Northern Lights (novel) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Northern Lights

First edition
Author	Philip Pullman
Cover artist	David Scutt and Pullman
Country	United Kingdom
Series	His Dark Materials
Genre	Children's fantasy novel, steampunk
Publisher	Scholastic Point
Publication date	9 July 1995
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
Pages	399
ISBN	0-590-54178-1
OCLC	37806360
LC Class	PZ7.P968 No 1995 PZ7.P968 Go 1996
Preceded by	La Belle Sauvage
Followed by	The Subtle Knife

Northern Lights (also known as The Golden Compass in North America) is an exciting fantasy novel for young adults. It was written by Philip Pullman and first published in 1995. The story takes place in a different world that looks a lot like ours but has some big differences.

The book follows a brave girl named Lyra Belacqua. She goes on an amazing journey to the Arctic. Lyra is searching for her missing friend, Roger Parslow. She also wants to find her uncle, Lord Asriel, who is doing secret experiments. These experiments involve a mysterious substance called "Dust".

Northern Lights is the first book in a popular series called His Dark Materials. This series came out between 1995 and 2000. The book was made into a movie in 2007 and a video game. It also became a TV series in 2019.

Philip Pullman won the 1995 Carnegie Medal for Northern Lights. This award is given to the best British children's book of the year. Later, for the Medal's 70th anniversary, Northern Lights was voted the all-time favorite. It was even called the "Carnegie of Carnegies" in 2007.

Story Summary

The World of Northern Lights

The story happens in a world that is controlled by a powerful group called the Magisterium. People often call it "the Church." This group tries to stop any ideas they don't like.

In this world, every human has a special companion called a "dæmon". A dæmon is like a part of your soul that lives outside your body. It looks like an animal and stays with you always. Dæmons help, comfort, and guide their humans.

A very important item in the story is the alethiometer. This device looks like a compass but tells the truth. Someone skilled can ask it questions by pointing its hands to symbols. The alethiometer then moves another hand to show the answer.

Lyra's Adventure Begins

The main character is twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua. She lives a wild life with her dæmon, Pantalaimon, at Jordan College, Oxford. The college's Master looks after her. One day, Lyra sees the Master try to poison wine meant for Lord Asriel. Lord Asriel is Lyra's uncle, and he is a bit of a rebel.

Lyra warns Asriel about the wine. Then, she secretly listens to his lecture about "Dust". Dust is a mysterious substance that seems to be more attracted to adults than to children. Asriel shows pictures of a different world that can be seen through the Northern Lights. This other world has a lot of Dust. The college scholars agree to give Asriel money for his research. However, the Church thinks his ideas are dangerous.

Soon after, Lyra's best friend, Roger, disappears. People think he was kidnapped by child snatchers known as the "Gobblers." A woman named Mrs. Coulter takes Lyra to live with her in London. Before Lyra leaves Jordan College, the Master gives her an alethiometer. Lyra quickly learns how to use this truth-telling device without much effort.

After a few weeks, Lyra finds out that Mrs. Coulter is actually in charge of the Gobblers. The Gobblers are part of a secret project funded by the Church. Lyra is scared and runs away. She finds the Gyptians, who are people who travel on canals. Many of their children have also been taken. The Gyptians tell Lyra that Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are her real parents.

Journey to the North

The Gyptians decide to go to the Arctic to find their children. They believe the Gobblers are holding them there. Lyra joins their journey. They stop in Trollesund, where Lyra meets Iorek Byrnison. Iorek is the rightful king of the panserbjørne, who are armored bears. He has lost his armor and his place as king.

Lyra uses her alethiometer to find Iorek's missing armor. In return, Iorek and his friend, the balloon pilot Lee Scoresby, join Lyra's group. Lyra also learns that Lord Asriel is living in exile on Svalbard, guarded by panserbjørne. A witch consul in Trollesund tells the Gyptians about a prophecy involving Lyra. She also says that witch clans are choosing sides for a coming war.

The group continues towards Bolvangar, which is the Gobbler research station. Lyra uses the alethiometer to guide them. They stop at a village where Lyra finds a child who has been separated from his dæmon. The child soon dies. Lyra realizes that the Gobblers are doing terrible experiments. They are cutting the bond between children and their dæmons. This painful process is called intercision.

Lyra and her friends are attacked by people trying to capture them. Lyra is taken to Bolvangar. There, she is briefly reunited with Roger. She is then sent to be separated from Pantalaimon. Just before this happens, Mrs. Coulter arrives and stops the process. She tells Lyra that intercision is meant to prevent difficult adult feelings.

Escape and Confrontation

Lyra sets off Bolvangar's alarm and starts a fire. She helps the children escape. Lee Scoresby, Iorek, the Gyptians, and the witch clan of Serafina Pekkala rescue them. They fight the station guards while Lyra, Roger, and Iorek escape in Scoresby's hot air balloon.

Lyra tells the witches to pull the balloon towards Asriel in Svalbard. But Lyra falls out and is taken by the panserbjørne. They take her to the castle of their false king, Iofur Raknison. Lyra cleverly tricks Iofur into fighting Iorek, who arrives with Roger to save Lyra. Iorek kills Iofur and becomes the rightful king again.

Lyra, Iorek, and Roger then go to Svalbard. Asriel has continued his Dust research there while in exile. He tells Lyra what he knows about Dust. He believes it created other worlds. He also says it is linked to sadness and that the Church thinks it is the basis of something called sin.

Lord Asriel travels with Roger through the snow, and Lyra and Iorek follow their tracks. Asriel climbs a mountain with Roger. Lyra, Iorek, and his bears fight witches who are helping Asriel. Mrs. Coulter and her soldiers arrive in an airship and attack the bears. During the fight, Mrs. Coulter follows Lyra to the mountain peak. Asriel and Mrs. Coulter meet there.

Suddenly, Lord Asriel separates Roger from his dæmon. This releases a huge amount of energy. It tears a hole in the Northern Lights, opening a path to a parallel universe. Asriel walks through this opening. Lyra is heartbroken. She and Pantalaimon also pass through the opening in the sky, following Asriel into the unknown.

Main Characters

In Northern Lights, all humans and witches have a dæmon. A dæmon is the physical form of a person's soul or spirit. It looks like an animal and is usually the opposite gender to its human. Children's dæmons can change into any animal shape. But when a child gets older, their dæmon "settles" into one permanent form. This form shows what kind of person they are. When a person dies, their dæmon dies too. Armored bears and other creatures do not have dæmons. For an armored bear, their armor is like their soul.

• Lyra Belacqua and Pantalaimon: Lyra is the main character. She has blue eyes and blond hair. She is brave, curious, and clever. Her dæmon is Pantalaimon, often called Pan. Since Lyra is a child, Pan can change into many forms, like a moth, a wildcat, or an ermine. Witches have predicted that Lyra will play a big role in balancing life, but she must not know about her destiny.
• Roger Parslow: Lyra's good friend. He is an orphan who works at Jordan College. He is kidnapped and taken north. Lyra goes after him to rescue him.
• Lord Asriel: He is Lyra's uncle, but he is actually her father. His dæmon is Stelmaria, a snow leopard.
• Marisa Coulter: She works for the Magisterium. She is smart and beautiful but also very determined and sometimes cruel. She is Lyra's mother. Her dæmon is a golden monkey, whose name is never mentioned.
• Iorek Byrnison: He is the rightful king of the panserbjørne, which are intelligent armored bears. He was tricked out of his armor and became a slave. Lyra helps him get his armor back. He then becomes very protective of her and joins her journey.
• Iofur Raknison: A panserbjørn who took Iorek Byrnison's place as king.
• Serafina Pekkala: A witch who watches over Lyra during her travels. She knows about Lyra's special destiny. Serafina's dæmon is Kaisa, a snow goose. Kaisa can fly far away from Serafina, which is a special ability only witches' dæmons have.
• Lee Scoresby: A balloon pilot from Texas. He becomes good friends with Iorek Byrnison. He also starts to care for Lyra like a daughter. His dæmon is Hester, an arctic snow hare.
• Ma Costa: A Gyptian woman whose son, Billy Costa, is kidnapped by the "Gobblers." She helps Lyra escape from Mrs. Coulter and takes her to John Faa.
• John Faa: The leader of all the Gyptian people. He travels with Lyra to the North with his friend Farder Coram.

Book Titles

Before the book was published, the whole series was going to be called The Golden Compasses in Britain. This name came from a line in a famous poem called Paradise Lost by John Milton. In the poem, God uses "golden compasses" to create and measure the universe.

In the United States, the publisher, Knopf, decided to call the first book The Golden Compass (singular). They thought it was a reference to Lyra's alethiometer, which looks a bit like a navigational compass. By the time Philip Pullman changed the series name to His Dark Materials, the US publisher really liked The Golden Compass for the first book. So, they kept that title instead of Northern Lights, which was used in Britain and Australia.

Other Versions

New Line Cinema made a movie version of the novel called The Golden Compass. It came out in December 2007. Chris Weitz wrote the script and directed the film. Dakota Blue Richards played Lyra in her first movie role. Famous actors like Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, and Ian McKellen were also in the cast.

In 1996, Natasha Richardson read an audiobook version of Northern Lights. The whole His Dark Materials series was also made into a radio play by BBC Worldwide in 2003. BBC Audiobooks also released an unabridged version read by Philip Pullman himself.

The National Theatre in London put on a two-part play based on the trilogy in 2003–2004.

Sega released a video game based on the movie in December 2007. It was called The Golden Compass. In the game, players play as Lyra. She travels through the icy North to rescue her friend from the Gobblers. Lyra is joined by an armored polar bear and her dæmon, Pantalaimon. They use the truth-telling alethiometer and other items to explore and fight. The game combines fighting and puzzle-solving with three different characters.

On November 3, 2019, BBC One started showing their TV adaptation of His Dark Materials. The first season mostly covers the events from Northern Lights. It also premiered on HBO in the United States on November 4, 2019. The show was made by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema. Tom Hooper directed it. The cast included Dafne Keen, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Images for kids

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  God wielding the golden compasses, by William Blake.

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  Jesus as geometer in a 13th-century medieval illuminated manuscript of unknown authorship.