
Will Parry, Lyra’s friend, also uses a knife to cut through to other worlds, as seen in the second book, The Subtle Knife. One character, Lord Asriel, finds a way to use Dust to open doorways to other parallel worlds. When church leaders find out that children have less Dust than adults, they attempt to separate children from their daemons in an effort to keep Dust away. The series revolves around the concept of Dust, which is sometimes described as original sin or consciousness. We should be able to tell that Iorek is not his true full self without his armour, and that with it, he is empowered to fight for justice. When Lyra finds Iorek’s armour and returns it to him, she sees who Iorek truly is – a mighty yet merciful leader.

We learn that a bear’s armour is his soul, a part of himself. Similar to what we would think of as polar bears living in the arctic, these bears don’t have daemons, but they have something similar – their armour. In the first book, The Golden Compass, Lyra meets Iorek Byrnison, the dethroned king of the armoured bears. By signing up you agree to our terms of use The Armoured Bears Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

We must see the alethiometer as not merely an object, but as a player in the unfolding epic story of Lyra and the worlds she encounters. It needs to be portrayed as an object with many layers of meaning and with an ability to communicate to humans. But like the daemons, the golden compass is more complex than just a fancy tool or a magic wand. One of the joys of the book is that Lyra, who is just a child, discovers how to use the alethiometer and uses it for good while greedy adults attempt to acquire and use the golden compass for evil. The alethiometer only works when the user of it can clear his or her mind and descend into a deep level of consciousness. The AlethiometerĪlso known as the golden compass, this small contraption has the ability to answer questions and tell the future through a series of moving hands and pictures. On the reverse side, they will also have to show the agony of a human being separated from his or her daemon. The challenge that filmmakers have here is to create lifelike animals who not only have human qualities but also existentially complete their human companions. Daemons of children can easily change form, but once a child reaches adolescence, their daemon settles into a fixed animal form. Daemons and their humans have a close personal bond and are more than just kindred friends the daemon is, in a sense, an extension of the human’s conscience, will, and feelings.

Daemons and their humans cannot withstand much physical distance between each other and both will experience great pain if they become too far apart. A daemon is a physical extension of a person’s soul in the form of an animal that can speak, think, and sense its human’s emotions. One of the most important things in the books is the humans’ daemons.
