His Dark Materials - Characters

Characters

Every human surface story character from Lyra's world, including witches, has a dæmon (pronounced "demon"). A dæmon 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 dæmons of children frequently change shape, but when puberty arrives the dæmon assumes a permanent form, differing from person to person. When a person dies, the dæmon dies too, and vice versa. In literature, a dæmon is usually called a "familiar." Armoured bears, cliff ghasts, and other creatures do not have dæmons. An armoured bear's armour is his soul.

• Lyra Belacqua, 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 armoured bear friend and protector) gives her the byname "Silvertongue". Lyra has the alethiometer, which answers any question when properly manipulated.

• Pantalaimon is Lyra's dæmon. Like all dæmons 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, Metatron. Pullman portrays him as extremely aged, fragile, and naїve, unlike his thoroughly malicious underling.

• Lord Asriel, 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 Coulter is the coldly beautiful, highly manipulative 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 dæmon (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 Enoch and was later transfigured into an angel. 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. He was the series' main antagonist.

• Mary Malone is a physicist and former nun 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. She warns Asriel, who later "accidentally" 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 Parry, a.k.a. Stanislaus Grumman is Will's father.

• Elaine Parry is Will Parry's mother. She became mentally ill after her husband disappeared on an expedition and has been left by Will in the care of Mrs. Cooper, Will's former piano teacher.

• 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 Swift's Gulliver's Travels, (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 armoured 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 Golding's novel Lord of the Flies.) 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 armoured bear's armour is his soul, equivalent to a human's dæmon. 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 armoursmith, Iorek repairs the Subtle Knife when it shatters. He later goes to war against The Authority and Metatron.

• John Faa 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 Texan, 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-goose 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.