(SPOILER WARNING FOR: HIS DARK MATERIALS TRILOGY)
. Philip Pullman’s epic sci fi/high fantasy trilogy is one of the most acclaimed fantasy series of its time. Once known as a children’s book, it becomes more apparent with each closer inspection that the real nature of the story is far from childish in nature or intent. Set in a parallel world, the narrative follows Lyra, a young girl destined to change her world and many others, as she takes her place in a war between the established authority and the nature of free will. The story is split across Northern Lights (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000), although the first novel is sometimes known as The Golden Compass, in order for the simplicity of each book revolving around a mythical object.
. Lyra has grown up under the wardship of Jordan College in Oxford, her parents having supposedly died and her uncle, Lord Asriel, away on scientific expeditions. She is disobedient, dishonest and adventurous, these traits leading her to be hiding in a wardrobe, where she overhears Asriel’s expedition funds pitch to the scholars of Jordan College. Here, she first learns of the concept of Dust, a mysterious particle which embodies human sin; Asriel’s heretical ideas deem him a danger in the eyes of the Magisterium, the established religious authority. Meanwhile, children from Oxford are disappearing, including a handful of Lyra’s friends. Lyra is shortly whisked from Jordan College by the charismatic and glamorous Mrs Coulter, who takes advantage of her impetuous nature; yet she is urged not to reveal to her the gift given to her by the Master of Jordan; an alethiometer, an ancient instrumental of truth telling. Lyra is changed forever with the knowledge that Mrs Coulter and Asriel are her true parents, along with the discovery that her mother is behind the child abductions. She joins forces with the Gyptian people, and journeys north with the alethiometer to help free the captured children. In a northern institution, the Magisterium wish to control the nature of Dust, through the severing of child and daemon prior to the onset of puberty, as daemons are the bridge between Dust and human beings. As Asriel’s work against the Authority continues, he succeeds in opening a pathway in the sky to another world.
. Lyra follows her father through, and enters a world inhabited by the daemon devouring Spectres; here she meets Will Parry, a boy from our world, who is on the run. Will is destined to wield the Subtle Knife, a blade which can cut through the fabrics of worlds, and is searching for his father, an explorer. Lyra and Will join forces, evading the Magisterium in order to deliver their burdens to Lord Asriel, who is amassing an army across worlds to destroy the Authority (God) and restore free will. Lyra and Will journey from world to world, to the lands of the dead, ultimately coming to the place where they will fulfil the prophecy surrounding them, and their importance to the outcome of the great war. All the while, Lyra wrestles with her complex relationship with Mrs Coulter, whose motivations for hunting her blend between motherly possession and her ambitions as an arm of the Magisterium. Eventually the prophecy around Lyra is revealed; she is a reincarnation of Eve, and her reaction to her temptation will determine the course of the cataclysmic struggle. The temptation in question is Lyra and Will falling in love, and both succumb to it; however this is presented in a positive light, as a victory over oppression. The Authority is defeated, at the cost of both Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel’s lives, but Will and Lyra are unable to remain together, as they will soon die if they do not return to their own worlds. So, with surprising maturity for a pair so young, they part ways with their settled daemons, meeting every year at a bench in Oxford park.
. Lyra’s world is one that mirrors our own geographically, but with its own peoples and creatures, and words. The most notable distinction is the animal manifestation of an individual’s soul in the form of a ‘daemon’, taking a shape that fits one’s personality. Daemon’s are changeable in form until the onset of puberty, representing a child coming into adulthood. It is also implied that, similarly, daemons have a link to a person’s sexuality, taking on the gender of that the individual is attracted to; there is an additional sexual connotation with the concept of touching someone else’s daemon, and some critics have observed that forcefully grabbing another’s daemon could be a metaphor for rape. The entire novel is thematically concerned with the concept of breaking free from religious suffocation and embracing human sin and free will. Thus it has an ultimately rather positive, and oddly reassuring message, which I think is rather neatly summed up in the nature of daemons. If daemons are made of Dust, and symbolise the human soul, then Pullman suggests that what makes us human and individual, is our flaws and desires. And when a persons daemon is severed, they are lifeless and cold to an extent that they may as well be dead. Perhaps it can be argued that the conflict of the novel is equally ideal perfection versus the reality of the flawed nature of humanity, as much as a struggle between control and freedom. It’s a brilliant, thought-provoking conversation, bound up in an intricately fleshed out epic which serves as an exciting metaphor for its topic of discussion.
.This anti-religious sentiment earned the series much controversy, and was a possible reason why the 2007 movie adaptation, ‘The Golden Compass’, never had a sequel produced. In defence of the series’ critics, the scene where God explicitly dies in the final act of The Amber Spyglass, must have been viewed as acutely offensive to Christians. However, I do not think that was Pullman’s intent; the issue of the narrative derives more from how religion can be used as an excuse for violence and oppression, not from faith as a whole. There is in fact something almost biblical about the creatures and settings of the trilogy, and their roles within the story. The manner in which every fantastical element serves to bolster Pullman’s point is a testament to how the series is of the highest level of its genre. The witches represent the power of nature, and how it is unable to be tamed by human authority. The repressive arm of the Magisterium manifests itself in the eerie Spectres, which feast on human souls. The harpies, and the realms of the land of the dead, prompt the consideration of the nature of death, and the hauntings associated with it. Indeed, the novel ends with Lyra declaring that she will build a Republic of Heaven, highlighting that religion is a positive thing, when it incorporates truly holy values and its power is not abused.
. The trilogy has now been very accurately adapted into the BBC series His Dark Materials, which first aired in November 2019, with the third and final season due to air in 2021. A great strength of the series is it’s willingness to not only maintain the books level of in-depth discussion, but to extend it. For example, in the second season, Mrs Coulter is shown to have an ability to not only be unaffected by, but to control the spectres, demonstrating her capability to repress her humanity. This is also shown through her abusive treatment of her monkey daemon, which shows a unique insight into the self-hatred that plagues her nuanced character.
. Even years after I first read in, His Dark Materials has retained its place as my favourite fantasy series, and one of the only series I have reread so attentively. It is one of those rare fictional worlds which feels so vividly real, and so believable in its characters and in its themes. It has an incredible ability to morph under the lenses of its specific reader; to a child, it can still be a gripping tale of a young girl’s adventure across many worlds, as to an adult it can be a deeply opinionated narrative of a philosophical nature. To me, it has been both, and I await the final season with a hunger that is evident of the re-readability of the series.
.Philip Pullman is an acclaimed author of dark children’s fiction; Northern Lights earned him a Carnegie Medal in 1996, and The Amber Spyglass won the Costa Book award in 2001. His other works include The Book of Dust series, Clockwork, The Ruby in the Smoke and the Daemon Voices. Pullman was knighted in 2019 New Years Honours, for his service to literature.
By, Rowan Speakman
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