Northern Lights
From His Dark Materials
Northern Lights, published first in the UK and later renamed The Golden Compass in the US, is the first novel in the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. First published in 1995, the novel won the the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995.[1]
[edit] Synopsis
Northern Lights, the first volume of the trilogy, is set in a world which is very similar to our world though it is different in a number of ways from our own world.
To begin with, the readers of Northern Lights meet an eleven year girl, Lyra Belacqua. She is an orphan and is growing up within Jordan College, Oxford. Very soon, the readers understand that the Lyra's Oxford is not like our real world Oxford. It is a world in which science, theology and magic get intertwined to create a distinct environment unfamiliar to our world. The idea is that many different parallel universes exist.Moreover, in Lyra's World, every one has a personal Daemon who is an integral part of each individual, or to make it simple, their soul.
Lyra spends her time happily and in a carefree way with her friend, Roger, a kitchen boy - they roam around the streets of Oxford, wage “wars” with other children, including the Gyptian's children, and indulge in similar fun things. Soon, the life take a serious turn when she and her Daemon, Pantalaimon, prevents an assassination bid on Lord Asriel and also overhears a secret conversation about the power of Dust, a mysterious entity. Around this time, children start disappearing very mysteriously – they are just vanishing with the involvement of Gobblers. The disappearance of the children soon spread far and wide beyond the confines of the Oxford. Even Roger, Lyra’s friend disappears. Before this, however, Lyra meets a beautiful women named Mrs. Coulter who has a monkey daemon. Lyra is awed by her and soon goes with her to become her assistant to go to the North. Before leaving, the Master of Jordan give Lyra a golden compass called a alethiometer, or truth measure, and tells Lyra she needs to keep it private and needs to learn how to read it herself. When parting with Jordan College, she realizes that Roger is missing.
When with Mrs. Coulter, Lyra is pampered and learns about things like makeup, fashion, and manners. Pan warns Lyra that Mrs. Coulter is treating her just as a pet and will not take her North. Lyra ignores him. Together, Lyra and Mrs. Coulter plan a party. The day of, Mrs. Coulter asks Lyra to take off her handbag in which she was keeping the golden compass safe. Lyra refuses and this leads to a confrontation in which Lyra finds out the true personality of Mrs. Coulter. When guests arrive, Lyra realizes Pan was right as she is shown around the room. She also finds out that Mrs. Coulter heads the General Oblation Board, or in other words, the Gobblers which are a part of the Magesterium, or Church. Lyra and Pan talk to plan an escape. While Lyra is throwing on a jacket and packing the alethiometer, Pan watches. When he says the coast is clear, Lyra runs. Not knowing the streets of London, she soon gets lost, and near a bridge she is captured by throwing nets. Lyra and Pan then is saved by the Gyptians, who hide her away from the forces of the Church.
At a Roping, or meeting of the Gyptians, Lyra and Pan learn that the Gyptians are taking a boat to rescue the children at Bolvanger. Lyra demands to go along, and in time, is taken.
When Lyra reaches Bolvanger, she discovers the mission that the General Oblation Board were on: to take away peoples daemons. A human being and their daemon share an extremely powerful link, so powerful that humans and their daemons can only move a few yards away from each other. Tampering with this link is considered taboo, so extreme that seeing a severed person (which, in Lyra's world is a person without their daemon). It is like murder in our world. A daemon's purpose is to represent your mood. When the person is a child, their daemon can settle in any form, depending on the person's mood. When the child is at the age of adolescence, the daemon settles into one form, representing the persons true nature, and personality. For a rare attempt to remove a person from the daemon, for many years, simply stretching the link so that the link broke (extremely painful for both the human and the daemon) was the only option. Later, the General Oblation Board made a guillotine to separate the human from the daemon. An attempt was made on Lyra, but was suspended when Mrs. Coulter realized who the operation was being done on.
Lyra comes round sometime later and Mrs. Coulter suddenly strokes her knee for reassurance: "Lyra. Darling." Lyra shrinks away from Mrs. Coulter's grasp.
[edit] References
| His Dark Materials and other books | |
|---|---|
| Series | Northern Lights • The Subtle Knife • The Amber Spyglass |
| See also | Commentary category |
