when they are attacked by cliff ghasts. Lyra falls from Lee Scoresby’s balloon and is captured by the armored bears. She meets Iofur Raknison, who stole Iorek Byrnison’s throne, and convinces him to fight Iorek by tricking him into believing that she, Lyra, will become his daemon if he wins. Iorek goes to the home of the armored bears with Roger and kills Iofur. Lyra, Roger, and Iorek go to free Lord Asriel. Lord Asriel tries to sever Roger’s daemon from him in the correct belief that doing so will release a mass of energy and break through his world into another. Roger dies, and Lord Asriel creates a bridge from his world into another. Lyra follows him into the new world. Book Two: The Subtle Knife. The Subtle Knife begins not in Lyra’s world, but in our own. Will Parry, a young boy who lives in Oxford with his sick mother, is being pursued by sinister men who claim to be with the government. Fearing for her safety, Will takes his mother to the home of his old piano teacher, Mrs. Cooper. He returns home but finds that the ominous men have arrived and are looking for letters exchanged between his parents. Will finds the letters first and escapes, killing one of the men along the way. As he is fleeing, Will stumbles into an “anomaly,” a hole in space that leads him into another world. He finds himself in an abandoned city where he runs into Lyra, who is also hiding there. Lyra is surprised to find that Will has no daemon, while Will is surprised to hear her describe daemons, which he’s never heard of. Meanwhile, Serafina Pekkala, a witch and a friend of Lyra’s, is looking for her witch clan when she comes across Mrs. Coulter’s boat is floating in the North Sea. Serafina lands on the boat, makes herself invisible, and discovers that Mrs. Coulter has captured a witch and is torturing her in an effort to find out what the witches know about Lyra. Before the witch can speak, Serafina makes herself visible, kills the witch, and escapes. She then rejoins her clan, which has met up with Lee Scoresby. The queen of the witch clan, Ruta Skadi, is also there. Lee is searching for Stanislaus Grumman, a famous arctic explorer. Serafina and her clan send out witches to search for Lyra. Ruta decides to travel with them and then look for Lord Asriel. Will and Lyra meet a young girl named Angelica and her brother Paolo, who explain that the city they’re in is named Cittàgazze, or Ci’gazze. The city is overrun with beings called “specters.” Children can’t see specters, but adults can. Specters feed on adults’ souls, leaving them in a kind of stupefied trance. Lyra and Will go through the anomaly to Will’s Oxford. Will is looking for information about his father, a famed Arctic explorer named John Parry who vanished when Will was a baby, and Lyra is looking for a physicist who can tell her more about Dust. Lyra consults the alethiometer, which leads her to Dr. Mary Malone, a scientist interested in interstellar particles known as dark matter. Mary and her colleague, Oliver Payne, have discovered substances they call “Shadows,” which share many characteristics with the Dust that Lyra is interested in learning more about. Mary and Oliver have discovered that Shadows are conscious material and they are trying to open a means of communication between themselves and the Shadows. Lyra and Will meet up again and go back to Ci’gazze. Will reads the letters his father sent to his mother and learns that his father disappeared while looking for an anomaly, a window between two worlds, very much like the one Will used to get to Ci’gazze. Meanwhile, Lee Scoresby accidentally kills an agent of the Church, the sinister and very powerful religious organization that lies at the heart of the books. Serafina, Ruta, and the other witches fly into the new world that Lord Asriel has linked to (the world of Ci’gazze). Rebel angels lead Ruta to Lord Asriel and the fortress he is building in yet another world. Back in Ci’gazze, Lyra goes to Will’s Oxford without him. She visits Mary and finds that the police, or people pretending to be police, are there. They trick her into admitting that she knows Will. A mysterious man named Lord Charles Latrom helps Lyra escape by letting her into his limousine. He drives her back to the hole between worlds and steals Lyra’s alethiometer. Lyra gets Will, and together they go to Latrom’s house. Will figures out that Latrom is from Lyra’s world because he sees that Latrom has a daemon. Latrom tells Lyra and Will that he will only give back the alethiometer if they steal something for him: an immensely powerful weapon known as the subtle knife. Lyra and Will return to Ci’gazze and go to the Torre degli Angeli (Tower of the Angels), where the knife-bearer is supposed to be. There they find that Angelica and Paolo’s other brother, Tullio, has captured and beaten the knife-bearer, an old man named Giacomo Paradisi, and is trying to figure out how to use the weapon. Will and Tullio fight, and though Will loses two fingers in the battle he emerges victorious and keeps the knife. Tullio, however, escapes. Giacomo tells Will that the knife is what makes the holes between the worlds. He teaches Will how to open and close these passageways. Lyra and Will wait until later that night and return to Will’s Oxford, where they use the knife to steal the alethiometer back from Latrom. While they are at his house, Mrs. Coulter arrives, and Lyra remembers that Sir Charles Latrom is Lord Borealis, a man Mrs. Coulter knows from her own world. Lyra promises to help Will find his father. Lee Scoresby, meanwhile, has found Stanislaus Grumman, who tells him that his name is actually John Parry and that he comes from another world. Parry is now a powerful shaman who has been investigating Dust. In the course of his studies, Parry has also learned about the existence of the subtle knife. He is now determined to find the knife and exhort its bearer to use it for the good of the universe. Parry does not yet know that Will is in possession of the knife and he enlists Scoresby’s help to scour existence in search of the knife’s bearer. Back in Ci’gazze, a mob of angry children, led by Tullio’s sister Angelica, attack Lyra and Will. Serafina and her band of witches rescue them. Back in Will’s Oxford, Mary Malone has begun to communicate with the Shadows and has learned from them that she has to go to Ci’gazze in order to help Lyra and Will. Meanwhile, Ruta Skadi rejoins Serafina’s clan and tells the witches about Lord Asriel’s fortress. She explains that Lord Asriel is planning to wage war on God. She leaves again, and Serafina’s band continues north. Lee Scoresby and John Parry, traveling in Lee’s balloon, enter into the world of Ci’gazze. Soldiers sent by the Church pursue them. Lee crashes the balloon and John uses his powers to make three of the four Church zeppelins that are pursuing them crash. The fourth lands, and Lee dies in the fight to hold off the soldiers while Parry runs ahead to meet the knife bearer. Lyra, Will, and the witches, led by the alethiometer, continue rushing north. Elsewhere, Mrs. Coulter catches a witch named Lena Feldt. Lena admits that the witches believe that Lyra is going to be a new Eve and that she will cause another fall from grace. That same night, Will wakes up and leaves the camp he has established with Lyra to go for a walk. He meets John Parry on a lonely mountaintop and the two simultaneously realize their relationship to one another: Parry is Will’s father. Parry tells Will that the subtle knife, the most powerful weapon in the world, can destroy God and that Will must seek out Lord Asriel in order to set up an ultimate confrontation between good and evil. Suddenly, Juta Kamainen—a witch whose love Parry once rejected—appears and kills Will’s father and then herself. Devastated, Will heads back to the camp. As he arrives, he discovers that awaiting him are two angels. The witches are gone and the only sign of Lyra is her alethiometer lying in the dust. Book Three: The Amber Spyglass. The book opens deep in a cave in the Himalayas, where Mrs. Coulter is holding Lyra captive, feeding her some sort of poison that keeps her asleep. Lyra dreams of speaking to Roger in the world of the dead. She promises she’ll come for him. A little girl named Ama brings food to Mrs. Coulter and tries to find a way to wake up Lyra. In the meantime, the angels Balthamos and Baruch are trying to bring Will to Lord Asriel so that Will can use the knife to kill God (known as “the Authority”). Will refuses and says his first task is to rescue Lyra. Metatron, the strongest of all Church angels, attacks Baruch and Balthamos. Will rescues them and brings them into another world. Balthamos goes with him and Baruch goes to Lord Asriel in order to tell him of Will’s decision. Serafina Pekkala meets with Iorek Byrnison and tells him that Lee Scoresby is dead. Iorek goes to find the body of his friend in the world of Ci’gazze before returning to his own world to lead the armored bears south to the Himalayas. Baruch is attacked on his way to Lord Asriel’s fortress and dies as he is telling Lord Asriel that Will has the subtle knife and Mrs. Coulter is holding Lyra captive. While Lord Asriel and his allies plan to rescue Lyra from Mrs. Coulter, the Church plans its own mission. Having learned from its own alethiometer reader that Lyra is going to be a new Eve, Church leaders plan to kill her. They send a priest named Father Gomez out to look for Mary Malone, who they believe will lead them to Lyra and Will. They also send out a force to attack the cave in which Mrs. Coulter is keeping Lyra. Mary, in the meantime, is making her way through the world of Ci’gazze. She enters a hole into another universe where she meets the mulefa, conscious beings that travel on wheels. They take her in and teach her their language. Will is traveling in Lyra’s world with Balthamos, who pretends to be his daemon. Will and Balthamos come across the armored bears, and Will convinces Iorek Byrnison to bring him south and help him rescue Lyra. As Will and Iorek travel South, two of Lord Asriel’s spies travel toward Lyra’s cave with the Church’s fighting force. These spies are Chevalier Tialys and Lady Salmakia, two very small people who ride dragonflies and who are known as Gallivespians. When he finally arrives in the Himalayas, Will meets Ama, who helps him save Lyra. At night, they enter the cave by using the knife to cut through to another world. Mrs. Coulter catches them and makes Will break the knife. Chevalier Tialys stings her and paralyses her. Just then, Lord Asriel’s forces and the Church’s forces converge above them and begin to fight. Ama and Will wake Lyra and bring her to safety. Chevalier Tialys and Lady Salmakia come with them and the group finds Iorek, who has been fighting. Iorek is able to mend Will’s knife, and Will and Lyra decide to go to the world of the dead and rescue all the souls trapped there. To enter the world of the dead, Will and Lyra must leave their daemons behind. This is the first time Will has realized that he has a daemon. They enter the world of the dead and lead all the ghosts to freedom. Mrs. Coulter has been captured by Lord Asriel’s ally, King Ogunwe, who brings her to Lord Asriel’s fortress. Mrs. Coulter steals a ship and flies to the Consistorial Court, a branch of the Church, where she discovers a plot to build a bomb that will kill Lyra. She tries to stop them with the help of the leader of the Gallivespian spies, Lord Roke. Mary, in the world of the mulefa, makes a mirror for herself that enables her to see Dust. In the world of the dead, the bomb explodes but does not kill Lyra. Instead, it creates a great abyss. Will uses the subtle knife to cut a hole through which the dead can escape. Will’s father’s ghost tells him that Will and Lyra’s daemons are hiding in Lord Asriel’s world. Will and Lyra go to Lord Asriel’s world, where the forces of Metatron are attacking Asriel’s fortress. Lyra and Will rescue God from a group of cliff ghasts, but God dies, drifting away into the atmosphere. Chevalier Tialys and Lady Salmakia die in battle. Lyra and Will find their daemons and escape into the world of the mulefa. Mrs. Coulter lures Metatron to the abyss that was opened by the bomb. She and Lord Asriel drag him into the abyss to die. The mulefa find Lyra and Will, whose daemons have run away again, and bring them to Mary, who tells them what it’s like to fall in love, and how holy it can seem. Mary has discovered that Dust is leaving the world, and she is worried. While they are looking for their daemons, Will and Lyra realize that they are in love. Just before they kiss, Father Gomez tries to kill Lyra, but Balthamos appears and kills Father Gomez. When Lyra and Will realize they are in love, the Dust stops escaping so quickly. Lyra and Will find their daemons, but Serafina and an angel named Xaphania say that Will and Lyra must be separated. Dust is escaping through the holes made by the subtle knife, and they have to close the holes and return to their own worlds. Lyra tries to consult the alethiometer but has lost the ability to read it. Will and Lyra agree to be separated, but they pick a spot that exists in both their worlds, where they can sit and think of each other. Will and Mary return to their world, and Lyra and Pantalaimon return to Jordan College. There they meet a female scholar who offers to teach Lyra how to read the alethiometer. Lyra and Pantalaimon agree that they have to cherish the lives they have and work to build the Republic of Heaven. Tor.com. Science fiction. Fantasy. The universe. And related subjects. Banned Books Week 2013. The Religious Controversy Surrounding Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. It’s easy to scoff at accusations of the promotion of witchcraft in the Harry Potter series, or of pornography in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. But defending a book on the Banned Books list from charges that the author confirms—well, that’s a horse of a different color! Or is it? Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series was number 8 on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books list for 2000-2009. In 2007, the Catholic League campaigned against The Golden Compass , declaring that it promoted atheism and attacked Christianity, in particular the Catholic church. In a later interview with the Guardian Pullman partially confirmed this, saying “In one way, I hope the wretched organisation will vanish entirely.” But he’s also made it clear that it’s not God or religion he objects to, rather the way that the structures and ideas are used for ill: “[I]n my view, belief in God seems to be a very good excuse, on the part of those who claim to believe, for doing many wicked things that they wouldn’t feel justified in doing without such a belief.” I didn’t encounter His Dark Materials until I was in my 20s, but dove into it with glee—I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow a delight in magical worlds just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our own. Whether Lyra was scrambling around Oxford, trekking across frozen wastes, or plunging into the Land of the Dead, I was right there behind her, pulled along by the story. I could ask for no better companions than Iorek Byrnison and Lee Scoresby, and I doubt I’m alone in having devoted time to considering what shape my daemon would take. There are as many ways to read a book as there are readers, and what I got out it was a sense of adventure, the importance of a personal moral compass, and a lot of fond daydreams. The religious controversy over the books passed me by until I went looking—as there was plenty of talk about religion in my life growing up, I’ve never felt a need to go looking for it in fiction. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. One could argue that while the disdain for organized religion and bureaucracy registers in Pullman’s books as well as in his interviews, it doesn’t prevent them from containing all kinds of mystical elements. There are witches with super powers, embodied souls in the form of daemons, a trip to the underworld. One could further say that they promote a sense of spirituality and a belief in the possibility of things beyond our comprehension. There’s a word for that; some call it faith . This argument, of course, is unlikely to hold weight with anyone who objects to the series. In matters of taste there can be no dispute, and each reader finds something different in a book. Pullman himself said it best, as part of a Q&A: “Whatever I told you would have little importance compared to what the story itself is telling you. Attend to that, and I don’t matter at all.” The ultimate point of celebrating Banned Books Week is not to defend challenged books against specific charges, but to celebrate the freedom to read. And the freedom to read includes the freedom to read books that are maybe a little old for us, or over our heads, or take us in a direction we weren’t planning on going. To read books that contain ideas that we might not agree with, and to sharpen our own ideas by comparison. The freedom to find our own way, to have adventures and get a little lost and then find our way back, and be the wiser for it—just like Lyra. Banned Books Week 2013 is being celebrated from Sept. 22 to the 28; further information on Banned and Frequently Challenged Books is available from the American Library Association. Jenn Northington is an independent bookseller, the events director for WORD bookstores, and comes from a long line of nerds. Book Review: ‘Northern Lights’ by Philip Pullman. I have always loved Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and have to admit that it shaped my childhood in many ways. From the initial awe that Northern Lights produced, to the final heartbreaking moments of The Amber Spyglass , Pullman has always had a firm grip on my imagination. In this, the first of three reviews, I will examine Northern Lights. Jessica explores her childhood favourite, the first of Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy. Initial Impressions. The original cover of Northern Lights immediately captures the reader’s attention, from the “alethiometer” on the front to the icy blue landscape behind it. The title and image draw the eye, with the author name sitting at the top, slightly out of the way so as not to detract from the overall cover. The back cover is a mid to light blue, with white text for the blurb and a lighter shade of blue for the reviews. The blurb itself is succinct and to the point without giving away any of the details, and the reviews are both varied and concise, as well as all being positive. Plot. Lyra is a young girl, raised at Jordan College in Oxford. However, when she thwarts a plot to save her father’s life, she is flung into a world of intrigue, manipulation and war on a scale even she can’t imagine. When her friend Roger is stolen away, Lyra decides to find him and bring him back to his rightful home. Her mother, however, is equally determined that Lyra will never achieve her goal. With the help of some unlikely allies, Lyra travels to Svalbard and to the world beyond the Northern Lights. It’s a journey made up of the Fens, sledges, a hot air balloon and more strength that Lyra ever thought she could possess, as well as one of the most heartbreaking moments of her life. Jessica investigates the fantasy world of ‘The Northern Lights’. Characterisation. Lyra is the daughter every woman dreams of — feisty, resourceful, and intelligent — and the daughter every woman despairs of! She has a certain charm about her, which translates into strength in the face of danger, as well as exceptional skills in the way of flattering her opponents. Lord Asriel, on the other hand, is everything she is not — arrogant, proud, blindly determined and almost uncaring of the danger he places his daughter in. If I had to choose a favourite character from this book, however, it would be Iorek Byrnison — the kind-hearted, just bear who saves lives and does his level best to create democracy from tyranny. Writing Style and Overall Impressions. Pullman has an incredible way of writing that draws readers in time after time. It had been more than a decade since I read Northern Lights when I picked it up again, and I still felt the draw of his words pulling me into the magical world that is so much like my own. Whilst it is based in an England that is vaguely familiar to us all, and indeed in Lapland and Svalbard, there is an otherworldly nature about it that makes it starkly different. I have to admit, Pullman still has me longing for my own daemon, but I’m sure I can cope without one! What I love about Pullman’s style is the ease with which he writes, the way he creates just enough drama to pull the reader in and then tempers this with periods of calm, before the storm rises again. If I had to criticise one thing about Pullman’s writing, it would be how closely he bases his locations on reality. Children are quite easily led and may not quite see the connection between the country they know as their own and the country in Pullman’s novels, but adults are less susceptible and may realise this. However, it’s still amazing to think that there could quite possibly be a world where daemons exist, and where there is a way to go beyond the Northern Lights. Publisher: Scholastic Point ISBN: 9780590660549 Publication date: 23 Oct 1998 Page count: 399. Test your knowledge of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Do you know your daemon from your Dust? Take this quiz if you're a fan of the books trilogy – Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass – and see how much you remember of Philip Pullman's mysterious and magical worlds. Peter Bailey’s illustrations for the Folio Society’s edition of His Dark Materials. Warning: Plot spoilers ahead. With Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials hitting the BBC, this is the perfect time for readers to revisit the books. Take this quiz refresher before watching the TV show – we guarantee that you'll be even more excited about spending time again with Lyra and Pan. You might learn something about Philip Pullman's inspirations for writing the books, too. Haven't read the books yet? Don't take the quiz, start here! Reading Philip Pullman. Northern Lights, Chapters 1 and 2 (I can turn anything into a discussion about wine) Chapter 1: All Things Dæmon. Any discussion of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series must begin with its brilliant opening line: “Lyra and her dæmon moved through the darkening Hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.” Let’s start with the obvious: in any other situation, the description of a person accompanied by a dæmon would carry all sorts of negative weight. (Though, as we’ll soon see, that “a” in “dæmon” makes a pretty huge difference to one’s understanding of this line.) In contemporary culture, a person with a dæmon is one with serious troubles – this is clearly not the case in Northern Lights , which presents Lyra’s dæmon as neither good nor bad; her dæmon just is. One must also consider the spelling of the word “dæmon.” Pullman uses the Latin variant, as opposed to the Judeo-Christian “demon.” Given the central theme of His Dark Materials , it is fairly obvious that Pullman’s choice aligns with the religious references of each word – a “daemon” is an entity from classical mythology, usually aligned with good, whereas a “demon” is invariably an evil creature or spirit. As I stated above, this spelling difference is fundamental to the reading of the first line – a person accompanied by a daemon is certainly different than one accompanied by a demon, and Pullman did not want to mask his readers’ understanding of dæmons with any malignant connotations. Religious undertones notwithstanding, “demon” is also the spelling variant commonly found in our vernacular. Here, too, Pullman uses “dæmon” to distance his creatures from those of television and film. In popular culture, demons are no longer wholly evil and they aren’t necessarily related to Christianity (at least not consciously). Indeed, we now have many examples of secular demons aligned with good – or at the very least, superficially secular demons who reside within a decidedly opaque gray area. Given this, Pullman probably could have used the variant “demon” without any serious religio-connotative problems. However, while Pullman’s dæmons may be closer to Whedon’s demons in some respects, they are clearly another manner of being entirely and therefore warrant a name that is just slightly different. Finally, phonetics also come into play, as Pullman intentionally uses the grapheme “æ”, thus distinguishing his dæmon from both daemons and demons. The pronunciation of this character is the same as the “a” in bat or cat, and therefore Pullman’s “dæmon” is pronounced in a decidedly foreign way to most ears: dah-mon, not dee-mon (demon) or day-mon (daemon). As we will see in the coming pages, the demon / daemon / dæmon trichotomy is fundamental to the text’s overarching message about religion and spirituality (and probably to several other things I haven’t thought of yet), and I will certainly be exploring it at a later time. So what is a dæmon in the Pullman universe? One could argue that the answer to this question is precisely the point of the entire series. At this early stage, however, the reader can only begin to note characteristics about dæmons, and so I offer you the following summary of my observations: A dæmon is not the same as one’s conscience. Lyra states this expressly when admonishing her dæmon, Pantalaimon, that he “is supposed to know about conscience”. Dæmons appear to be a reflection of one’s social class. The servants’ dæmons are almost invariably loyal canines (or other submissive, domestic creatures, as we’ll see a bit later), while members of the upper classes have assertive, independent dæmons like Lord Asriel’s snow leopard. One’s physical appearance is mirrored by his or her dæmon. Lord Asriel resembles his dæmon, Stelmaria, in that “his movements [are] large and perfectly balanced, like those of a wild animal.” The Master has “hooded, clouded eyes” much like those of his raven dæmon. Dæmons respond to their humans’ mental state – Pan expresses physical and verbal discontent when Lyra is hurt or upset, and Lyra notes that though the Master himself appears impassive when learning of his foiled murder plot, his dæmon displays physical signs of uneasiness and worry. However, while dæmons may be very in tune with their humans’ mental state, dæmons cannot read their humans’ thoughts. Lyra notes that she should share her thoughts with Pan and ask for his counsel, but chooses not to do so. Dæmons are almost always the opposite sex of their human. As we’ll see later on, there are rare exceptions to this – the significance of which has been much debated. Children’s dæmons change shape, while adults’ dæmons do not. Chapter 1: The Decanter of Tokaji. And now I will allow myself a digression into wine, which happens to be wonderfully relevant as the first chapter of Northern Lights is entitled “The Decanter of Tokay.” I expect most readers are not familiar with Tokay, other than deducing from contextual clues that it must be some sort of wine. Indeed, Tokay is a type of wine found in our world as well as Lyra’s. When I first read this book, I assumed Pullman was using “Tokay” as the Anglicized version of “Tokaji” or “Tokaj,” which is a sweet Hungarian dessert wine. I later stumbled upon the Wikipedia entry on terminology in His Dark Materials , which states that this could also be a reference to Tokay d’Alsace – the name given to Pinot Gris in the Alsace region of France. However, the novel’s description of the wine as rich, golden and sweet directly contradicts this interpretation, as Alsatian Pinot Gris is pale and dry. Furthermore, the Tokay is decanted, which is usually only done to red and dessert wines, not white wine. (In looking over the Wikipedia entry again, I’m fairly certain the author mistakenly used the word “latter” instead of “former,” so it actually meant to confirm my opinion, not conflict with it.) Northern Lights doesn’t provide a definite reason behind this choice of wine in particular, though the history of Tokaji makes the answer fairly obvious. Tokaji is a very old wine that has been in regular production in Hungary since the seventeenth century. As I mentioned earlier, it is a sweet dessert wine, the result of noble rot – a fungus ( Botrytis cinerea ) attacks the grapes and sucks out all their water, leaving behind desiccated, fuzzy grey balls of concentrated sweet juice. It was discovered by accident that if you abandon all good sense and make wine from these icky-looking grapes, it ends up tasting stunningly good. For several hundred years, Tokaji was the most sought-after wine amongst eastern nobility (particularly in Russia, and of course Hungary). It gained a following throughout western Europe in the eighteenth century and became a favourite of the papacy as well. In the past, Tokaji has been referred to as the Wine of Kings, the King of Wines and the Elixir of the Tsars. Pullman therefore chose this wine for good reason. Its relevance to the papacy is particularly significant after learning about Pope John Calvin and the Magisterium in chapter two. It is certainly one of many subtle realities that Pullman included to ground Lyra’s world alongside our own. The fact that Pullman mentions a specific vintage, 1898, may also indicate that he is a fan of this wine himself, since this happened to be a fantastic year for Tokaji. (Not that I know from personal experience; there are precious few bottles left of this in our world – perhaps only three dozen, as in Northern Lights – and goodness knows how much money they would be worth. As Lord Asriel mentions, “all good things pass away.”) Chapter 2: The Idea of North. The first two chapters of Northern Lights presents several similarities with our own world, and the reader is quickly able to surmise that Lyra’s world appears to be set in a time period that roughly equates to turn of the century England. Geography appears to be fairly constant between the two worlds, with only a few minor differences in place names; Lyra lives in England and the first two chapters mention London, west Europe, the Baltic Sea, St. Petersburg, Berlin and Geneva – all of which appear to be in about the same place as they are in our world. There are also several similarities to our own world in the technology and science of Lyra’s world. Lord Asriel presents several photograms prepared with different emulsions, including one made from silver nitrate, the college is lit by anbaric light, the theory of light photons is mentioned in relation to the way Dust behaves and there are apparently a couple of renegade scientist/theologians attempting to find “mathematical arguments for the other-world theory.” But the extent of Pullman’s world-building does not hinge upon a simple re-naming of common items with antiquated monikers; throughout the first and especially the second chapters the reader gains a growing sense that this is definitely not merely our world, one hundred years ago. The similarities between common elements act as signposts to mark the way, but they contain subtle differences that mark Lyra’s world as unique and separate from our own. Certainly these differences are a key factor in building any fantasy world, though in His Dark Materials that unnerving sense of “not-quite-the-same” becomes especially significant in the second book, when we depart Lyra’s world and begin to explore others. The second chapter of Northern Lights , entitled “The Idea of North,” essentially charts the main elements of the rest of the novel (if not the entire series). At this point it seems a bit presumptuous to get into any significant textual analysis, since the reader only learns of these new things through Lyra’s eyes – and therefore we are as woefully ignorant (and oh-so-curious) as Lyra. I offer another set of observations to consider as the story progresses: Dust. Clearly this stuff is important. It behaves like light photons, is related to trepanning and is somehow related to children and their dæmons in a fundamental, inexplicable (and sinister) way. The North is inhabited by Panserbørne – armored bears headed by a king, Iofur Raknison, who has built himself a palace of imported marble and who desires a dæmon above all else. Lyra’s world used to be governed by a papacy that was officially abolished after the last Pope’s death; it is now controlled by the Magisterium, “a tangle of courts, colleges, and councils.” Of these, the recent Consistorial Court of Discipline is “the most active and the most feared of all the Church’s bodies.” Lyra is at the center of a prophecy foretold by the alethiometer (which we’ll learn of shortly), and part of her experience will involve “a great betrayal.” There are really so many other things to discuss in the first two chapters – after all, this is where Pullman lays the groundwork for the entire series. This post is long enough, however, so please share any other insights in the comments section.