The Golden Compass

Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, originally titled Northern Lights in the UK, is a young adult fantasy novel that follows 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua with her dæmon, Pantalaimon (Pan), a spiritual animal counterpart. They travel north from an alternate version of Oxford to find her friend, Roger, with the help of the gyptians, witches, and Iorek, the armored bear. Along the way, Lyra confronts unimaginable horrors, like children being severed from their dæmons by Mrs. Coultier’s faction of the Oblation Board. On her journey north, Lyra discovers not only other worlds in the stars but also many truths about herself.

Pullman is an internationally bestselling author based in Oxford, England. In addition to His Dark Materials, the trilogy of which The Golden Compass is the first book, he has written many children’s books and novels, such as Ruby in the Smoke (1985) and Shadow in the North (1986).

This guide refers to the 1996 Random House paperback edition.

Content Warning: The novel contains many mature themes and scenes, including parental absence, abduction, trauma, murder, parental neglect, fighting, kidnapping, complex family relationships, and violence.

Plot Overview

Lyra Belacqua lives a relatively pleasant life roaming the rooms of Jordan College and playing in the streets of Oxford with gyptian children (an ethnic group of people who typically travel on boats), her friend Roger, and her dæmon, Pan. This changes when she is swept away on a grand adventure that changes her entire life and understanding of the world.

Her journey begins with her usual mischief—at Jordan College, she is hiding in a room that is off limits to her. She spies on the leadership there and notices they are poisoning a drink intended for her father, who at this time she believes is her uncle, Lord Asriel. The fractures between scholars become evident, although Lyra does not yet understand why. They are speaking about magical particles called “Dust,” which some scholars believe is evil, while others disagree. Lord Asriel does not fall for this trick and still presents his findings from his journey north, which focus on Dust and a city in the Aurora. Lyra is amazed by what she witnesses and wants to travel north. Because she cannot yet set out on her own, she adventures around Oxford, where she plays with gyptian kids and hears rumors about the Gobblers—people who snatch preteen children and sever them from their dæmons. One gyptian woman, Ma Costa, loses her son to the Gobblers, and Lyra tries to help find him; they are unsuccessful, and Lyra notices Roger is also missing.

Lyra is troubled by Roger’s disappearance, but Mrs. Coulter, a beautiful and kind woman with a golden monkey daemon, visits Jordan College and seems to take Lyra seriously. Lyra agrees to join her by zeppelin, traveling to London with the promise that she’ll soon join Mrs. Coulter on an expedition north. Before Lyra leaves, the Master of Jordan College gives her a special golden compass called an alethiometer, which can tell the truth if a person knows how to read it. She promises to keep it safe and not show it to anyone. Lyra leaves Oxford figuring they will find Roger eventually. Mrs. Coulter pampers Lyra and takes her to many events in London, and things seem to be going well between them until Lyra disobeys Mrs. Coulter and refuses to remove her purse with the alethiometer in it. To demonstrate the force of her will, Mrs. Coulter has her dæmon attack Pan, causing Lyra to cry out in agony. Lyra and Pan recognize Mrs. Coulter’s desire to possess the alethiometer, so after mingling and getting information at a cocktail party, Lyra runs away with Pan.

She finds the gyptians, and they ultimately vote to protect her. While traveling with the gyptians on their boat, they are attacked several times, losing some party members. At one point they catch a spyfly (a clockwork device that tracks and attacks a target) in a tin, which Lyra will later use against Mrs. Coulter in Bolvangar. They also encounter witches, work with Lee Scoresby (a traveler from Texas who flies by hot air balloon), and meet Iorek, an armored bear who they help reunite with his armor. All the while, Lyra learns little bits here and there about the Dust (particles that tend to cling to humans after puberty, which people like Mrs. Coulter believe is original sin) and intercision (the separation of kids from their dæmons). Lyra practices using her alethiometer with gyptian elder, Farder Coram, and gets better at reading it through practice and intuiting the symbols that represent her questions and answers.

They head north to bring Lord Asriel the alethiometer and find Roger, but after a skirmish with Tartars—roguish northern people known for pillaging—Lyra is kidnapped and separated from the group. She is eventually taken to Bolvanagar, where she is reunited with Roger and sees the silver guillotine, a device designed to sever children from their dæmons. She concocts a plan with the other kids Mrs. Coulter has kidnapped, which is somewhat thrown off by Mrs. Coulter’s arrival. Lyra manages to free the severed dæmons from their cages, and after lying to Mrs. Coulter, she releases the spyfly to attack her. Lyra pulls the fire alarms, which creates enough chaos for the kids to escape. She knows Iorek and the gyptians are on their way, and a huge battle ensues.

Lyra and Pan leave with Roger, Iorek, Lee, and Serafina Pekkala in Lee’s hot air balloon. They are attacked by cliff ghasts, flying monsters that roam around the north (Svalbard), and Lyra is thrown out of the balloon. She is kidnapped by armored bears and held prisoner in their disgusting castle. She manages to gather information from her cellmate, Jotham, about Lord Asriel and Iofur, the king of the bears, using flattery. She uses this information to appeal to Iofur’s ego when she has the chance to speak to him. She lies and claims to be Iorek’s dæmon but pledges her loyalty to Iofur if he beats Iorek in an honorable battle. She knows Iorek is arriving soon, and when he does, she lets him know about her plan. Iorek and Iofur fight a bloody battle, and Iorek wins, becoming king of the armored bears again. Iorek frees the prisoners and takes Lyra and Roger to Lord Asriel’s holding place, a tower in the mountains with special research equipment.

At their reunion, Lord Asriel seems displeased to see her, as he needs a child for his procedure, and he does not want it to be his daughter; his mood changes when he notices Roger. During a conversation, Lyra tries to give the alethiometer back to Lord Asriel, but he does not want it, making her whole quest seem pointless. He then lectures her about his take on Genesis, delving deeper into the idea that the Dust is original sin and evil. He also hints that intercision results in high amounts of energy, though Lyra does not understand what this means until it is too late. After their chat, Lyra goes to bed and wakes up to find Lord Asriel’s servant flustered. He tells her Lord Asriel has taken Roger.

 Lyra travels with Iorek through dangerous landscapes and fights between armored bears and enemy witches. She completes the final part of the journey alone because she must cross a bridge that will not support Iorek. When she arrives, she sees Salcilia, Roger’s dæmon, in the mouth of Lord Asriel’s dæmon, the snow leopard Stelmaria. Lyra and Pan work together to free Roger and his dæmon, but their victory is short-lived. Lord Asriel manages to attach a wire to Roger’s dæmon, and they are separated and killed with a jolt of energy that opens the starry sky to reveal a city. Mrs. Coulter arrives and kisses Lord Asriel but instead of joining him in the city, she ultimately decides to return to her work with the Oblation Board, the religious order, in this world. Lord Asriel crosses over, leaving a devastated Lyra and Pan alone with Roger’s dead body. Lyra and Pan decide to go into the other world, seeking to prove that Dust is good and to protect it, and to prevent further tragedy so Roger’s death is not in vain.