Northern Lights (Pullman novel)

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"Golden Compass" redirects here. For the film based on the novel, see The Golden Compass (film). For the Italian design award, see Compasso d'Oro.

Northern Lights
LC Class
PZ7.P968 No 1995[2]
PZ7.P968 Go 1996[3]
Preceded byLa Belle Sauvage 
Followed byThe Subtle Knife 

Northern Lights (titled The Golden Compass in North America and some other countries) is a

young-adult fantasy novel by Philip Pullman, published in 1995 by Scholastic UK. Set in a parallel universe, it follows the journey of Lyra Belacqua to the Arctic in search of her missing friend, Roger Parslow, and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel, who has been conducting experiments with a mysterious substance known as "Dust
".

Northern Lights is the first book of the trilogy, His Dark Materials (1995 to 2000).[1] Alfred A. Knopf published the first US edition April 1996, under the name The Golden Compass,[1][3] under which title it was adapted as a 2007 feature film and as a companion video game. The book has also been adapted as the first part of the 2019 TV series His Dark Materials.

Pullman won the 1995

Carnegie of Carnegies
" on 21 June 2007.

Synopsis

Setting

The setting is a world dominated by the Magisterium (commonly called "the Church"), an international theocracy which actively suppresses heresy. In this world, humans' souls naturally exist outside of their bodies in the form of sentient "dæmons" in animal form which accompany, aid, and comfort their humans. An important plot device is the alethiometer, a truth-telling symbol reader. By setting the alethiometer's hands to point to symbols around a dial a skilled practitioner can pose questions, which are answered by the movement of a further hand.

Plot

Twelve-year-old

Northern Lights
amidst a concentration of Dust. The scholars agree to fund his controversial research, which is considered heretical by the oppressive Church.

Lyra's best friend Roger goes missing, presumed kidnapped by child abductors known as the "Gobblers".

Gyptians, canal-faring nomads
, many of whose children have also been abducted. They reveal to Lyra that Asriel and Coulter are her parents.

The Gyptians form an expedition to the Arctic with Lyra, where they believe the Gobblers are holding their children. They stop in

Lee Scoresby, join her group. She also learns that Lord Asriel has been exiled, guarded by the panserbjørne on Svalbard. Trollesund's witch consul
tells the Gyptians of a prophecy about Lyra which she must not know, and that the witch clans are choosing sides for an upcoming war.

The search party continues towards Bolvangar, the Gobbler research station. Guided by the alethiometer, Lyra detours at a village and discovers an abandoned child who has been cut from his dæmon and who soon dies. She realises the Gobblers are experimenting on children by severing the bond between human and dæmon, a soul-splitting process called

intercision. Lyra and her companions are attacked by bounty hunters
, and Lyra is captured and taken to Bolvangar, where she is briefly reunited with Roger before being sent to be separated from Pantalaimon. Just before this can occur, Coulter arrives and halts the intercision process. She tells Lyra that intercision prevents the onset of troubling adult emotions, though it has not yet been perfected.

Lyra activates Bolvangar's emergency alarm, sets the station on fire, and evacuates the children, where they are rescued by Scoresby, Iorek, the Gyptians, and the witch clan of

Iofur Raknison
. She tricks Iofur into fighting Iorek, who arrives with Roger to rescue Lyra. Iorek kills Iofur and regains his place as the rightful king.

Lyra, Iorek, and Roger continue onwards to Svalbard, where Asriel has continued his Dust research in exile. He tells Lyra all he knows of Dust: that it has spawned parallel universes, it is somehow connected to death and misery, and that the Church believes it is the physical basis of sin. Lord Asriel travels with Roger through the snow, Lyra and Iorek follow using the tracks of Asriel's sled. Asriel ascends a mountain with Roger as Lyra and Iorek and his squadron of bears battle the witches that are allied with Asriel. Mrs Coulter and the Tartars arrive in a military airship and attack the bears. During the battle, Mrs Coulter follows Lyra to the top of the mountain, where Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter embrace at the peak of the mountain where Asriel has set up his equipment. Suddenly, Lord Asriel severs Roger from his dæmon, killing Roger but releasing an enormous amount of energy that tears a hole in the Northern Lights into a parallel universe, through which he walks. Devastated, Lyra and Pantalaimon also pass through the opening in the sky.

Characters

Main article: List of His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust characters

All humans in Northern Lights, as well as witches, have a dæmon (pronounced "demon"), which is the physical manifestation of a person's "inner being", soul, or spirit. It takes the form of a creature (such as a moth, bird, dog, monkey, or snake) and is usually the opposite sex to its human counterpart. The dæmons of children have the ability to change form from one creature to another, but near the end of a child's puberty, their dæmon "settles" into a permanent form, which reflects the person's personality. When a person dies, the dæmon dies too. Armoured bears, cliff ghasts and other creatures do not have dæmons. An armoured bear's armour is his soul.

Title

medieval illuminated manuscript
of unknown authorship.

During

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 centred, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure

— Book 7, lines 224–229

In the US, 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 at the head of this article), because of the device's resemblance to 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 the original title that it insisted on publishing the first book as The Golden Compass rather than as Northern Lights, the title used in Britain and Australia.[6]

Critical reception

Awards

Pullman won both the annual Carnegie Medal for British children's books[4] and the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for Northern Lights, an award which authors can only win once in their lifetime.[7] Six books have won both awards in 45 years through 2011.[a]

In the US, 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 in 1996.[8]

Religion

See also: Religious perspective of Pullman's trilogy and His Dark Materials - Reactions from Christians

Some critics have asserted that the trilogy and the movie portray organised churches and religion negatively,

world-view with a Rousseauist one.[13]

Adaptations

New Line Cinema released a feature-film adaptation of the novel named The Golden Compass in December 2007. Chris Weitz adapted the novel and also directed the film. Dakota Blue Richards, in her film debut, played Lyra. The cast included Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Ian McKellen, Sam Elliott, Derek Jacobi, and Christopher Lee.

In 1996

Alison Dowling as Mrs Coulter, Seán Barrett as Lord Asriel and Iorek Byrnison, and Stephen Thorne as the Master and Farder Coram. An audiobook version narrated by Pullman and featuring a full cast was released in 1999.[14]

The National Theatre in London staged a two-part adaptation of the trilogy in 2003–2004.

Sega released a video game of the movie adaptation of the book, titled The Golden Compass and developed by Shiny Entertainment, on 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 organisation 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 to help Lyra's friend. The Golden Compass features a mix of fighting and puzzle-solving with three characters.[15]

On 3 November 2019, BBC One began broadcast of their TV adaptation of His Dark Materials. This first series mainly covers events from Northern Lights. It premiered on HBO on 4 November 2019 in the United States. The series was produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema[16] and directed by Tom Hooper. Cast members included Dafne Keen, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ian Gelder, and Ruta Gedmintas.

See also

Notes

  1. Guardian Prize-winning books. Professional librarians confer the Carnegie and select the winner from all British children's books. The Guardian
    newspaper's prize winner is selected by British children's writers, "peers" of the author who has not yet won it, for one children's (age 7+) or young-adult fiction book. The nationality of winning authors and publishers has varied.

References

  1. ^ a b c His Dark Materials series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  2. ^ "Northern lights". Library of Congress Catalog Record (LCC). Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  3. ^ a b "The golden compass" (first US edition). LCC record. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  4. ^ a b Carnegie Winner 1995 Archived 24 December 2013 at the
    CILIP
    . Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  5. ^ "70 Years Celebration: Anniversary Top Tens" Archived 27 October 2016 at the
    CILIP
    . Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  6. ^ a b "Frequently Asked Questions – Why is the trilogy called His Dark Materials? Why are there two different titles for the first book?". BridgeToTheStars.net. Retrieved 20 August 2007.
  7. ^ "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners". The Guardian 12 March 2001. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  8. ^ "BCCB Blue Ribbon Book | Book awards | LibraryThing". www.librarything.com. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked". 22 October 2007.
  10. ^ La Crosse Tribune – Bishop Listecki: 'Golden Compass' points to evil.
  11. ^ Petre, Jonathan (10 March 2004). "Williams backs Pullman". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
  12. ^ Hitchens, Peter (18 January 2003). "A labour of loathing". The Spectator. Retrieved 21 September 2006.
  13. ^ "Audition – Program 10 (On Philip Pullman)". Mars Hill Audio. 6 November 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2007. With MP3 audio recording.
  14. ^ "THE GOLDEN COMPASS by Philip Pullman Read by a Full Cast | Audiobook Review". AudioFile Magazine. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  15. ^ Ryan Clements (7 January 2008). "The Golden Compass Review: Not as magical as you might hope". IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 13 September 2019. Review of the video game.
  16. ^ Barraclough, Leo (3 November 2015). "BBC Greenlights TV Series Based on Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials'". Variety.
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
Awards
Preceded by Carnegie Medal recipient
1995 		Succeeded by
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