DAEMONS AND DUST:
The Language of The Golden Compass
Alethiometer
A truth-telling or future-telling device that is able to answer questions formed
in the mind of the user.
Anbaric Energy
A form of electrical current used in Lyra’s world.
Bolvangar
The northern Experimental Station where Gobblers have secreted the children
they’ve kidnapped.
Daemon (pronounced DEE-mon)
The soul of each individual human being embodied in an
animal familiar. In
childhood, a daemon alters its form to reflect the ever-changing nature of
children. In adulthood, it assumes a permanent form that best reflects
the inner nature of its human.
Dust
Mystical particles in highest concentration in the Arctic Circle.
Gobblers
The henchmen of the General Oblation Board who are responsible for disappearing
children across the country.
Gyptians
Similar to gypsies, the Gyptians are a nomadic group of water farers who live
on canal boats.
Intercision
The process of severing a human being from his or her daemon.
Jordan College
A prosperous college in Lyra's Oxford that is a center of experimental theology.
The Magisterium
The councils that form the heart of government in Lyra’s world. Now tightening
its control over the populace, the Magisterium seeks to eliminate free will and
calls Lord Asriel’s research into Dust heresy.
Northern Lights
(Aurora Borealis)
Storms of charged particles and intense solar rays that cause a luminous radiation
in the arctic circle. Lord Asriel believes the Northern Lights cloak a magnificent
city in the sky.
North
A place of great beauty, diversity, and danger, it is home to armored bears,
Tartars, witches, and innumerable creatures. Lord Asriel has photographed Dust
and a sort of other world in the Aurora from an outpost in the North.
Panserbjørne
Armored bears who live in the northern region of Svalbard. While not
possessed of dæmons, the Panserbjørne make special armor
that they liken to their own souls.
Photogram
A type of photographic image; a slide.
Samoyeds
Northern hunters who kidnap Lyra and bring her to Bolvangar.
Spy Flies
Small mechanized insects rumored to be made from both machinery and trapped souls.
Svalbard
A cold, rugged Northern region inhabited by armored bears.
Tartars
A warlike people who live to the north.
Witches
Female beings that travel through the air and outlive humans by hundreds of years.
NEXT
A
NOTE FROM WRITER/DIRECTOR CHRIS WEITZ
For Lyra, the child at the center of The Golden Compass,
the journey begins in the relative safety of her Oxford
home and takes her to the edge of the world. My
voyage with this story began in London seven years ago, when a friend suggested
I read Philip Pullman’s books while I was in the relative safety of directing
a movie called About a Boy. |
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