Jordan College
From His Dark Materials
Jordan College is a college of the University of Oxford.[1][2] This was Lyra's home until she left with Marisa Coulter and it contains many scholars of the subject of metaphysics. Lord Asriel was a fellow of this college. It contains the graves of many dead scholars beneath it.
Phillip Pullman describes the college thus:
- What was above ground was only a small fraction of the whole. Like some enormous fungus whose root-system extended over acres, Jordan (finding itself jostling for space above ground with St Michael's College on one side, Gabriel College on the other, and Bodley's Library behind) had begun, sometime in the Middle Age, to spread below the surface. Tunnels, shafts, vaults, cellars, staircases had so hollowed out the earth below Jordan and for some yards around it that there was almost as much air below ground as above; Jordan College stood on a sort of froth of stone.
(Pullman, Northern Lights)
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[edit] Overview
The college is considered one of, if not the, most prestigious colleges in Brytain. Certainly, in the field of experimental theology, including the study of Dust, it is considered the top college in the world. It has been attended by several notable people, including Lord Asriel. The college itself owns other estates all over the isle, those paying it rent including farms, dye-works, brick-kilns, and atomcraft-works.
[edit] Architecture and layout
The college is situated next to St Michael's College and Brasenose College on Turl Street, and Gabriel College and Balliol College on Broad Street. Most visitors enter Jordan College via the Lodge. The layout of the college and the juxtaposition of many of its features are reminiscent of Exeter College.
In particular both colleges are situated between Turl Street, the Sheldon Building, and the Bodleian Library. A feature of both Exeter College and the fictional college is the Palmer's Tower (also known as 'Pilgrim's Tower'). The Rector's Lodging of Jordan College communicates (slightly indirectly) with the Library Garden via French windows.
The college's buildings are grouped around three irregular quadrangles, the most important of which—the Melrose Quadrangle—is the college Library. The Library on one side leads out to the Library Gardens, and on the other connects to the Scholar's Common Room, which leads to the grand Hall, which is laid out with a table to seat all the Scholars and Under-Scholars. At the back of the Hall is the Retiring Room of the Master and other privileged Scholars. The Yaxley Quadrangle, which also backs onto the Library Gardens, houses some of the oldest buildings in the college, including the Master's Lodging, and was where Lyra Belacqua had her bedroom during her time at the college.
Amongst the college's buildings are the Pilgrim's Tower and the Chapel, which includes the Oratory and leads down to the crypts of esteemed deceased Scholars.
[edit] History
The earliest of the buildings were constructed in the Middle Ages, and the most recent in the mid-18th century.
[edit] People
The college is attended by the Master, the titled Scholars, the other Scholars and the Under-Scholars, as well as various servants and other contributors.
[edit] The Master
The Master of Jordan College is the highest-ranking Scholar, and oversees the college's affairs in all sectors.
[edit] Past Masters
Include:
- Ignatius Cole, Master 1745-1748
- Dæmon: Musca
- Francis Lyall, Master 1748-1765
- Dæmon: Zohariel
- Simon Le Clerc, Master 1765-1789
- Dæmon: Cerebaton
The incumbent Master is an elderly gentleman with a raven dæmon, who has long kept the college afloat amidst pressures from various sectors of the Magisterium (in particular the Consistorial Court of Discipline and the General Oblation Board).
[edit] The Scholars
[edit] The Cassington Scholar
Incumbent*: One of the younger and more energetic Scholars. Lord Asriel explains that the post is usually given to a "free-thinker".
[edit] The Chaplain
Incumbent*: A close friend of Lord Asriel.
[edit] The Dean
Incumbent*: A skeptic.
[edit] The Enquirer
[edit] The Intercessor
An emissary of the Church who leads all the college services, preaches and prays and hears confessions.
Incumbent*: Father Heyst, a friendly man with a lizard-dæmon.
[edit] The Librarian
In charge of the Library.
Incumbent*: Charles ..., a close friend of the current Master.
[edit] The Palmerian Professor
Incumbent*: Trelawney, a man knowledgeable about the North, having made several expeditions to the Arctic regions. The current Professor is a plagiarist, but is much in favor with the church.
[edit] The Precentor
Incumbent*: An venerable elderly Scholar.
[edit] The Sub-Rector
Incumbent*: A nearly-blind elderly Scholar.
[edit] The Servants
[edit] The Steward
Head of the servants of Jordan College.
Incumbent*: Mr Cawson
[edit] The Butler
Reports only to the Steward. There is an established rivalry between the positions.
Incumbent*: 'Wren'
[edit] The Porter
Reports to the Butler.
Incumbent*: 'Shuter'
[edit] The Parslows
The Parslow family have been employed as masons and scaffolders to Jordan College's buildings, and to repair the most dilapidated parts of the college, for five generations.
Mr Parslow was teaching his relative Roger Parslow his craft.
* As of Northern Lights
[edit] Behind the scenes
The location and layout of Jordan College in the parallel universe is analogous to the location of Exeter College[3], Philip Pullman's alma mater, in the real city of Oxford. However, unlike the fictional college, Exeter College is not the oldest (it is the fourth oldest), richest, or most prestigious college of the University of Oxford.
[edit] References
- ↑ Arts and Drama — His Dark Materials — Dictionary, BBC Radio 4.
- ↑ Vanessa Thorpe and Jonathan Heawood, Pullman brings back Lyra for Oxford mystery, The Observer, April 6, 2003.
- ↑ From Exeter to Jordan, Oxford Today, Volume 14, Number 3, 2002.
