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"The rise of fundamentalist religion I think, is the most dangerous aspect of late twentieth-century life, whether it is intolerance among Christians or Muslims or Orthodox Jews. I think fundamentalist religion is one of the greatest dangers we have ever faced. And so if there is a source of wickedness in the book, you can place it there... What makes a religion fundamentalist is the insistence that because of some book of scriptures or some revelation given to the founder of the religion, that they alone possess the 'truth'. And when anyone believes that, they're wrong." [cite] "I think my position would be that throughout human history, the greatest moral advances have been made by religious leaders such as Jesus and the Buddha. And the greatest moral wickedness has been perpetrated by their followers." [cite]
author page: [bio&links]
pagenumbering for volume 1 is based on the one-volume, 740pp Random House SF Book Club edition
page three
Milton quote: [context] [Milton bio]
William Blake: "The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of angels and heaven, and at liberty when he wrote of devils and hell, is that he was a true poet and of the devil's party without knowing it." [PP cite] [more quotes] [Blake links]
PP relates 'dark materials' to the astrophysicists' idea of dark matter: [cite] [essay]
page seven
Oxford: British university [campus map] [UK map] [pix] [aerial] also the city that the University is located in [zoomable city map] [county map]
page nine
Tokay = Hungarian wine [info&pic]
Lyra = lyre (stringed musical instrument) in Greek or Latin "It just popped into my head, really. I don't think it means anything, and if it does, I don't know what it might mean." [cite] "I just closed my eyes and there she was. I could see her and hear her. I'm very glad if she seems real to readers, but she was so real to me that it would have been odd if she didn't." [cite] she's 11 or 12 years old
daemon: "[How did you come up with the idea of daemons?] When I first saw Lyra in my mind's eye, there was someone or something close by, which I realised was an important part of her. When I wrote the first four words of Northern Lights-- 'Lyra and her daemon'-- the relationship suddenly sprang into focus." [cite] "it wasn't working until they appeared. But as soon as they did, I realized what I could do with the story, and the whole thing fell into place." [cite] "One clear origin is Socrates' daimon. Another is the old idea of the guardian angel." [cite] "The way to find out what your demon is, is to ask your friends to write it down anonymously. Then you will find out." [cite]
Pantalaimon = (saint) Panteleimon means 'all merciful' in Greek [info] [pic] (sometimes misspelled Pantaleimon or Pantelaimon)
Retiring Room: private lounge (cf powder-room for women, greenroom for actors) [pix] [legal def]
College: subdivision of university [Oxford's]
page ten
chafing dish: [modern]
poppy heads: source of opium/heroin [pix]
Asriel: in the Koran, Azrael (or Az'rael) is the angel of death, one of four archangels [cite]
a dog, like all servants' daemons: "somebody criticised me for being terribly class-ridden and British and snobbish because all servants are people whose demons are dogs. This critic thought that I was saying if your demon's a dog you have to be a servant. It's not like that at all, as Lyra explains elsewhere... 'If your demon turns out to be a dog, that means you're the sort of person (and there are plenty of those about) who enjoys knowing where they are in a hierarchy, who enjoys following orders and pleasing the person in charge'. There are people like that, and they make good servants. We don't have servants any more in our society but we do in Lyra's world. If your demon is a dog that is a sign to you that that'd be a career that you'd enjoy doing and that you'd be good at." [cite]
aerodock: German? [single use on Web]
[Jorn's comment: I assume PP's parallel-world imagery owes something to Nabokov's Ada, where Terra and AntiTerra are similarly distorted images of each other. [review] The placename 'Zembla' (below) is also a likely allusion: website]
page eleven
wardrobe: the first image Pullman started from "I started with a picture of Lyra hiding in the wardrobe, and overhearing things that she wasn't meant to hear." [cite] Narnia-parallel was unintentional [cite]
red setter: [pic]
page twelve
page thirteen
Jordan College: presumably named after the river Jordan "the colleges of the real Oxford are very grand and peculiar in the way that Jordan College is" [cite] other fictional Oxford colleges: [survey]
Tartars: general term for central Asian tribes that invaded Europe in the middle ages; most famous Tartar was Ghengis Khan [cite] [blurb]
Muscovy: Russian principality founded 1280AD [map] [def] [Wiki] (see map below ch10)
St Petersburg: founded 1703, renamed Leningrad in 1924 [history] [website] (see map below ch10)
Lapland: northern Scandinavia [info&map] (see map below ch10)
anbaric: electric "I looked up the word electric, and I found that it came from the Greek word for amber. The Greeks knew that if they rubbed a piece of amber, they could create static electricity. Then I looked up the word amber, and found it came from the Arabic word anbar." [cite]
naphtha: aka 'white gas' or 'liquid mothballs' used in Zippo lighters and Coleman lanterns [info]
leaf: tobacco leaf, probably shredded for use in pipes
snow leopard: [pic]
Stelmaria: Stella Maria, star of the sea (Latin) [cite]
page seventeen
Enquirer: (agent of Inquisition?)
page eighteen
White Hall: the king's palace (see p30 below)
Yarnton: [map]
photogram: photograph (especially one made without a camera: cite)
page twenty
Cassington Scholar
Barnard-Stokes: PP picked up the physicists' idea of multiple worlds from David Deutsch [PP quote] [DD essay] [DD pic&links]
page twentyone
Svalbard: series of islands belonging to Norway near North Pole; means 'cold edge' [website w/pix] (see map below ch10)
Tungusk: Siberian tribe/language/mountain-range
Skraelings: 'ugly men' encountered by Leif Ericson c1000AD, presumably native Americans [info]
New Denmark: (instead of USA?)
trepanning: drilling a hole in someone's head [history] [Salon]
page twentytwo
panserbjorne = armor-bears (cf German 'panzer') (hyphenated on p62, ch5)
Palmerian Professor
page twentythree
brantwijn = brandywine = distilled wine = brandy [etym]
page twentyfour
Consistorial Court: Lutheran court [def]
Oblation: a religious offering, especially Communion [def] (ob-latus = carried-towards)
Pope John Calvin: "I wanted to have a world in which the Church was powerful, and I wanted to make it a Church with competing bodies within it. Rather than have a Pope in supreme command, I had a sort of collegiate church with different bodies. There's the Oblation Board, there's the Consistorial Court of Discipline, the Society of the Holy Spirit and so on. All these are different power bases, and depending who's in charge of each one at the time, this one can be more powerful, and that one can go down a bit, and so on. So it's a sort of warring, or rather a squabbling, body which enabled me to sort of play the politics of one off against another." [cite]
Magisterium: Roman Catholic principle of divine authority [def]
alethiometer: aletheia = truth (Greek) [def] [SPOILERS] based on 17thC 'emblem book' [cite]
page twentysix
grandest and richest: probably based on St John's [info]
atomcraft works: something involving uranium (ch3 passim)
quarter-day: eg 25Mar, 24Jun, 29Sept, or 25Dec [def]
Concilium: Latin for 'council'
anbarographs: e-books?
New France: cf Canada c1600 [website]
page twentyseven
spit plum stones: longshot Joyce-allusion [parable]
Gabriel College: (a third Oxford college will be named St Michael's)
Precentor: church official concerned with music [def]
brickburners: craftsmen who make bricks in kilns
gyptian: the term 'gypsies' was originally derived from 'Egyptians' [etym]
Jericho: a real Oxford neighborhood (with a convenient name) [pix]
narrowboat: [narrowboat.com pix]
bung: a stopper (eg, a cork) [def]
page twentyeight
a coarse and greedy little savage: "no child would say [this] of herself, or of another child. This is an adult voice talking about her" [cite]
Port Meadow: [pix]
page twentynine
rook: a European crow [pic]
Sheldon Building: Gilbert Sheldon was Oxford's chancellor in the 1660s, responsible for the Sheldonian Theatre' [info]
page thirty
River Isis: the Thames is traditionally called 'the Isis' where it passes thru Oxford [info] [glossary]
Henley and Maidenhead to Teddington: [map]
German Ocean: North Sea?
Dr. Dee: lived at Mortlake in late 1500s, studying 'experimental theology' [bio] [FAQ] [pix] [quotes]
Falkeshall: an old name for Vauxhall [map]
White Hall Palace:
Shot Tower: no longer standing [old pic] used for making perfectly-round lead shot for ammunition, by dripping molten lead from the top [info]
Limehouse:
Lascar: East Indian [def]
Pie Street:
St. Catherine's Oratory: actually on the Isle of Wight [pic]
Oratory: a chapel for prayer [etym]
beautiful young lady: PP wants Nicole Kidman to play her in the movie [cite]
jeweled breviary: prayerbook with jewelled binding [pic, not breviary]
monkey: "The golden monkey doesn't have a name because every time I tried to think of one, he snarled and frightened me. What's more he hardly speaks either." [cite]
Clarice Walk:
chocolatl: original Aztec name for hot-chocolate drink [history] (xoco-atl = bitter-water: cite)
Denmark Street... Hangman's Wharf... King George's Steps
liquor: doesn't necessarily imply alcohol [defs]
page thirtytwo
page thirtythree
Canary: wine from the Canary Islands (nw of Africa: map)
page thirtyfour
Requiescant In Pace: may they rest in peace (Latin). The more-common singular form is 'requiescat in pace', but the plural here refers to the daemon as well.
MUSCA: Latin for 'fly' (the insect), also a Southern constellation: [pic]
basilisk: mythological dragon [def] or real lizard [photo]
Intercessor: one who intercedes, presumably for others' spiritual welfare (eg by prayer)
page thirtyfive
Staircase Twelve: Oxford students' rooms are normally associated with a numbered 'staircase' [FAQ}
page thirtyseven
as far as Abingdon: 7 miles south [map]
pillock: idiot (or testicle: cite)
page thirtyeight
Banbury: 20 miles north of Oxford
St. Barnabas: [info]
Chymist: chemist, alchemist, pharmacist [etym]
page forty
Cowley: just se of Oxford [map]
page fortyone
Turl Street: between Jesus and Exeter Colleges [map]
Yaxley: perhaps after the Catholic priest named Richard Yaxley who was executed at Oxford in 1589? [bio]
green woods: the woods nw of Oxford are called Wytham Woods [map]
page fortytwo
buttery: "A room in some English colleges where liquors, fruit, and refreshments are kept for sale to the students." [def]
page fortyeight
celestial geography: perhaps a paradoxical name for mapping the stars?
page fifty
White Hall and Westminster: the King vs Parliament
flowery valances: short drapes [def] [pic]
harlequins of porcelain: [1740 pic]
page fiftyone
a poison: the 'poison' is Vitamin A, so it's actually good for you so long as you eat less than one gram (maybe 1/8 teaspoon!) of polar-bear liver per day [info]
page fiftytwo
Thirty-six altogether: PP has spelled them out online: [RHouse]
page fiftyfour
sweetbreads: not stickybuns, but thymus glands or pancreas meat [info]
anbaromagnetic charges: electromagnetic fields?
four fundamental forces: gravitational, electromagnetic, strong, and weak [info]
page fiftyseven
lorgnette: eyeglasses with a handle instead of earpieces [pic]
page fiftyeight
old nunnery at Godstow: [pix] [info]
page sixtytwo
Zoroastrian heresy: Zoroaster/Zarathustra (c600BC) taught that the universe is dualistic, with the good/light principle balanced by an evil/dark principle. This would seem heretical to religions that teach the Creator is all-powerful and purely good.
I can change and he can't: see p103 'settled' below
page sixtyfive
Cthonic Railway: 'cthonic' means underground, but usually refers to ancient and sinister gods who lived underground
page sixtysix
coal spirit: an uncommon term for some liquid fuel apparently distilled from coal
cauchuc-covered: cauchuc (or caoutchouc) is a natural kind of rubber [info]
page sixtyeight
Grand Junction Canal: now called Grand Union Canal [map] [info&pix]
page sixtynine
fire mines: ?
page seventy
fens: marshes or bogs [info&map] [pix]
John Faa: in 1540 the official king of the gypsies had this name [cite]
page seventytwo
Zaal: Dutch for 'hall'
page seventyeight
Watlington: 10 miles se of Oxford [map]
daemon was the same sex: "it was clear to me from the beginning that occasionally someone might acquire a daemon of the same sex" [cite] "...that might indicate homosexuality, or it might indicate some other sort of gift or quality, such as second sight. I do not know." [cite]
![[map]](hdm.gif)
page ninetynine
Bolvangar: [no non-HDM refs on Web]
chapter ten
page onehundred two
able seaman: "This sailor is actually based on a sailor I talked to when I was a small boy, on the ship on the way to Australia, because everybody went by ship in those days. That's how old I am. And this old boy on the ship showed me, among other things, how to sweep the floor properly. What you should do is you push the broom away from you, you don't pull it towards you-- that's unseamanlike." [cite]
page onehundred three
settled: "One very important thing is that children's daemons can change shape, whereas they gradually lose the power to change during adolescence, and adults' daemons have one fixed animal shape which they keep for the rest of their lives. The daemon, and especially the way it grows and develops with its person, expresses a truth about human nature which it would have been hard to show so vividly otherwise." [cite] "I found that a very good way of demonstrating the difference between children and grown-ups, between innocence and experience-- the sort of infinite potentiality children have, the great malleability of their characters. They change very quickly, their moods change. Grown-ups don't have that. We've lost that, but on the other hand, we've gained something as well. We've gained a sort of settle strength, a singleness of purpose which will carry us through to the destination which we're aiming for. I suppose you could say if children have innocence and then we lose that innocence, what we can hope to gain by living and suffering and working and loving and losing is wisdom. And the great difference is that innocence can't be wise, but wisdom can't be innocent."
page onehundred four
Serafina Pekkala: "I got her name out of the Helsinki telephone directory, because I wanted a name that just sounded like a normal Finnish name." [cite] (Jorn's comment: I wonder if this didn't weaken the characterisation? She seems the least vivid character to me.)
page onehundred ten
His voice was so deep: PP wants James Earl Jones to do the voice [cite]
page onehundred seventeen
Lee Scoresby: "the Lee part comes from the actor Lee Van Cleef [pix], who appeared in the 'Dollar' films with Clint Eastwood, because I thought my Lee would look like him, and the Scoresby comes from William Scoresby [bio], who was a real Arctic explorer." [cite]
page onehundred thirtysix
You cannot trick a bear: from a Kleist essay, 'On the Marionette Theater' [info] [etext] ditto
page ?
Northern Lights: [pix]
page twohundred thirtythree
strange sight: "When Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter's daemons play with each other in the way they do at the end of the first book, it's pretty obvious to an adult what that says about the feelings of the two human beings, but it doesn't make it graphically clear to a young reader, who is just impressed by a sort of strange intensity, perhaps. Which is how children perceive the adult world anyway, a lot of the time." [cite]
pagenumbering for volume 2 is based on the Ballantine paperback (288pp)
page one
HORNBEAM TREES: [info&pic]
page twelve
two lines of hornbeam trees: [pic]
page thirteen
and vanished: compare the White Rabbit in Alice "...burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge." [etext]
page fourteen
risotto: Italian rice-dish [pix]
page fifteen
corona: meaning 'crown', a very common currency-name, but with many local spellings (eg Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Estonia; 'corona' in Austria) [conversions]
page eighteen
a cat beside her: "How could Will see Pan right away, if you need to learn how to see daemons? That is a very good question. That's one of the best questions I've heard for a long time. In fact it's such a good question that any answer I could give would be insufficient to match the profundity and complexity of the issues you raise. I shall have to confess my ignorance and tiptoe away..." [cite]
stoat: ermine [pic]
page twentysix
cloud-pine: [not found on Web, alas]
page thirtyfive
Yambe-Akka: 'old woman of the dead' in Lapp myth [info]
page fiftytwo
Cittàgazze: 'city of magpies' in Italian
page seventythree
a design that looked Chinese: probably the 8 trigrams of the I Ching, arranged in a circle [info] (but it wouldn't look especially Chinese if you'd never seen it!) on p222 they're called hexagrams, which would need a table of 64 [pix]
page seventyeight
Capable of being in uncertainties: from John Keats, 1817 letter [etext] ditto [notes]
page onehundred thirteen
Yenisei: [ecotour] (see map above, Book I, ch10)
page twohundred seventysix
know how: (she didn't in chapter two!)
page ?
Liber Angelorum: PP has posted some info on angels on the Web [RHouse]
pagenumbering for volume 3 is based on the Knopf hardbound (518pp)
Blake quote (1793, 12 years after British surrender): [etext-Am6.1] [links]
Rilke quote: [Mitchell translation] [more] [background] Other translations: [Hunter] [Kline]
Ecclesiast = clergyman
page forty
page onehundred thirtythree
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