His Dark Materials
Encyclopedia
His Dark Materials is a trilogy
of fantasy novels
by Philip Pullman
comprising Northern Lights
(1995, published as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife
(1997), and The Amber Spyglass
(2000). It follows the coming-of-age of two children, Lyra Belacqua
and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes
against a backdrop of epic events. The three novels have won various awards, most notably the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year
prize, won by The Amber Spyglass. Northern Lights won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995. The trilogy as a whole took third place in the BBC's Big Read
poll in 2003.
The story involves fantasy elements such as witches and armoured polar bears, and alludes to a broad range of ideas from such fields as physics
, philosophy
, and theology
. The trilogy functions in part as a retelling and inversion of John Milton
's epic Paradise Lost
; with Pullman commending humanity for what Milton saw as its most tragic failing. The series has drawn criticism for its negative portrayal of Christianity and religion in general.
Pullman's publishers have primarily marketed the series to young adults
, but Pullman also intended to speak to adults. North American printings of The Amber Spyglass have censored passages describing Lyra's incipient sexuality.
Pullman has published two short stories related to His Dark Materials: "Lyra and the Birds", which appears with accompanying illustrations in the small hardcover book Lyra's Oxford
(2003), and "Once Upon a Time in the North
" (2008). He on another, larger companion book to the series, The Book of Dust
, for several years.
The London Royal National Theatre
staged a major, two-part adaptation
of the series in 2003–2004, and New Line Cinema
released a film based on Northern Lights, titled The Golden Compass, in 2007.
The title of the series, His Dark Materials, comes from seventeenth century poet John Milton
's Paradise Lost
, Book 2:
Pullman earlier proposed to name the series The Golden Compasses.
This term also appears in the poem Paradise Lost, where it poetically refers to the "compasses
" i.e., drafting instruments, with which God shaped the world, an idea depicted in William Blake's painting The Ancient of Days. Due to confusion with the other common meaning of compass (the navigational instrument
) this phrase in the singular became the title of the American edition of Northern Lights (the book prominently features a device that one might label a "golden compass"). In The Subtle Knife Pullman rationalizes the first book's American title, The Golden Compass, by having Mary twice refer to Lyra's alethiometer as a "compass" or "compass thing."
, moving between many parallel worlds (See Worlds in His Dark Materials). In Northern Lights, the story takes place in a world with some similarities to our own; dress-style resembles that of the UK's Victorian era
, and technology has not evolved to include automobiles or fixed-wing aircraft, while zeppelin
s feature as a notable mode of transport.
The dominant religion has parallels with Christianity
, but is not named that — nor could it be: while Adam and Eve
are referenced in the text (particularly in The Subtle Knife
, in which Dust
tells Mary Malone that Lyra Belacqua
is a new Eve
to whom she is to be the serpent
), Jesus Christ is not. The Church (often referred to as the "Magisterium") exerts a strong control over society and has the appearance and organisation of the Catholic Church, but one in which the centre of power had moved from Rome to Geneva
, the home city of both the real and the fictional "Pope" John Calvin
.
In The Subtle Knife, the story moves between the world of the first novel, our own world, and another world, a city called Cittàgazze. In The Amber Spyglass it crosses through an array of diverse worlds.
At first glance, the universe of Northern Lights appears considerably behind that of our own world (it could be seen as resembling an industrial society between the late 19th century and the outbreak of the First World War), but in many fields it equals or surpasses ours. For instance, it emerges that Lyra's world has the same knowledge of particle physics
, referred to as "experimental theology", that we do. In The Amber Spyglass, discussion takes place about an advanced inter-dimensional weapon which, when aimed using a sample of the target's DNA, can track the target to any universe and disrupt the very fabric of space-time to form a bottomless abyss into nothing
, forcing the target to suffer a fate far worse than normal death. Other advanced devices include the Intention Craft, which carries (amongst other things) an extremely potent energy-weapon, though this craft, first seen and used outside Lyra's universe, may originate in the work of engineers from other universes.
, a young girl brought up in the cloistered world of Jordan College, Oxford, learns of the existence of Dust
. Dust is a strange elementary particle discovered by Lord Asriel, who Lyra has been led to believe is her uncle. Dust is believed by the evil Church's Magisterium to provide evidence of Original Sin
. Dust is less attracted to children than to adults. A desire to learn why and to prevent children from acquiring Dust when they become adults leads to grisly experiments. The experiments are carried out on kidnapped children and their dæmons. The experiments are directed by Mrs. Coulter and conducted in the distant North by experimental theologists (scientists) of the Magisterium. The Master of Jordan College, who has been raising Lyra, turns her over to Mrs. Coulter under pressure from the Church. But first he gives Lyra the alethiometer, an instrument that is filled with knowledge and can answer any question when properly manipulated; the alethiometer harnesses Dust to produce its knowledge. Lyra, initially excited at being placed in the care of the elegant and mysterious Mrs. Coulter, discovers to her horror that Coulter heads the secretive General Oblation Board, known among children as the "Gobblers." (The name really comes from Goblins, evil Irish sprites believed to steal the souls of children who die in their sleep.) The Gobblers kidnap the children and perform the experiments. Learning of Mrs. Coulter's Gobbler activity, Lyra runs away. Gyptians (gypsies), who live on riverboat
s, rescue her from pursuers. From them she learns that Mrs. Coulter is her mother and Lord Asriel is her father, not her uncle. Taking Lyra along, the Gyptians mount an expedition to rescue the missing children, many of whom are Gyptian children. Lyra hopes to find and save her best friend, Roger Parslow. (The name Parslow comes from the butler and friend of Charles Darwin and serves as a hint that a character symbolizing Darwin—Mary Malone, as it happens—can be found somewhere in the story.) Aided by the exiled panserbjørne ("armoured bear") Iorek Byrnison and witches, the Gyptians save the kidnapped children—except for Tony Makarios, who dies. Lyra and Iorek, along with the balloonist Lee Scoresby, next continue on to Svalbard
, home of the armoured bears. There Lyra helps Iorek regain his kingdom by killing his evil rival, Iofur. Lyra then continues on to find Lord Asriel, exiled to Svalbard at Mrs. Coulter's request. She mistakenly thinks Asriel wants her alethiometer. Lord Asriel has been developing a means of building a bridge to another world he has discovered in the sky . The bridge requires a vast amount of energy. Asriel acquires the energy by severing Roger from his dæmon, killing Roger in the process. Lyra arrives too late to save Roger. Asriel then travels across the bridge to the new world; his goal is to find the source of Dust and to establish a "Republic of Heaven" from which to combat the Authority, who the Church serves. Lyra and Pantalaimon follow Asriel to the new world.
, an agent of the Magisterium who has learned of the prophecy identifying Lyra as the next Eve
. A pair of angels, Balthamos and Baruch, inform Will that he must travel with them to give the Subtle Knife to Lyra's father, Lord Asriel
, as a weapon against The Authority. Will ignores the angels; with the help of a local girl named Ama, the Bear King Iorek Byrnison, and Lord Asriel
's Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, he rescues Lyra from the cave where her mother has hidden her from the Magisterium, which has become determined to kill her before she yields to temptation and sin like the original Eve.
Will, Lyra, Tialys, and Salmakia journey to the Land of the Dead, temporarily parting with their dæmons
to release the ghosts from their captivity imposed by the oppressive Authority. Mary Malone, a scientist originating from Will's home world, interested in Dust (or Dark Matter
/Shadows, as she knows them), travels to a land populated by strange sentient creatures called Mulefa. There she learns of the true nature of Dust, which is defined as panpsychic particles of self-awareness. Dust is both created by and nourishes life which has become self-aware. Lord Asriel
and the reformed Mrs. Coulter work to destroy the Authority's Regent
Metatron
. They succeed, but themselves suffer annihilation in the process by pulling Metatron into the abyss. The Authority himself dies of his own frailty when Will and Lyra free him from the crystal prison wherein Metatron had trapped him, able to do so because an attack by cliff-ghasts
kills or drives away the prison's protectors. When Will and Lyra emerge from the land of the dead, they find their dæmons. The book ends with Will and Lyra falling in love but realising they cannot live together in the same world, because all windows—except one from the underworld to the world of the Mulefa—must be closed to prevent the loss of Dust, and because each of them can only live full lives in their native worlds. This is the temptation that Mary was meant to give them; to help them fall in love and then choose whether they should stay together or not. During the return, Mary learns how to see her own dæmon, who takes the form of a black Alpine chough
. Lyra loses her ability to intuitively read the alethiometer and determines to learn how to use her conscious mind to achieve the same effect.
with the same characters, world, etc. Later, however, it was said it would be about Lyra when she is older, about 2 years after Lyra's Oxford, and she will go on a new adventure and learn to read the alethiometer again. The book will touch on research into Dust as well as on the portrayal of religion in His Dark Materials. Pullman has not finished writing this work.
Pullman confirmed this in an interview with two fans in August 2007.
s". In the birth-universe of the story's protagonist Lyra Belacqua
, a human individual's soul manifests itself throughout life as an animal-shaped "dæmon" that always stays near its human counterpart. Witches and some humans have entered areas where dæmons cannot physically enter; after suffering horrific separation-trauma, their dæmons can then move as far away from their humans as desired.
Dæmons usually only talk to their own associated humans, but they can communicate with other humans and with other dæmons autonomously. During the childhood of its associated human, a dæmon can change its shape at will, but with the onset of adolescence it settles into a single form. The final form reveals the person's true nature and personality, implying that these stabilise after adolescence. Pullmanian society considers it "the grossest breach of etiquette imaginable" for one person to touch another's dæmon — this would violate the most strict of taboos. "A human being with no dæmon is like someone without a face, or with their ribs laid open and their heart torn out: something unnatural and uncanny that belonged to the world of night-ghasts, not the waking world of sense."
In some worlds, Spectres prey upon the dæmons of adults, consuming them and rendering said dæmons' humans essentially catatonic
; they lose all thought
and eventually fade away and die. Although in the world that this happens the humans do not have dæmons as such, but dæmon could be used to describe the humans soul or the like. Dæmons and their humans can also become separated through intercision
, a process involving cutting the link between the dæmon and the human. This process can take place in a medical setting, as with the titanium
and manganese
guillotine
used at Bolvangar, or as a form of torture used by the Skraelings. This separation entails a high mortality rate and changes both human and dæmon into a zombie
-like state. Severing the link using the silver guillotine method releases tremendous amounts of unnamed energy, convertible to anbaric (electric) power.
The first volume, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal
for children's fiction in the UK in 1995. In 2007, the judges of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children's literature selected it as one of the ten most important children's novels of the previous 70 years. In June 2007 it was voted, in an online poll, as the best Carnegie Medal winner in the seventy-year history of the award, the Carnegie of Carnegies.
The Observer
cites Northern Lights as one of the 100 best novels.
On 19 May 2005, Pullman attended the British Library
in London to receive formal congratulations for his work from culture secretary Tessa Jowell
"on behalf of the government".
On 25 May 2005, Pullman received the Swedish government's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
for children's and youth literature (sharing it with Japanese illustrator Ryōji Arai
). Swedes regard this prize as second only to the Nobel Prize in Literature
; it has a value of 5 million Swedish Kronor or approximately £385,000.
The trilogy came third in the 2003 BBC
's Big Read
, a national poll of viewers' favourite books, after The Lord of the Rings
and Pride and Prejudice
. At the time, only His Dark Materials and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
amongst the top five works lacked a screen-adaptation (the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which came fifth, went into release in 2005).
(online at southerncrossreview.org), the works of William Blake
, and, most important, John Milton's
Paradise Lost
, from which the trilogy derives its title.
Pullman had the stated intention of inverting Milton's story of a war between heaven
and hell
, such that the devil would appear as the hero.
In his introduction, he adapts a famous description of Milton by Blake to quip that he (Pullman) "is of the Devil's party and does know it." Pullman also referred to gnostic ideas
in his description of the novels' underlying mythic structure.
The Chronicles of Narnia
, a series of books by C. S. Lewis
, appears to have had a negative influence on Pullman's trilogy. Pullman has characterised C. S. Lewis
's series as "blatantly racist", "monumentally disparaging of women", "immoral", and "evil". However, some critics have compared the trilogy with such fantasy books as Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
and A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle
as well as the Narnia series.
Pullman has expressed surprise over what he perceives as a low level of criticism for His Dark Materials on religious grounds, saying "I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak... Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God".
Some of the characters criticise institutional religion. Ruta Skadi, a witch and friend of Lyra's calling for war against the Magisterium in Lyra's world, says that "For all of [the Church's] history... it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can't control them, it cuts them out" (see intercision
). Skadi later extends her criticism to all organised religion: "That's what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling". By this part of the book, the witches have made reference to how they are treated criminally by the church in their worlds. Mary Malone, one of Pullman's main characters, states that "the Christian religion... is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all". Formerly a Catholic nun
, she gave up her vows when the experience of falling in love caused her to doubt her faith. Pullman has warned, however, against equating these views with his own, saying of Malone: "Mary is a character in a book. Mary's not me. It's a story, not a treatise, not a sermon or a work of philosophy". In another inversion, the tenet that the Church can absolve a penitent of sin is subverted when the priest selected to assassinate Lyra has built up sufficient penitential credit before attempting to carry out this sin for the Church.
Pullman portrays life after death very differently from the Christian concept of heaven: In the third book, the afterlife plays out in a bleak underworld
, similar to the Greek vision of the afterlife, wherein harpies
torment people until Lyra and Will descend into the land of the dead. At their intercession, the harpies agree to stop tormenting the dead souls, and instead receive the true stories of the dead in exchange for leading them again to the upper world. When the dead souls emerge, they dissolve into atom
s and merge with the environment.
Pullman's "Authority", though worshipped on Lyra's earth as God, emerges as the first conscious creature to evolve. Pullman makes it explicit that the Authority did not create worlds, and his trilogy does not speculate on who or what (if anything) might have done so. Members of the Church are typically displayed as zealots.
Cynthia Grenier, in the Catholic Culture, has said: "In the world of Pullman, God Himself (the Authority) is a merciless tyrant". His Church is an instrument of oppression, and true heroism consists of overthrowing both."
William A. Donohue
of the Catholic League
has described Pullman's trilogy as "atheism for kids". Pullman has said of Donohue's call for a boycott, "Why don't we trust readers? [...] Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world".
Pullman has, however, found support from some other Christians, most notably from Rowan Williams
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
(spiritual head of the Anglican church
), who argues that Pullman's attacks focus on the constraints and dangers of dogma
tism and the use of religion to oppress
, not on Christianity itself.
Williams has also recommended the His Dark Materials series of books for inclusion and discussion in Religious Education
classes, and stated that "To see large school-parties in the audience of the Pullman plays at the National Theatre is vastly encouraging".
Pullman has singled out certain elements of Christianity for criticism, as in the following: "I suppose technically, you'd have to put me down as an agnostic. But if there is a God, and He is as the Christians describe Him, then He deserves to be put down and rebelled against". However, Pullman has also said in interviews and appearances that his argument can extend to all religions.
was asked "What's your response to the reactions of the religious right to your work? The Catholic Herald called your books the stuff of nightmares and worthy of the bonfire." He replied: "My response to that was to ask the publishers to print it in the next book, which they did! I think it's comical, it's just laughable."
Though widely reported, the Herald had not called for the book to be burned. Catholic writer Leonie Caldecott was defending J. K. Rowling
and joked that there were better things for fundamentalists to burn (it was around Guy Fawkes Night
).
starring Terence Stamp
as Lord Asriel
and Lulu Popplewell
as Lyra. The play was broadcast in 2003 and is now published by the BBC on CD and cassette. In the same year, a radio drama of Northern Lights was made by RTÉ
(Irish public radio).
The BBC Radio 4 version of His Dark Materials was repeated on BBC Radio 7 between 7 December 2008 to 11 January 2009. With 3 episodes in total, each episode was 2.5 hours long.
directed a theatrical version of the books as a two-part, six-hour performance for London's Royal National Theatre
in December 2003, running until March 2004. It starred Anna Maxwell-Martin as Lyra, Dominic Cooper
as Will, Timothy Dalton
as Lord Asriel and Patricia Hodge
as Mrs Coulter with dæmon puppets designed by Michael Curry
. The play was enormously successful and was revived (with a different cast and a revised script) for a second run between November 2004 and April 2005. It has since been staged by several less known theatres in the UK, notably at the Playbox Theatre Company in Warwick (a major youth theatre company in the West Midlands)and the Theatre Royal Bath by the Young People's Theatre, which went on to receive the Bath play of the year. The play had its Irish Premiere at the O'Reilly Theatre in Dublin when it was staged by the dramatic society of Belvedere College
.
A major new production was staged at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March and April 2009, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and Sarah Esdaile and starring Amy McAllister
as Lyra. This version toured the UK and included a performance in Philip Pullman
's hometown of Oxford. Philip Pullman
made a cameo appearance much to the delight of the audience and Oxford media. The production finished up at West Yorkshire Playhouse
in June 2009.
A student-run theatre company named Johnstone Underground Theatre (J.U.T), presented a four and a half hour stage version of the series on 23 and 24 July 2010 in Northbrook, IL. The show was composed of two acts and was heavily abridged to cope with the groups financial and time limitations. This version cut out some aspects of the series that are presented in the Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass such as Spectres, Gallivespians, and all of Dr. Mary Malone's adventures. The second act was the combined version of these two books. The first act presented the majority of the events in The Golden Compass faithfully.
released a film adaptation, titled The Golden Compass, on 7 December 2007. Directed by Chris Weitz
, the production had a mixed reception, and though worldwide sales were strong, its United States take underwhelmed the studio's hopes.
The filmmakers obscured the books' explicitly Biblical character of the Authority so as to avoid offending some viewers, though Weitz declared that he would not do the same for the hoped-for sequels. "Whereas The Golden Compass had to be introduced to the public carefully", he said, "the religious themes in the second and third books can't be minimised without destroying the spirit of these books. ...I will not be involved with any 'watering down' of books two and three, since what I have been working towards the whole time in the first film is to be able to deliver on the second and third". In May 2006, Pullman said of a version of the script that "all the important scenes are there and will have their full value"; in March 2008, he said of the finished film that "a lot of things about it were good.... Nothing can bring out all that's in the book. There are always compromises".
The Golden Compass film stars Dakota Blue Richards
as Lyra, Nicole Kidman
as Mrs. Coulter, and Daniel Craig
as Lord Asriel. Eva Green
plays Serafina Pekkala, Ian McKellen
voices Iorek Byrnison, and Freddie Highmore
voices Pantalaimon.
No sequels are planned yet. Church opposition has widely been blamed for forcing their cancellation, but "disappointment" with the first film may have been the studio's true reason.
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
of fantasy novels
Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
by Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
comprising Northern Lights
Northern Lights (novel)
Northern Lights, known as The Golden Compass in North America, is the first novel in English novelist Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy...
(1995, published as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife, the second novel in the book His Dark Materials series, was written by English novelist Philip Pullman and published in 1997. The novel continues the adventures of Lyra Belacqua as she investigates the mysterious Dust phenomenon and searches for her father...
(1997), and The Amber Spyglass
The Amber Spyglass
The Amber Spyglass is the third and final novel in the His Dark Materials series, written by English author Philip Pullman, and published in 2000....
(2000). It follows the coming-of-age of two children, Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua , also known as Lyra Silvertongue, is the heroine of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Lyra is a young girl who inhabits a universe parallel to our own...
and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
against a backdrop of epic events. The three novels have won various awards, most notably the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year
Costa Book Awards
The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship....
prize, won by The Amber Spyglass. Northern Lights won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995. The trilogy as a whole took third place in the BBC's Big Read
Big Read
The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel of all time...
poll in 2003.
The story involves fantasy elements such as witches and armoured polar bears, and alludes to a broad range of ideas from such fields as physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
. The trilogy functions in part as a retelling and inversion of John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's epic Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
; with Pullman commending humanity for what Milton saw as its most tragic failing. The series has drawn criticism for its negative portrayal of Christianity and religion in general.
Pullman's publishers have primarily marketed the series to young adults
Young adult literature
Young-adult fiction or young adult literature , also juvenile fiction, is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21. The Young Adult Library Services of the American Library Association defines a young adult as "someone between the...
, but Pullman also intended to speak to adults. North American printings of The Amber Spyglass have censored passages describing Lyra's incipient sexuality.
Pullman has published two short stories related to His Dark Materials: "Lyra and the Birds", which appears with accompanying illustrations in the small hardcover book Lyra's Oxford
Lyra's Oxford
Lyra's Oxford is a short book by Philip Pullman depicting an episode involving the heroine of His Dark Materials, Pullman's best-selling trilogy. Lyra's Oxford is set when Lyra Silvertongue is 15, two years after the end of the trilogy...
(2003), and "Once Upon a Time in the North
Once Upon a Time in the North
Once Upon a Time in the North, a fantasy novella by Philip Pullman functions as a prequel to Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy...
" (2008). He on another, larger companion book to the series, The Book of Dust
The Book of Dust
The Book of Dust is an upcoming novel by Philip Pullman. It will be a companion novel to the His Dark Materials trilogy, and will feature Lyra Belacqua as a main character. The story will take place two years after the events of Lyra's Oxford and will tie into that book...
, for several years.
The London Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
staged a major, two-part adaptation
His Dark Materials (play)
His Dark Materials is a play written by British playwright Nicholas Wright adapted from the Phillip Pullman fantasy novel trilogy of the same title. The production premiered in the Royal National Theatre's Olivier Theatre, London, in 2003...
of the series in 2003–2004, and New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
released a film based on Northern Lights, titled The Golden Compass, in 2007.
Series titles
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
, Book 2:
Into this wilde Abyss,
The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixt
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more Worlds,
Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross.
— Book 2, lines 910–920
Pullman earlier proposed to name the series The Golden Compasses.
This term also appears in the poem Paradise Lost, where it poetically refers to the "compasses
Compass (drafting)
A compass or pair of compasses is a technical drawing instrument that can be used for inscribing circles or arcs. As dividers, they can also be used as a tool to measure distances, in particular on maps...
" i.e., drafting instruments, with which God shaped the world, an idea depicted in William Blake's painting The Ancient of Days. Due to confusion with the other common meaning of compass (the navigational instrument
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
) this phrase in the singular became the title of the American edition of Northern Lights (the book prominently features a device that one might label a "golden compass"). In The Subtle Knife Pullman rationalizes the first book's American title, The Golden Compass, by having Mary twice refer to Lyra's alethiometer as a "compass" or "compass thing."
Settings
The trilogy takes place across a multiverseMultiverse
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
, moving between many parallel worlds (See Worlds in His Dark Materials). In Northern Lights, the story takes place in a world with some similarities to our own; dress-style resembles that of the UK's Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, and technology has not evolved to include automobiles or fixed-wing aircraft, while zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
s feature as a notable mode of transport.
The dominant religion has parallels with Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, but is not named that — nor could it be: while Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
are referenced in the text (particularly in The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife, the second novel in the book His Dark Materials series, was written by English novelist Philip Pullman and published in 1997. The novel continues the adventures of Lyra Belacqua as she investigates the mysterious Dust phenomenon and searches for her father...
, in which Dust
Dust (His Dark Materials)
Dust in Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials is a mysterious cosmic particle that is integral to the plot. In Northern Lights, Lord Asriel reveals the origins of the term "Dust" to be from a passage from the slightly alternate version of the Bible in Lyra's World: "In the sweat of...
tells Mary Malone that Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua , also known as Lyra Silvertongue, is the heroine of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Lyra is a young girl who inhabits a universe parallel to our own...
is a new Eve
Eve
Eve is the first woman created by God in the Book of Genesis.Eve may also refer to:-People:*Eve , a common given name and surname*Eve , American recording artist and actress-Places:...
to whom she is to be the serpent
Serpent (Bible)
Serpent is the term used to translate a variety of words in the Hebrew bible, the most common being , , the generic word for "snake"....
), Jesus Christ is not. The Church (often referred to as the "Magisterium") exerts a strong control over society and has the appearance and organisation of the Catholic Church, but one in which the centre of power had moved from Rome to Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, the home city of both the real and the fictional "Pope" John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
.
In The Subtle Knife, the story moves between the world of the first novel, our own world, and another world, a city called Cittàgazze. In The Amber Spyglass it crosses through an array of diverse worlds.
At first glance, the universe of Northern Lights appears considerably behind that of our own world (it could be seen as resembling an industrial society between the late 19th century and the outbreak of the First World War), but in many fields it equals or surpasses ours. For instance, it emerges that Lyra's world has the same knowledge of particle physics
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
, referred to as "experimental theology", that we do. In The Amber Spyglass, discussion takes place about an advanced inter-dimensional weapon which, when aimed using a sample of the target's DNA, can track the target to any universe and disrupt the very fabric of space-time to form a bottomless abyss into nothing
Nothing
Nothing is no thing, denoting the absence of something. Nothing is a pronoun associated with nothingness, is also an adjective, and an object as a concept in the Frege-Church ontology....
, forcing the target to suffer a fate far worse than normal death. Other advanced devices include the Intention Craft, which carries (amongst other things) an extremely potent energy-weapon, though this craft, first seen and used outside Lyra's universe, may originate in the work of engineers from other universes.
Northern Lights (The Golden Compass)
In Northern Lights (published in some countries as The Golden Compass), Lyra BelacquaLyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua , also known as Lyra Silvertongue, is the heroine of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Lyra is a young girl who inhabits a universe parallel to our own...
, a young girl brought up in the cloistered world of Jordan College, Oxford, learns of the existence of Dust
Dust (His Dark Materials)
Dust in Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials is a mysterious cosmic particle that is integral to the plot. In Northern Lights, Lord Asriel reveals the origins of the term "Dust" to be from a passage from the slightly alternate version of the Bible in Lyra's World: "In the sweat of...
. Dust is a strange elementary particle discovered by Lord Asriel, who Lyra has been led to believe is her uncle. Dust is believed by the evil Church's Magisterium to provide evidence of Original Sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
. Dust is less attracted to children than to adults. A desire to learn why and to prevent children from acquiring Dust when they become adults leads to grisly experiments. The experiments are carried out on kidnapped children and their dæmons. The experiments are directed by Mrs. Coulter and conducted in the distant North by experimental theologists (scientists) of the Magisterium. The Master of Jordan College, who has been raising Lyra, turns her over to Mrs. Coulter under pressure from the Church. But first he gives Lyra the alethiometer, an instrument that is filled with knowledge and can answer any question when properly manipulated; the alethiometer harnesses Dust to produce its knowledge. Lyra, initially excited at being placed in the care of the elegant and mysterious Mrs. Coulter, discovers to her horror that Coulter heads the secretive General Oblation Board, known among children as the "Gobblers." (The name really comes from Goblins, evil Irish sprites believed to steal the souls of children who die in their sleep.) The Gobblers kidnap the children and perform the experiments. Learning of Mrs. Coulter's Gobbler activity, Lyra runs away. Gyptians (gypsies), who live on riverboat
Riverboat
A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...
s, rescue her from pursuers. From them she learns that Mrs. Coulter is her mother and Lord Asriel is her father, not her uncle. Taking Lyra along, the Gyptians mount an expedition to rescue the missing children, many of whom are Gyptian children. Lyra hopes to find and save her best friend, Roger Parslow. (The name Parslow comes from the butler and friend of Charles Darwin and serves as a hint that a character symbolizing Darwin—Mary Malone, as it happens—can be found somewhere in the story.) Aided by the exiled panserbjørne ("armoured bear") Iorek Byrnison and witches, the Gyptians save the kidnapped children—except for Tony Makarios, who dies. Lyra and Iorek, along with the balloonist Lee Scoresby, next continue on to Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
, home of the armoured bears. There Lyra helps Iorek regain his kingdom by killing his evil rival, Iofur. Lyra then continues on to find Lord Asriel, exiled to Svalbard at Mrs. Coulter's request. She mistakenly thinks Asriel wants her alethiometer. Lord Asriel has been developing a means of building a bridge to another world he has discovered in the sky . The bridge requires a vast amount of energy. Asriel acquires the energy by severing Roger from his dæmon, killing Roger in the process. Lyra arrives too late to save Roger. Asriel then travels across the bridge to the new world; his goal is to find the source of Dust and to establish a "Republic of Heaven" from which to combat the Authority, who the Church serves. Lyra and Pantalaimon follow Asriel to the new world.
The Subtle Knife
In The Subtle Knife, Lyra journeys through the Aurora to Cittàgazze, an otherworldly city whose denizens have discovered a clean path between worlds at a far earlier point in time than others in the storyline. Cittàgazze's reckless use of the technology has released soul-eating Specters, to which children are immune, rendering much of the world incapable of transit by adults. Here Lyra meets Will Parry, a twelve-year-old boy from our world. Will, who recently killed a man to protect his ailing mother, has stumbled into Cittàgazze in an effort to locate his long-lost father. Will becomes the bearer of the eponymous Subtle Knife, a tool forged 300 years ago by Cittàgazze's scientists from the same materials used to make Bolvangar's silver guillotine. One edge of the knife can divide even subatomic particles and form subtle (spiritual) divisions in space, creating portals between worlds; the other edge easily cuts through any form of matter. After meeting with witches from Lyra's world, they journey on. Will finds his father, who had gone missing in Lyra's world under the assumed name of Stanislaus Grumman, only to watch him murdered almost immediately by a witch who loved him but was turned down, and Lyra is kidnapped.The Amber Spyglass
The Amber Spyglass tells of Lyra's kidnapping by her mother, Mrs. CoulterMarisa Coulter
Marisa Coulter is a fictional character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and one of the main antagonists of Northern Lights. As with her lover, Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter undergoes several transformations during the series.-Lyra:In the beginning of the book The Northern Lights Marisa...
, an agent of the Magisterium who has learned of the prophecy identifying Lyra as the next Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
. A pair of angels, Balthamos and Baruch, inform Will that he must travel with them to give the Subtle Knife to Lyra's father, Lord Asriel
Lord Asriel
Lord Asriel is a major character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series and one of the main protagonists of Northern Lights.Asriel is a member of the English aristocracy in a parallel universe dominated by the Church...
, as a weapon against The Authority. Will ignores the angels; with the help of a local girl named Ama, the Bear King Iorek Byrnison, and Lord Asriel
Lord Asriel
Lord Asriel is a major character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series and one of the main protagonists of Northern Lights.Asriel is a member of the English aristocracy in a parallel universe dominated by the Church...
's Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, he rescues Lyra from the cave where her mother has hidden her from the Magisterium, which has become determined to kill her before she yields to temptation and sin like the original Eve.
Will, Lyra, Tialys, and Salmakia journey to the Land of the Dead, temporarily parting with their dæmons
Dæmon (His Dark Materials)
A dæmon is a manifestation of a person's soul in the Philip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials. Humans in every universe are said to have dæmons, although in some universes they are visible as entities physically separate from their humans, and take the form of animals, while in other universes...
to release the ghosts from their captivity imposed by the oppressive Authority. Mary Malone, a scientist originating from Will's home world, interested in Dust (or Dark Matter
Dark matter in fiction
Dark matter is defined as hypothetical matter that is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. It has been used in a variety of fictional media, including computer and video games and books. In such cases, dark matter is...
/Shadows, as she knows them), travels to a land populated by strange sentient creatures called Mulefa. There she learns of the true nature of Dust, which is defined as panpsychic particles of self-awareness. Dust is both created by and nourishes life which has become self-aware. Lord Asriel
Lord Asriel
Lord Asriel is a major character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series and one of the main protagonists of Northern Lights.Asriel is a member of the English aristocracy in a parallel universe dominated by the Church...
and the reformed Mrs. Coulter work to destroy the Authority's Regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
Metatron
Metatron
Metatron or Mattatron is the name of an angel in Judaism and some branches of Christian mythology. There are no references to him in the Jewish Tanakh or Christian Scriptures...
. They succeed, but themselves suffer annihilation in the process by pulling Metatron into the abyss. The Authority himself dies of his own frailty when Will and Lyra free him from the crystal prison wherein Metatron had trapped him, able to do so because an attack by cliff-ghasts
Ghast
Ghast may refer to:*See Underworld for Ghasts, a race of creatures in H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands *See Demons Three for Ghast, third member of a demonic trio in original Justice League of America comic book series...
kills or drives away the prison's protectors. When Will and Lyra emerge from the land of the dead, they find their dæmons. The book ends with Will and Lyra falling in love but realising they cannot live together in the same world, because all windows—except one from the underworld to the world of the Mulefa—must be closed to prevent the loss of Dust, and because each of them can only live full lives in their native worlds. This is the temptation that Mary was meant to give them; to help them fall in love and then choose whether they should stay together or not. During the return, Mary learns how to see her own dæmon, who takes the form of a black Alpine chough
Chough
The Red-billed Chough or Chough , Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, is a bird in the crow family; it is one of only two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax...
. Lyra loses her ability to intuitively read the alethiometer and determines to learn how to use her conscious mind to achieve the same effect.
Lyra's Oxford
The first of two short novels, Lyra's Oxford takes place two years after the timeline of The Amber Spyglass. A witch who seeks revenge for her son's death in the war against the Authority draws Lyra, now 15, into a trap. Birds mysteriously rescue her and Pan, and she makes the acquaintance of an alchemist, formerly the witch's lover.Once Upon a Time in the North
This short novel serves as a prequel to His Dark Materials and focuses on the 24-year-old Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby. After winning his hot-air balloon, Scoresby heads to the North, landing on the Arctic island Novy Odense, where he finds himself pulled into a dangerous conflict between the oil-tycoon Larsen Manganese, the corrupt mayoral candidate Ivan Poliakov, and his longtime enemy of the Dakota Country, Pierre McConville. The story tells of Lee and Iorek's first meeting, and of how they overcame these enemies.The Book of Dust
The in-the-works companion to the trilogy, The Book of Dust will not continue the story, but was originally said to offer several short storiesShort story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
with the same characters, world, etc. Later, however, it was said it would be about Lyra when she is older, about 2 years after Lyra's Oxford, and she will go on a new adventure and learn to read the alethiometer again. The book will touch on research into Dust as well as on the portrayal of religion in His Dark Materials. Pullman has not finished writing this work.
Future books
Pullman has also told of his hope to publish a small green book about Will:Pullman confirmed this in an interview with two fans in August 2007.
Characters
Every human surface story character from Lyra's world, including witches, has a daemon . A daemon is a soul or spirit that takes the form of a creature (moth, bird, dog, monkey, snake, etc.) and is usually opposite in sex from its partner. The daemons of children frequently change shape, but when puberty arrives the daemon assumes a permanent form, differing from person to person. When a person dies, the daemon dies too, and vice versa. In literature, a daemon is usually called a "familiar." Armored bears, cliff ghasts, and other creatures do not have daemons. An armored bear's armor is his soul.- Lyra BelacquaLyra BelacquaLyra Belacqua , also known as Lyra Silvertongue, is the heroine of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Lyra is a young girl who inhabits a universe parallel to our own...
, a wild, tomboyish 12-year-old girl, has grown up in the fictional Jordan College, Oxford. Although initially ignorant of the fact, Lyra is Lord Asriel's daughter. She is described as skinny with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. She prides herself on her capacity for mischief, especially her ability to lie with "bare-faced conviction". Because of her ability, Iorek Byrnison (her armored bear friend and protector) gives her the bynameEpithetAn epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
"Silvertongue". Lyra has the alethiometer, which answers any question when properly manipulated.
- Pantalaimon is Lyra's daemon. Like all daemons of children, he changes from one creature to another constantly, but when Lyra reaches puberty he assumes his permanent form, that of a pine marten. Lyra and Pantalaimon follow their father, Lord Asriel, when he travels to the newly discovered world of Cittagazze over his newly created "Bridge to the Stars."
- Will Parry, a sensible, morally conscious, highly assertive 12-year-old boy from our world. He obtains and bears the Subtle Knife. Will is very independent and responsible for his age, having looked after his mentally unstable mother for several years. He is strong for his age, and knows how to remain inconspicuous.
- The Authority is the first angel to have emerged from Dust. He controls the Church, an oppressive religious institution that symbolizes Christianity. He told the later-arriving angels that he created them and the universe, but this is a lie. Although he is one of the two primary adversaries in the trilogy—Lord Asriel is his primary opponent—he remains in the background; he makes his first and only appearance late in The Amber Spyglass. At the time of the story, the Authority has grown weak and has transferred most of his powers to his regent, MetatronMetatronMetatron or Mattatron is the name of an angel in Judaism and some branches of Christian mythology. There are no references to him in the Jewish Tanakh or Christian Scriptures...
. Pullman portrays him as extremely aged, fragile, and naїve, unlike his thoroughly malicious underling.
- Lord AsrielLord AsrielLord Asriel is a major character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series and one of the main protagonists of Northern Lights.Asriel is a member of the English aristocracy in a parallel universe dominated by the Church...
, ostensibly Lyra's uncle, later emerges as her father. He opens a rift between the worlds in his pursuit of Dust. His dream of establishing a Republic of Heaven to rival The Authority's Kingdom leads him to use his considerable power and force of will to raise a grand army from across the multiverse to rise up in rebellion against the forces of the Church.
- Marisa CoulterMarisa CoulterMarisa Coulter is a fictional character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and one of the main antagonists of Northern Lights. As with her lover, Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter undergoes several transformations during the series.-Lyra:In the beginning of the book The Northern Lights Marisa...
is the coldly beautiful, highly manipulativePsychological manipulationPsychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
mother of Lyra and former lover of Lord Asriel. She serves the Church by kidnapping children for research into the nature of Dust. She has black hair, a thin build, and looks younger than she is. Initially hostile to Lyra, she belatedly realizes that she loves her daughter and seeks to protect her from agents of the Church, who want to kill Lyra.
- The Golden Monkey, Mrs. Coulter's daemon (named Ozymandias in the BBC Radio adaptations but never named in Pullman's books) has a cruel abusive streak that reflects Coulter's character.
- Metatron, Asriel's active adversary (a proxy for the Authority) was a human being in biblical times EnochEnoch (ancestor of Noah)Enoch is a figure in the Generations of Adam. Enoch is described as Adam's greatx4 grandson , the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, and the great-grandfather of Noah...
and was later transfigured into an angelAngelAngels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
. The Authority, who claims to be immortal but really isn't, has displayed his declining health by appointing Metatron his regent, acting head of the Church. As regent, Metatron has implanted the monotheistic religions across the universes. Though an angel, he still feels human feelings, and so becomes vulnerable to the seductive advances of Marisa Coulter, who betrays him by luring him into the underworld to his death.
- Mary Malone is a physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and former nunNunA nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
from the Will's world (earth). She meets Lyra during Lyra's first visit to earth. Lyra provides Mary with insight into the nature of dust. Agents of the Church force Mary to flee to the world of the mulefa. There she constructs the amber spyglass, which enables her to see the otherwise invisible (to her but not to the mulefa) dust. Her purpose is to learn why Dust, which mulefa civilization depends on, is flowing out of the universe. (Knowledge, symbolized by dust, is disappearing.) Mary relates a story of a lost love to Will and Lyra, and later packs for them a lunch containing "little red fruits". This is something her computer, "the Cave," with which Mary has managed to harness dust and obtain its counsel, instructed her to do.
- The Master of Jordan heads Jordan College at Lyra's world's Oxford University. Helped by other Jordan College employees, he is raising the supposedly (but not actually) orphaned Lyra. His big scene is in chapter 1 of The Golden Compass. There he tries unsuccessfully to poison Lord Asriel, thinking that Asriel is endangering Lyra. Lyra sees the Master put poison in a decanter of tokay wine that Asriel is expected to drink. But Lyra sees the Master poison the wine. She warns Asriel, who later "accidently" knocks the decanter to the floor, blaming a servant for the mishap.
- Roger Parslow is the kitchen boy at Jordan College and Lyra's best friend.
- John ParryJohn ParryJohn Parry may refer to:*John Parry , Welsh harpist and composer, and father of John Orlando Parry*John Parry , Bishop of Ossory 1672–1677*John Parry Ddall John Parry may refer to:*John Parry (Bardd Alaw) (1776–1851), Welsh harpist and composer, and father of John Orlando Parry*John...
, a.k.a. Stanislaus Grumman is Will's father.
- Elaine Parry is Will Parry's mother. She became insane when her husband disappeared on an expedition and has been left by Will in the care of Mrs. Cooper, Will's former piano teacher. (Mrs. Cooper's name comes from the fact that she keeps Elaine Parry cooped up while Will is gone. Another minor character, Dr. Cooper, has a similar name derivation: he invented the silver guillotine, which has two cages—coops—used to separate a child and its daemon.)
- The Four Gallivespians -- Lord Roke, Madame Oxentiel, Chevalier Tialys, and Lady Salmakia—are tiny people (a hand-span tall) with poisonous heel spurs. The name "Gallivespians" is a combination of (1) Gallive, a slight variation of Gullive from Jonathan SwiftJonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
's Gulliver's TravelsGulliver's TravelsTravels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
, (2) vesp, Latin for "wasp," a reference to the stinging heel spurs, and (3) ian from Lilliputian, one of the tiny people from Gulliver's Travels.
- The Palmerian Professor is a minor character presented as a joke by Pullman. His initials, PP, are those of Philip Pullman. Pullman has insinuated himself into the gathering of notables who, at the beginning of the story, have come to the Jordan College Retiring Room to hear a presentation by Lord Asriel. Pullman is a graduate of Exeter College of Oxford University. Exeter's distinctive landmark, and its oldest building, is Palmer's Tower, hence the name "Palmerian." Jordan College symbolizes Exeter, although this is not an allegorical symbol. The Palmerian Professor is the leading authority on armored bears, just as Pullman is. On his Acknowledgements page at the end of the trilogy, Pullman facetiously characterizes himself as a plagiarist who has "stolen" ideas from many literary sources. (An example of Pullman's "plagiarism" is Lord Roke and the Gallivespians, who fly around on huge dragonflies or, in Roke's case, a blue hawk. Lord Roke is, in effect, Lord of the Fliers -- alluding to William GoldingWilliam GoldingSir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
's novel Lord of the FliesLord of the FliesLord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
.) In the trilogy, Professor Jotham Santelia calls the Palmerian Professor a plagiarist. The Palmerian Professor's last name is Trelawney. In Lyra's Oxford, a sequel to the trilogy, a fold-out map shows an ad for a book by Professor P. Trelawney.
- Iorek Byrnison is a massive armoured bear. An armored bear's armour is his soul, equivalent to a human's daemon. Iorek's armour is stolen, so he becomes despondent. With Lyra's help he regains his armour, his dignity, and his kingship over the armoured bears. In gratitude, and impressed by her cunning, he dubs her "Lyra Silvertongue". A powerful warrior and armourArmourArmour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...
smith, Iorek repairs the Subtle Knife when it shatters. He later goes to war against The Authority and Metatron.
- John FaaJohn FaaJohn Faa, the King of the Gypsies, was a historical character from Scotland, a contemporary of King James IV. Although historical sources place him in Dunbar, in the east of Scotland, much folklore associates him with the Galloway/Ayrshire border. He appears as a character in at least two novels,...
and Ma Costa are river "gyptians" (gypsies). Unknown to Lyra, Ma Costa was her nanny when Lyra was an infant. Faa and Costa rescue Lyra when she runs away from Mrs. Coulter. Then they take her to Iorek.
- Lee Scoresby, a rangy TexanTexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, is a balloonist. He helps Lyra in an early quest to reach Asriel's residence in the North, and he later helps John Parry reunite with his son Will.
- Serafina Pekkala is the beautiful queen of a clan of Northern witches. Her snow-gooseSnow GooseThe Snow Goose , also known as the Blue Goose, is a North American species of goose. Its name derives from the typically white plumage. The genus of this bird is disputed...
dæmon Kaisa, like all witches' dæmons, can travel much farther apart from her than the dæmons of humans.
- Father Gomez is a priest sent by the Church to assassinate Lyra. Balthamos, an angel watching over Lyra, kills him before he can kill Lyra.
- Balthamos is a good angel who, near the end of the story, saves Lyra's life.
- Tony Makarios is a naive boy who is lured into captivity by Mrs. Coulter. Mrs. Coulter gains Tony's confidence by offering him a delicious drink of "chocolatl" (the name for chocolate in Lyra's world). The offer, accepted by Tony, draws him into a warehouse and into captivity.
- The Mulefa are four-legged wheeled animals; they have one leg in front, one in back, and one on each side. The "wheels" are huge, round, hard seed-pods from seed-pod trees; an axle-like claw at the end of each leg grips a seed-pod. The Mulefa society is primitive.
- The Tualapi are huge, flightless birds who attack Mulefa settlements. The Tualapi sail to the settlements on tandem fore-and-aft wings that are uplifted to serve as sails. The wings symbolize the sailing ships on which early missionaries sailed to their destinations. On reaching settlements the Tualapi kill any Mulefa they can catch, eat all the food, destroy everything in sight, and then defecate everywhere.
Dæmons
One distinctive aspect of Pullman's story comes from his concept of "dæmonDæmon (His Dark Materials)
A dæmon is a manifestation of a person's soul in the Philip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials. Humans in every universe are said to have dæmons, although in some universes they are visible as entities physically separate from their humans, and take the form of animals, while in other universes...
s". In the birth-universe of the story's protagonist Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua , also known as Lyra Silvertongue, is the heroine of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Lyra is a young girl who inhabits a universe parallel to our own...
, a human individual's soul manifests itself throughout life as an animal-shaped "dæmon" that always stays near its human counterpart. Witches and some humans have entered areas where dæmons cannot physically enter; after suffering horrific separation-trauma, their dæmons can then move as far away from their humans as desired.
Dæmons usually only talk to their own associated humans, but they can communicate with other humans and with other dæmons autonomously. During the childhood of its associated human, a dæmon can change its shape at will, but with the onset of adolescence it settles into a single form. The final form reveals the person's true nature and personality, implying that these stabilise after adolescence. Pullmanian society considers it "the grossest breach of etiquette imaginable" for one person to touch another's dæmon — this would violate the most strict of taboos. "A human being with no dæmon is like someone without a face, or with their ribs laid open and their heart torn out: something unnatural and uncanny that belonged to the world of night-ghasts, not the waking world of sense."
In some worlds, Spectres prey upon the dæmons of adults, consuming them and rendering said dæmons' humans essentially catatonic
Catatonia
Catatonia is a state of neurogenic motor immobility, and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor. It was first described in 1874: Die Katatonie oder das Spannungsirresein ....
; they lose all thought
Thought
"Thought" generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's subjective consciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arrangements of ideas. Similar concepts include cognition, sentience, consciousness, and imagination...
and eventually fade away and die. Although in the world that this happens the humans do not have dæmons as such, but dæmon could be used to describe the humans soul or the like. Dæmons and their humans can also become separated through intercision
Intercision
Intercision is a type of fictional operation in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy that separates an individual from their dæmon. In effect, the operation separates the person from his or her soul, while leaving the person alive, though having the behavioral and cognitive characteristics...
, a process involving cutting the link between the dæmon and the human. This process can take place in a medical setting, as with the titanium
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
and manganese
Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
used at Bolvangar, or as a form of torture used by the Skraelings. This separation entails a high mortality rate and changes both human and dæmon into a zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
-like state. Severing the link using the silver guillotine method releases tremendous amounts of unnamed energy, convertible to anbaric (electric) power.
Awards and recognition
The Amber Spyglass won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year award, a prestigious British literary award. This is the first time that such an award has been bestowed on a book from their "children's literature" category.The first volume, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal
Carnegie Medal
The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...
for children's fiction in the UK in 1995. In 2007, the judges of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children's literature selected it as one of the ten most important children's novels of the previous 70 years. In June 2007 it was voted, in an online poll, as the best Carnegie Medal winner in the seventy-year history of the award, the Carnegie of Carnegies.
The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
cites Northern Lights as one of the 100 best novels.
On 19 May 2005, Pullman attended the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
in London to receive formal congratulations for his work from culture secretary Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood since 1992. Formerly a member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she is currently the Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London.-Early life:Tessa Jane...
"on behalf of the government".
On 25 May 2005, Pullman received the Swedish government's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is an international children's literature award, established by the Swedish government in 2002 in honour of the Swedish children's books writer Astrid Lindgren...
for children's and youth literature (sharing it with Japanese illustrator Ryōji Arai
Ryoji Arai
is a Japanese illustrator, born in Yamagata in 1956 and resident of Tokyo. He studied art at Nippon University. His production of picture books is both large and varied – from small books for toddlers, to picture books of nonsense, fairy tales and poetry, both written himself and by other writers...
). Swedes regard this prize as second only to the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
; it has a value of 5 million Swedish Kronor or approximately £385,000.
The trilogy came third in the 2003 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Big Read
Big Read
The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel of all time...
, a national poll of viewers' favourite books, after The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
and Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
. At the time, only His Dark Materials and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, published on 8 July 2000.The novel won a Hugo Award in 2001, the only Harry Potter novel to do so...
amongst the top five works lacked a screen-adaptation (the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which came fifth, went into release in 2005).
Influences
Pullman has identified three major literary influences on His Dark Materials: the essay On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von KleistHeinrich von Kleist
Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was a poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer. The Kleist Prize, a prestigious prize for German literature, is named after him.- Life :...
(online at southerncrossreview.org), the works of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, and, most important, John Milton's
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
, from which the trilogy derives its title.
Pullman had the stated intention of inverting Milton's story of a war between heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
and hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, such that the devil would appear as the hero.
In his introduction, he adapts a famous description of Milton by Blake to quip that he (Pullman) "is of the Devil's party and does know it." Pullman also referred to gnostic ideas
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
in his description of the novels' underlying mythic structure.
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages...
, a series of books by C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
, appears to have had a negative influence on Pullman's trilogy. Pullman has characterised C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
's series as "blatantly racist", "monumentally disparaging of women", "immoral", and "evil". However, some critics have compared the trilogy with such fantasy books as Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Katherine Paterson
Katherine Paterson is an American author of children's novels. She wrote Bridge to Terabithia and has received several of the major international awards for children's literature.- Early life:...
and A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
by Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time...
as well as the Narnia series.
Controversies
His Dark Materials has occasioned some controversy, primarily amongst some Christian groups.Pullman has expressed surprise over what he perceives as a low level of criticism for His Dark Materials on religious grounds, saying "I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak... Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God".
Some of the characters criticise institutional religion. Ruta Skadi, a witch and friend of Lyra's calling for war against the Magisterium in Lyra's world, says that "For all of [the Church's] history... it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can't control them, it cuts them out" (see intercision
Intercision
Intercision is a type of fictional operation in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy that separates an individual from their dæmon. In effect, the operation separates the person from his or her soul, while leaving the person alive, though having the behavioral and cognitive characteristics...
). Skadi later extends her criticism to all organised religion: "That's what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling". By this part of the book, the witches have made reference to how they are treated criminally by the church in their worlds. Mary Malone, one of Pullman's main characters, states that "the Christian religion... is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all". Formerly a Catholic nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
, she gave up her vows when the experience of falling in love caused her to doubt her faith. Pullman has warned, however, against equating these views with his own, saying of Malone: "Mary is a character in a book. Mary's not me. It's a story, not a treatise, not a sermon or a work of philosophy". In another inversion, the tenet that the Church can absolve a penitent of sin is subverted when the priest selected to assassinate Lyra has built up sufficient penitential credit before attempting to carry out this sin for the Church.
Pullman portrays life after death very differently from the Christian concept of heaven: In the third book, the afterlife plays out in a bleak underworld
Underworld
The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...
, similar to the Greek vision of the afterlife, wherein harpies
Harpy
In Greek mythology, a harpy was one of the winged spirits best known for constantly stealing all food from Phineas...
torment people until Lyra and Will descend into the land of the dead. At their intercession, the harpies agree to stop tormenting the dead souls, and instead receive the true stories of the dead in exchange for leading them again to the upper world. When the dead souls emerge, they dissolve into atom
Atom
The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
s and merge with the environment.
Cynthia Grenier, in the Catholic Culture, has said: "In the world of Pullman, God Himself (the Authority) is a merciless tyrant". His Church is an instrument of oppression, and true heroism consists of overthrowing both."
William A. Donohue
William A. Donohue
William Anthony "Bill" Donohue is the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States, a position he has held since 1993.-Life and career:...
of the Catholic League
Catholic League (U.S.)
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, often shortened to the Catholic League, is an American Catholic anti-defamation and civil rights organization...
has described Pullman's trilogy as "atheism for kids". Pullman has said of Donohue's call for a boycott, "Why don't we trust readers? [...] Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world".
Pullman has, however, found support from some other Christians, most notably from Rowan Williams
Rowan Williams
Rowan Douglas Williams FRSL, FBA, FLSW is an Anglican bishop, poet and theologian. He is the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury and Primate of All England, offices he has held since early 2003.Williams was previously Bishop of Monmouth and...
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
(spiritual head of the Anglican church
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
), who argues that Pullman's attacks focus on the constraints and dangers of dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
tism and the use of religion to oppress
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...
, not on Christianity itself.
Williams has also recommended the His Dark Materials series of books for inclusion and discussion in Religious Education
Religious Education
Religious Education is the term given to education concerned with religion. It may refer to education provided by a church or religious organization, for instruction in doctrine and faith, or for education in various aspects of religion, but without explicitly religious or moral aims, e.g. in a...
classes, and stated that "To see large school-parties in the audience of the Pullman plays at the National Theatre is vastly encouraging".
Pullman has singled out certain elements of Christianity for criticism, as in the following: "I suppose technically, you'd have to put me down as an agnostic. But if there is a God, and He is as the Christians describe Him, then He deserves to be put down and rebelled against". However, Pullman has also said in interviews and appearances that his argument can extend to all religions.
Catholic Herald
In a November 2002 interview Philip PullmanPhilip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
was asked "What's your response to the reactions of the religious right to your work? The Catholic Herald called your books the stuff of nightmares and worthy of the bonfire." He replied: "My response to that was to ask the publishers to print it in the next book, which they did! I think it's comical, it's just laughable."
Though widely reported, the Herald had not called for the book to be burned. Catholic writer Leonie Caldecott was defending J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling
Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series...
and joked that there were better things for fundamentalists to burn (it was around Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in England. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding...
).
Radio
The BBC made His Dark Materials into a radio drama on BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
starring Terence Stamp
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.His other major roles include...
as Lord Asriel
Lord Asriel
Lord Asriel is a major character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series and one of the main protagonists of Northern Lights.Asriel is a member of the English aristocracy in a parallel universe dominated by the Church...
and Lulu Popplewell
Lulu Popplewell
Laura Francesca "Lulu" Popplewell is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She is the younger sister of actress Anna Popplewell....
as Lyra. The play was broadcast in 2003 and is now published by the BBC on CD and cassette. In the same year, a radio drama of Northern Lights was made by RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
(Irish public radio).
The BBC Radio 4 version of His Dark Materials was repeated on BBC Radio 7 between 7 December 2008 to 11 January 2009. With 3 episodes in total, each episode was 2.5 hours long.
Theatre
Nicholas HytnerNicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.-Biography:...
directed a theatrical version of the books as a two-part, six-hour performance for London's Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in December 2003, running until March 2004. It starred Anna Maxwell-Martin as Lyra, Dominic Cooper
Dominic Cooper
Dominic Edward Cooper is an English actor. He has worked in TV, film, theatre and radio, in productions including Mamma Mia!, The Duchess, The History Boys, and The Devil's Double.- Early life :...
as Will, Timothy Dalton
Timothy Dalton
Timothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...
as Lord Asriel and Patricia Hodge
Patricia Hodge
Patricia Ann Hodge is an English actor.-Early life:The daughter of the Royal Hotel owner/manager Eric and his wife Marion , Hodge attended Wintringham Girls' Grammar School on Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby and then St...
as Mrs Coulter with dæmon puppets designed by Michael Curry
Michael Curry (puppet designer)
Michael Curry is an American production designer who lives in Portland, Oregon. He is also the owner and President of Michael Curry Design Inc...
. The play was enormously successful and was revived (with a different cast and a revised script) for a second run between November 2004 and April 2005. It has since been staged by several less known theatres in the UK, notably at the Playbox Theatre Company in Warwick (a major youth theatre company in the West Midlands)and the Theatre Royal Bath by the Young People's Theatre, which went on to receive the Bath play of the year. The play had its Irish Premiere at the O'Reilly Theatre in Dublin when it was staged by the dramatic society of Belvedere College
Belvedere College
Belvedere College SJ is a private secondary school for boys located on Great Denmark Street, Dublin, Ireland. It is also known as St. Francis Xavier's College....
.
A major new production was staged at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March and April 2009, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and Sarah Esdaile and starring Amy McAllister
Amy McAllister
Amy McAllister is an Irish actress most notable for her role as Lyra in the 2009 stage production of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.-Background:Amy grew up in Dublin, Ireland...
as Lyra. This version toured the UK and included a performance in Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
's hometown of Oxford. Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
made a cameo appearance much to the delight of the audience and Oxford media. The production finished up at West Yorkshire Playhouse
West Yorkshire Playhouse
The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, England is a theatre which opened in March 1990 as part of the regeneration of the Quarry Hill area of the city...
in June 2009.
A student-run theatre company named Johnstone Underground Theatre (J.U.T), presented a four and a half hour stage version of the series on 23 and 24 July 2010 in Northbrook, IL. The show was composed of two acts and was heavily abridged to cope with the groups financial and time limitations. This version cut out some aspects of the series that are presented in the Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass such as Spectres, Gallivespians, and all of Dr. Mary Malone's adventures. The second act was the combined version of these two books. The first act presented the majority of the events in The Golden Compass faithfully.
Film
New Line CinemaNew Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
released a film adaptation, titled The Golden Compass, on 7 December 2007. Directed by Chris Weitz
Chris Weitz
Christopher John "Chris" Weitz is an American producer, writer, director and actor. He is best known for his work with his brother, Paul Weitz, on the comedy films American Pie and About a Boy, as well as directing the film adaptation of the novel The Golden Compass and the film adaptation of New...
, the production had a mixed reception, and though worldwide sales were strong, its United States take underwhelmed the studio's hopes.
The filmmakers obscured the books' explicitly Biblical character of the Authority so as to avoid offending some viewers, though Weitz declared that he would not do the same for the hoped-for sequels. "Whereas The Golden Compass had to be introduced to the public carefully", he said, "the religious themes in the second and third books can't be minimised without destroying the spirit of these books. ...I will not be involved with any 'watering down' of books two and three, since what I have been working towards the whole time in the first film is to be able to deliver on the second and third". In May 2006, Pullman said of a version of the script that "all the important scenes are there and will have their full value"; in March 2008, he said of the finished film that "a lot of things about it were good.... Nothing can bring out all that's in the book. There are always compromises".
The Golden Compass film stars Dakota Blue Richards
Dakota Blue Richards
Dakota Blue Richards is an English actress. Her debut was in the film The Golden Compass, as the lead character Lyra Belacqua....
as Lyra, Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
as Mrs. Coulter, and Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
as Lord Asriel. Eva Green
Eva Green
Eva Gaëlle Green is a French actress and model.Green performed in theatre before making her film debut in The Dreamers , which generated controversy over her numerous nude scenes. She achieved greater fame for her parts in Kingdom of Heaven , and in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, for...
plays Serafina Pekkala, Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
voices Iorek Byrnison, and Freddie Highmore
Freddie Highmore
Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Finding Neverland, Five Children and It, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles, August Rush, The Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Toast.-Early life:Highmore was...
voices Pantalaimon.
No sequels are planned yet. Church opposition has widely been blamed for forcing their cancellation, but "disappointment" with the first film may have been the studio's true reason.
External links
- Philip Pullman, author's website
- BridgetotheStars.net fansite for His Dark Materials and Philip Pullman
- HisDarkMaterials.org His Dark Materials fansite
- HisDarkMaterials.com, publisher Random House's His Dark Materials website
- Cittagazze.com, the His Dark Materials, a French fansite
- Scholastic: His Dark Materials, the UK publisher's website
- Randomhouse: His Dark Materials, the U.S. publisher's website
- The BBC's His Dark Materials pages
- The Archbishop of Canterbury and Philip Pullman in conversation, from "The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
"