Lyra Belacqua

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Lyra Silvertongue
Lyra Belacqua
First appearance
Malcolm Polstead (The Secret Commonwealth)
AgeLess than 1 (La Belle Sauvage)
around 11–13 (His Dark Materials)
15 (Lyra's Oxford)
17–18 (Serpentine)
20 (The Secret Commonwealth)
DæmonPantalaimon "Pan"
Special giftsAbility to read the alethiometer (a rare truth-telling device) and to lie convincingly

Lyra Belacqua (

Metatron, on the other. Lyra also features prominently in the subsequent trilogy The Book of Dust
.

Background and life

Lyra Belacqua, aged around eleven at the beginning of the trilogy, is the daughter of

Roger Parslow, who disappears early in Northern Lights
. The search to find Roger, and other children, is Lyra's motivation throughout much of Northern Lights.

Lyra is described as having wavy dirty-blonde hair and pale-blue eyes, and is thin and short for her age. Lyra is unruly and

Iorek Byrnison had believed to be impossible for a human, and her success prompts Iorek to informally christen her "Silvertongue", which is the surname by which she is known in The Secret Commonwealth
.

The character's first name comes from Lyra Davidica, which means "harp of David." Lyra Davidica is the title of a hymnal collection, but Pullman mistook it for the author's name of an Easter hymn he liked, as it was printed under the number of the hymn. He later realized it wasn't actually a person’s name, though due to the popularity of the character, it has now become one.[1]

Lyra's surname, Belacqua, is the name of a character in Dante's Divine Comedy, a soul in the ante-purgatory, representing those who wait until the last opportunity before turning to God.[2] The mood in the ante-purgatory is said to be one of helplessness, nostalgia, and yearning – Belacqua and the other souls in ante-purgatory are caught between two worlds and lack clear understanding of themselves.[3] Whether this has any connection to Lyra is not known.

Pantalaimon

Lyra's

pine marten, red-gold in colour with a "patch of cream-white fur"[4]
on his throat.

Pantalaimon is portrayed as a cautious and level-headed counterpoint to Lyra's impulsive, inquisitive, and sometimes reckless character.

Lyra must separate from Pantalaimon when she enters the Land of the Dead in The Amber Spyglass, causing extreme pain to both of them; Pantalaimon avoids Lyra for a while afterwards. However, surviving this separation allows the two to move great distances from one another, an ability only witches and shamans generally possess in her world.

Role

In the first novel of

Spectres, Will and Lyra must close all of the inter-world windows with the help of angels and keep them closed forever – and since their dæmons cannot survive long outside of their own birth worlds, they must part forever. Despite this, they decide to sit on the same bench each year for an hour at noon on Midsummer's Day, in the Botanic Gardens
in their separate Oxfords – so that they might feel themselves to be in each other's presence. She fulfils her destiny to "bring an end to death" by leading the ghosts out of the world of the dead.

In the most recent edition of The Amber Spyglass released in the UK, the post-script "Lantern Slides" section shows Lyra studying the alethiometer (a rare truth-telling device) with Pantalaimon at age 18. She is excited to start recognising a pattern in the readings, and Pullman tells us that this discovery of a pattern is the "second thing she said to Will next day in the Botanic Garden", implying that the next day was Midsummer's Day, when she and Will would be sitting on the same bench in their separate worlds.[5]

Letters written by Lyra included in the companion book Once Upon a Time in the North reveal that Lyra is researching her dissertation for a M.Phil. in Economic History, showing she is still studying in her twenties. The title of her dissertation is Developments of patterns of trade in the European Arctic region with particular reference to independent balloon carriage (1950–1970). In the first letter, Lyra also mentions that she is continuing to study the alethiometer. Once she finishes her studies, she will be able to read the alethiometer not with grace, as she used to, but with certainty and knowledge.

In other media

In the 1999 unabridged audio production, Lyra was performed by the voice-over actress Jo Wyatt (as Joanna Wyatt).[6]

In a 2003 BBC radio adaptation, Lyra was voiced by child actress Lulu Popplewell.[7]

The National Theatre in London staged a two-part, six-hour-long adaptation of the novels. The production ran in 2003 and 2004; Lyra was played by Anna Maxwell Martin in the first run and by Elaine Symons in the second.

In The Golden Compass, the film adaptation of the first book, Lyra is portrayed by Dakota Blue Richards.[8] British singer/songwriter Kate Bush wrote and recorded a song, "Lyra", for the film which features choristers from Magdalen College School in Oxford.[9]

Dafne Keen plays Lyra in the BBC television adaptation.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Schwartz, Alexander (29 September 2019). "The Fallen Worlds of Philip Pullman". The New Yorker. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  2. ^ "Dante's Purgatorio – Ante-Purgatory". danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
  3. ^ Strauss, Walter A. "Dante's Belacqua and Beckett's Tramps", Comparative Literature Vol. 11, No. 3 (Summer 1959), University of Oregon, pp. 250–261.
  4. ^ The Secret Commonwealth, chapter 1.
  5. ^ "His Dark Materials Lantern Slides". hisdarkmaterials.org. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  6. ^ "Audiobooks". bridgetothestars.net. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  7. ^ "BBC radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  8. ^ "Dakota Blue Richards: There is no excuse for all-male period dramas". Evening Standard. 6 February 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Kate Bush sings for Pullman film". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  10. ^ White, Peter; Wiseman, Andreas (8 March 2018). "'The King's Speech' Director Tom Hooper & 'Logan' Star Dafne Keen Sign Up For 'His Dark Materials' Adaptation". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 7 August 2018.