Northern Lights (Pullman novel)

"The Golden Compass" redirects here. For the film based on the novel, see The Golden Compass (film).

Northern Lights

Front cover of first edition
Author	Philip Pullman
Cover artist	David Scutt and Pullman
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	His Dark Materials
Genre	Children's fantasy novel, steampunk
Publisher	Scholastic Point
Publication date	July 1995
Media type	Print (hardcover & paperback)
Pages	399 pp (first edition)
ISBN	0-590-54178-1
OCLC	37806360
LC Class	PZ7.P968 No 1995 PZ7.P968 Go 1996
Preceded by	Once Upon a Time in the North
Followed by	The Subtle Knife

Northern Lights, known as The Golden Compass in North America, is a young-adult fantasy novel by Philip Pullman, published by Scholastic UK in 1995. Set in a universe parallel to ours, it features the journey of Lyra Belacqua to the far north in search of her missing friend, Roger Parslow, and her imprisoned father, Lord Asriel, who has been conducting experiments with a mysterious substance known as "Dust". One can argue that Northern Lights, like the rest of the works in its trilogy, are also works of the sub genre known as science fantasy, as it carries elements from each of the two genres; the magical creatures, religious and mythical beings and concept of Dust being fantastic, while the science and technology used throughout Lyra's world are slightly more scientific in their nature.

Northern Lights was the first book of a trilogy, His Dark Materials (1995 to 2000), and it inaugurated a longer, continuing series that is commonly called "His Dark Materials" too. Alfred A. Knopf published the first U.S. edition April 1996, entitled The Golden Compass. Under that title it has been adapted as a 2007 feature film by Hollywood and as a companion video game.

Pullman won the 1995 Carnegie Medal in Literature from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. For the 70th anniversary of the Medal, it was named one of the top ten winning works by a panel, composing the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. Northern Lights won the public vote from that shortlist and was thus named the all-time "Carnegie of Carnegies" on 21 June 2007.

Title

God as architect, wielding the golden compasses, by William Blake (left) and Jesus as Geometer in a 13th century medieval illuminated manuscript of unknown authorship.

For some time during pre-publication of the novel, the prospective trilogy was known in the U.K. as The Golden Compasses, an allusion to God's poetic delineation of the world. The term is from a line in Milton's Paradise Lost, where it denotes the drafting compass God used to establish and set a circular boundary of all creation:

Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centered, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure

— Book 7, lines 224–229

Meanwhile in the U.S., publisher Knopf had been calling the first book The Golden Compass (singular), which it mistakenly understood as a reference to Lyra's alethiometer (depicted on the front cover shown here), understandable because the device superficially resembles a navigational compass. By the time Pullman had replaced The Golden Compasses with His Dark Materials as the name of the trilogy, the US publisher had become so attached to its mistaken title that it insisted on publishing the first book as The Golden Compass rather than as Northern Lights, the title used in the UK and Australia.

Plot summary

The story takes place in a parallel universe to ours, controlled in part by the Magisterium, which guards against heresy. Human souls exist externally in the form of a sentient "dæmon", appearing in animal form which constantly accompany their human.

Lyra Belacqua—a 12-year-old girl who has been allowed to run somewhat wild–awaits the arrival of her uncle and guardian, Lord Asriel at Jordan College, a fictional Oxford University college. She spies on him, and in doing so, saves his life when she stops him from drinking poisoned wine. He allows her to watch his talk to the college, and she learns of "Dust", a material that makes magical links. As her uncle leaves Jordan, she meets Mrs Coulter, a beautiful and adventurous woman, and agrees when invited to go and live with her. The Master of the College secretly entrusts Lyra with an alethiometer, a "truth teller" which resembles a silver, many-handed pocket-watch that can answer any question asked by a skilled user. Although unable to read or understand its complex symbols, Lyra takes it with her, and gradually begins to master the device over the course of the narrative.

Lyra discovers that Mrs. Coulter secretly directs the "General Oblation Board", a Church organisation nicknamed as "the gobblers" who have been kidnapping children. Horrified, Lyra flees and is rescued by the Gyptians, a nomadic people who reveal that Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are Lyra's father and mother. She joins the Gyptians on an expedition to the north to rescue the kidnapped children (one of whom is Roger, Lyra's friend from Jordan College).

On a stop in Trollesund, Lyra meets Iorek Byrnison, an outcast prince of the sapient panserbjørn, or "armoured bears". His armour, stolen from him by the villagers, is akin to his soul, and without it Iorek is bound in servitude to the village. Lyra uses her alethiometer to locate it for him and in return he, and an old friend of his named Lee Scoresby, agrees to help her on her quest. She also learns that Lord Asriel is being held prisoner by the Panserbjørn. At the local consulate of the Witches, the Consul states there is a prophecy about Lyra's destiny, which she must not know, and the reader also learns that witch-clans are choosing their allegiances in preparation for an imminent war.

The Gyptians and Lyra continue north to Bolvangar, where they are told the Gobblers take the children. Guided by the alethiometer, Lyra detours at a village and finds a boy who had been severed from his dæmon. Lyra realizes that the Gobblers are attempting to sever the bond between human and dæmon (the process being called "intercision"), a horrific action in that world, and the boy dies. She is captured by bounty hunters and taken to Bolvangar, where she locates Roger and devises an escape plan. Mrs. Coulter arrives, evidently supervising the facility, and Lyra is caught spying by staff. The staff decide to silence her using the same process; she is rescued by Mrs. Coulter who is shocked to see her as an intercision subject. Mrs. Coulter tries to take the alethiometer from her but the container she takes contains an insect-like device that renders her unconscious. Lyra escapes, leads the other children from the facility, and is rescued by Lee Scoresby, Iorek, the Gyptians, and their allies, the witch-clan of Serafina Pekkala.

Lyra is determined to deliver the alethiometer to Lord Asriel, believing that he needs it for his purposes. She tricks the usurping bear-king Iofur Raknison into fighting Iorek Byrnison, by claiming that she is Iorek's dæmon, and that if Iofur killed Iorek, then she would become Iofur's dæmon – something no bear has and Iofur wants. Iorek is victorious and regains his throne. Lyra – nicknamed "Lyra Silvertongue" by Iorek as a token of her ability – travels onward to Lord Asriel’s cabin, accompanied by Iorek and Roger.

Despite being imprisoned, Lord Asriel has become so influential that he has accumulated the necessary equipment to continue his experiments on Dust. He explains to Lyra what he knows of Dust, the Church's view that it is deeply sinful, his belief that Dust is somehow related to the source of all death and misery, the existence of parallel universes, and his goal—he intends to visit the other universes, find the source of death and misery, and destroy it, bringing the end of "centuries of darkness"; and he claims the Church fears that he may succeed, "with good reason". As Lyra sleeps, he departs, taking Roger and much scientific equipment. Lyra pursues them, having discovered that she has indeed brought her father what he wanted, though not in the way she thought. It was not the alethiometer he needed, but Roger: the severing of the child's dæmon will release an enormous amount of energy, which Lord Asriel needs to complete his task. Roger dies when Lord Asriel separates him from his dæmon, and Lord Asriel is able to tear a hole through the sky into a parallel universe. Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter (who caught up with him by zeppelin) face the newly revealed world, but Mrs. Coulter feels unable to go with Asriel and painfully declines. Lord Asriel walks through into the new universe alone. Devastated at her part in rescuing Roger only to bring him to his death, Pan and Lyra follow.

This concludes the first novel, with the trilogy continuing in the next book, The Subtle Knife.

Characters

• Lyra Belacqua and Pantalaimon: The principal characters. Lyra is described as having blue eyes and blond hair, along with being short for her age and quite thin but is still quite attractive. Though young and attractive she is brave, curious, and crafty. Her dæmon is Pantalaimon, nicknamed Pan. Because she is still a child, Pan is capable of changing into any shape he wishes, through he frequently appears as a brown moth, a wildcat, a white ermine, and a mouse. Lyra has been prophesied by the witches to help the balance of life, but must do so without being aware of her destiny.

• Roger Parslow: One of Lyra's friends, a boy whose family works at Jordan College. When he is kidnapped and taken north, Lyra pursues him in hopes of rescuing him. He is killed at the end of Northern Lights by Lord Asriel.

• Lord Asriel: Lyra's uncle, though, it is later revealed that he is actually her father. His dæmon is Stelmaria, a Moroccan snow leopard.

• Marisa Coulter: An agent of the Magisterium, who does not hesitate to manipulate the Church to obtain funds for her projects. She is intelligent and beautiful, but extremely ruthless and callous. She is revealed to be Lyra's mother; as a result, she is unexpectedly kind to Lyra. Her dæmon is a golden monkey who, unusually, is not named throughout the trilogy.

• Iorek Byrnison: A panserbjørn (a race of armored white bears living in the far North and capable of human speech), first encountered in servitude having been tricked out of his armor, which Lyra helps him recover. He becomes very protective of Lyra and joins the expedition to find the children seized by Gobblers. After Lyra successfully tricks usurper Iofur Raknison into submitting to Iorek, Iorek gives her the name "Lyra the Silvertongue."

• Iofur Raknison: A panserbjørn who wants a dæmon and has usurped Iorek's authority as king. Lyra tricks him into fighting the exiled Iorek Byrnison by pretending to be Iorek's dæmon, and promising that when Iofur wins the fight, she will become his.

• Serafina Pekkala: A witch who closely follows Lyra on her travels. She is aware of Lyra's destiny. Serafina's dæmon is Kaisa, a snow goose, who is capable of physically moving separately from Serafina over long distances, a quality that only witches' dæmons appear to possess, although in the third book in the trilogy, The Amber spyglass, Lyra gets this capability. It is said she and Farder Coram had a son together.

• Lee Scoresby: A Texan aeronaut who transports Lyra in his balloon. He and Iorek Byrnison are good friends and Lee comes to see Lyra as a surrogate daughter. His dæmon is Hester, an arctic snow hare.

• Ma Costa: A Gyptian woman closely involved in the Syrian government. Her son Billy Costa is abducted by the evil "Gobblers". She rescues Lyra from Mrs Coulter and takes her to John Faa, a large man with sturdy hands.

Critical reception

See also: Religious perspective of Pullman's trilogy

Some critics have asserted that the trilogy and the movie portray the Church and religion negatively while others have argued that Pullman's works should be included in religious education courses. Peter Hitchens views the series His Dark Materials as a direct rebuttal of Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. Literary critic Alan Jacobs of Wheaton College argues that Pullman recasts the Narnia series, replacing a theist world-view with a Rousseauist one.

Awards

For Northern Lights Pullman won both the annual Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a similar award that authors may not win twice. Six books have won both awards in 45 years through 2011.

In the U.S., The Golden Compass was named Booklist Editors Choice – Top of the List, Publishers Weekly Book of the Year, a Horn Book Fanfare Honor Book, and a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book.

Film and video game adaptations

Main articles: The Golden Compass (film) and The Golden Compass (video game)

A feature film adaptation of the novel, named The Golden Compass, produced by New Line Cinema with a budget of $180 million, was released on the 7 December 2007. The novel was adapted by Chris Weitz, who also directed the film. Dakota Blue Richards, in her film debut, plays Lyra. The cast also includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Ian McKellen, Sam Elliott, Derek Jacobi, and Christopher Lee in principal roles.

A video game of the movie adaptation of the book, titled The Golden Compass, published by Sega and developed by Shiny Entertainment, was released on the 4 December 2007. Players assume the role of Lyra as she travels through the frozen wastes of the North in an attempt to rescue her friend kidnapped by a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers. Travelling with her are an armoured polar bear and her dæmon Pantalaimon (Pan). Together, they must use a truth-telling alethiometer and other items to explore the land and fight their way through confrontations in order to help Lyra's friend. The Golden Compass features a mix of fighting and puzzle solving with three characters.

Audiobooks

In 1996, Natasha Richardson narrated an audiobook version of the novel.

The trilogy, His Dark Materials, was abridged in a dramatization by BBC Worldwide Ltd. that was published on 1 January 2003.

It was also adapted unabridged and released by BBC Audiobooks. It is narrated by the author, Philip Pullman, with a full cast, including Joanna Wyatt as Lyra, Alison Dowling as Mrs Coulter, Sean Barrett as Lord Asriel and Iorek Byrnison and Stephen Thorne as the Master and Farder Coram.

References

Citations

• Lenz, Millicent (2005). His Dark Materials Illuminated: Critical Essays on Phillip Pullman's Trilogy. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3207-2.

External links

• The Golden Compass in libraries (WorldCat catalog) —immediately, first US edition
• HisDarkMaterials.com publisher's site
• The Golden Compass at IMDb
• Philip Pullman at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• "His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass" review at The Open Critic