Glossary of His Dark Materials Terminology - Alternative Names For People and Places

Alternative Names For People and Places

The history of Lyra's world is also very different from our own; most obvious is the settlement of the New World in Lyra's universe was dramatically altered. Pullman underlines this and other variations by using archaic or alternate names for otherwise familiar people and regions. Unless stated otherwise, these words are all capitalised.

• Beringland: Northwest America, specifically Alaska and the Yukon Territories of Canada. Named for the explorer who first set out in the region, Vitus Bering
• Brytain: A phonetically identical respelling of the region of Britain. It has echoes of "Brython", a word for ancient British people and the lands they inhabited.
• Byanplats (lowercase): in the Gyptian dialect, the prominent area of raised land in the Fens.
• Cathay: The medieval European name for China.
• Corea: A phonetically identical respelling of the country Korea (used both in Cittàgazze and Lyra's world). This spelling was used prior to the current one, with a "K".
• Eastern Anglia: East Anglia, particularly Lincolnshire, the region where John Faa's gyptians live; in Brytain it has remained fenland with the Dutch influence remaining strong.
• Eireland: Ireland, as referred to in the Cittàgazze universe. Presumably a mixture of Ireland's Irish-language (Éire) and English-language names.
• Fireland: Iceland, named in the Peril of the Pole game in Once Upon a Time in the North. Refers to Iceland's volcanic activity rather than to its glaciers.
• Gebraltarik: Gibraltar, from its Arabic name Jabal Tāriq.
• German Ocean: The North Sea
• Groenland: Greenland
• Gyptians: Boat-dwelling "Gypsies" (Roma). In reality, the word "Gypsy" is derived from "Egypt". Gypsies were once thought by "native" Britons to have come from Egypt due to their darker skin. Pullman is clearly referencing this etymological heritage. There are also references to the Dutch watergeuzen, (in the books, not as much in the movie) a kind of north-sea pirates. One hint to the Dutchness of the Gyptians is their preference for drinking "ginniver" (or Dutch) genever. Also, many Gyptians carry Dutch names like "Dirk Vries", "Raymond van Gerrit" and "Ruud and Nellie Koopman" and use Dutch terms such as "landloper" (a Dutch word literally meaning "land-walker").
• Lake Enara: Lake Inari, a lake in Northern Finland. From Enare, the Swedish-language name for the lake.
• Lapland: Northernmost Scandinavia (and possibly a full-fledged nation on its own), including its major northern port of Trollesund; the region corresponding in our world to Swedish Lapland and Northern Norway.
• Lascar: An East Indian. This is a real, though archaic, English word.
• Mejico: Mexico, from the Mexican pronunciation.
• Muscovy and Muscovites: A reference to the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Territory coincides with our Russia.
• New Denmark: Most likely the region occupied by the United States of America, east of New France. Lee Scoresby is described as a 'New Dane', specifically from the country of Texas.
• New France: Includes Quebec, much of eastern Canada, and the region bought (in our world) by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. A reference to the 17th and 18th century, during which the area around the St-Lawrence River and much of the North American Interior was called New France. (At its peak in 1712, the territory of New France extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.) Lee Scoresby recalls the Battle of the Alamo as not being between the Mexican Army and Texians and Tejanos, but between French and Danish settlers.
• Nippon and Nipponese: Japan and the Japanese language and/or people. From Nippon ("land of the rising sun"), a Japanese-language name for Japan.
• (Great) North Ocean: The North Atlantic Ocean combined with the European region of the Arctic Ocean.
• Norroway: Norway.
• Nova Zembla: Novaya Zemlya, a Russian archipelago in the Arctic
• Panserbjørne (generally italicized and lowercase): Armoured bears (as a whole race or as individuals); a warrior clan of sapient, talking polar bears based on the islands of Svalbard, known for crafting powerful armour from meteoric iron. The word "panserbjørne" literally means "armour-bears" in Danish. The singular is panserbjørn.
• Peaceable Ocean: The Pacific Ocean, calqued from the Latin.
• Roman: Specifically, the Latin language.
• Russia: Is mentioned in shipping entries at the end of Once Upon a Time in the North, and includes Finnish territory of the Russian Empire As Muscovy is also mentioned on the same book page, "Russia" might be separate from Muscovy somehow.
• Skraeling: A Native American (specifically Inuit) person, particularly one from Greenland. Natives of Greenland were once named similarly by the Viking settlers of our world.
• Samoyed: The Sami hunters of northern Scandinavia.
• Tartar: A Tatar; Nomadic Turkic, warrior people of the North, known for the practice of unusual spiritual rituals, including trepanning.
• Texas: The homeland of Lee Scoresby and a sovereign nation within the region called New Denmark. The Republic of Texas was briefly an independent nation in our own world.