This is a list of characters from the two Philip Pullman trilogies His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust.
Lyra Belacqua, later known as Lyra Silvertongue, is the central character of His Dark Materials and a key character in The Book of Dust. Together with her dæmon Pantalaimon, she is introduced in La Belle Sauvage, where she is being protected from the Magisterium. Initially, as a baby, by the nuns of the Priory of Saint Rosamund, and later she is brought up by the scholars of Jordan College. In Northern Lights, as she leaves Jordan in the company of her mother, Mrs Coulter, the Master of the college gives her an alethiometer, which allows her to find answers on any subject.[1] Searching for a kidnapped friend of hers, she ends up travelling to the far north of her world, and then across the multiverse, where she plays a part in a cosmic war between forces led by an angel named The Authority and her father, Lord Asriel. Lyra is prophesied by the witches to play the part of Eve, bringing about a second fall; this is accomplished when she reaches maturity and starts attracting Dust, halting its loss from the multiverse.
By the events of Lyra's Oxford, Lyra is living in Jordan college and studying at St Sophie's. Pantalaimon has settled into the form of a pine marten. In The Secret Commonwealth, Lyra is 20 and an undergraduate.
In the unabridged audiobooks, Lyra is voiced by Joanna Wyatt, and in the BBC Radio dramatisation she is voiced by Lulu Popplewell.[2] In the 2003 stage production at the Royal National Theatre, the character was played by Anna Maxwell Martin. In the 2007 movie adaptation, she is played by Dakota Blue Richards[3] who also voiced her in the video game adaptation of the film. Dafne Keen plays the character in the His Dark Materials TV series.
Lord Asriel is a member of the English aristocracy and Lyra's father. His dæmon Stelmaria is a snow leopard.[1]
Asriel had an affair with Marisa Coulter, a married woman, leading to Lyra's birth. Asriel kills Mrs Coulter's husband after he finds out, but is spared imprisonment because of laws allowing self-defence. As a part of his punishment, he is barred from seeing Lyra, but he takes an interest in her raising, delivering her to Jordan College and visiting her. Lyra grows up believing Asriel to be her uncle rather than her father.
Asriel is described as being "a tall man with powerful shoulders, a fierce dark face, and eyes that seem to flash and glitter with savage laughter".[1] Possessed of enormous determination and willpower, he is fierce in nature and commands great respect in both the political and academic spheres, being a military leader and a fellow of Jordan College. In Northern Lights, he is able to build a bridge to another world, where he assembles an army to oppose The Authority, an angel that claims to be God. Asriel dies alongside Mrs Coulter killing Metatron, the Authority's regent.[4]
In the unabridged audiobooks, Lord Asriel is voiced by Sean Barrett; on stage in the UK's Royal National Theatre production, he was played by Timothy Dalton; in the BBC Radio dramatisation, he is voiced by Terence Stamp.[2] In the film adaptation, he is played by Daniel Craig[3] while Chris Edgerly voices him in the video game adaptation. James McAvoy plays the character in the His Dark Materials TV series.
Marisa Coulter (ordinarily called Mrs Coulter in the books) is Lyra's mother and a powerful figure in the Magisterium, the governing organisation of the Church.[1] She founds the League of St Alexander in La Belle Sauvage, and later heads the General Oblation Board, referred to colloquially as the Gobblers. Her dæmon is a golden-coloured monkey,[5] who, in the books, is never named and only speaks once (he is called Ozymandias in the BBC Radio adaptations and in the subtitles for the 2019 TV series, and the character Malcolm Polstead notes in La Belle Sauvage that, "if that monkey had a name it might be 'Malice'"[6]).
She is cruel and merciless at times, stopping at nothing to obtain what she wants. She is deceptive, full of grace and beauty, and uses these qualities to get her way. However, when she finds her daughter in peril at Bolvangar, she experiences a sudden realisation of intense maternal love and a wish to care for Lyra which outweighs her previous loyalty to the Church, and thereafter she goes to great lengths to shield her from the events around her.[7] She dies alongside Asriel while killing Metatron, the regent of the Authority.
In the unabridged audiobooks, Mrs Coulter is voiced by Alison Dowling; in the BBC Radio dramatisation she is voiced by Emma Fielding;[2] in the film, The Golden Compass, she is played by Nicole Kidman[3] while Erin Matthews voices her in the video game adaptation. For the Royal National Theatre production in 2003, Patricia Hodge created the role. Ruth Wilson plays the character in the 2019 TV series.
Iorek Byrnison is an armoured bear and companion of Lyra's. Armoured bears, known as panserbjørne in Danish, are a race of polar bear-like creatures with human-level intelligence and opposable thumbs; they have no dæmons and consider their armour, which is made of meteoric iron, to be their soul.[1]
Before the events of His Dark Materials, Iorek meets and befriends Lee Scoresby. Iorek was king of the armoured bears in Svalbard, but was exiled after killing another bear in a fight. Normally, when a bear realises that they are outmatched, they will surrender, but Iorek's opponent had been drugged by Iofur Raknison, second in line for the throne, to prevent this.[1] Following his exile, the humans of an Arctic port town deceived him by giving him spirits and stealing his armour while he was intoxicated. Lyra finds him in Northern Lights working in a scrap yard for food and board and proceeds to use her alethiometer to help him retrieve his armour. Following this, he helps Lyra, naming her Silvertongue. When Lyra ends up imprisoned by Iofur Raknison, she arranges a fight between Iorek and Iofur for the throne, which Iorek wins.[1]
After the opening of a gate to Cittàgazze changes the climate of Svalbard, Iorek is forced to take his fellow armoured bears on a voyage down to the Himalayas, where he meets Will Parry. When Will breaks the Subtle Knife, Iorek is able to repair it without the aid of specialist equipment. He and a regiment of his subjects fight on Lord Asriel's side in the battle on the plains; as part of this he takes Lyra and Will to find their lost dæmons. At the end of The Amber Spyglass, it is revealed that he returns to Svalbard and reigns as king of the armoured bears.
In the film, he is voiced by Ian McKellen[3] while Fred Tatasciore voices him in the video game adaptation. In the unabridged audiobooks, Iorek is voiced by Sean Barrett. Joe Tandberg voices and motion-captures Iorek in the TV series.
John Faa, sometimes known as Lord Faa, is the Lord of the western Gyptians. Despite his advancing age, he is a brave warrior, respected by all his followers, open to advice, and considerate of all. He is a good friend of the elderly Farder Coram. His dæmon is a black crow.[1]
When the Oblation Board starts kidnapping children, he leads 170 of his men to save them. He is wounded in an ambush but carries out his mission successfully, retrieving the children Lyra helped rescue, and taking them back to England.[1] Faa re-appears briefly at the conclusion of The Amber Spyglass when he and other Gyptians are briefly drawn into the world of the Mulefa to bring Lyra home before the worlds separate once again.
In the film The Golden Compass, Faa is played by Jim Carter while Michael Gough voices him in the video game adaptation. Lucian Msamati plays the character in the His Dark Materials TV series, and Douglas Blackwell voiced him in the audiobooks.[citation needed]
Ma Costa is a Gyptian woman whose son, Billy Costa, is abducted by the "Gobblers" early in Northern Lights. A year before the beginning of the book, Lyra and her friends had "hijacked" her family's boat and sailed it to Abingdon, the next town downriver. In spite of this, Ma Costa rescues Lyra and takes her to John Faa.[1]
When Lyra is hiding with the Gyptians, she discovers that Ma Costa had in fact nursed her, when she was a baby. Ma Costa's dæmon is a hawk.[1]
Anne-Marie Duff plays the character in the His Dark Materials TV series.[8] and Jill Shilling voiced her in the audiobooks of Northern Lights.[citation needed]
A minor character whose dæmon has the rare quality of being the same gender as himself. Half-gyptian, he was tasked with watching Lyra for Lord Faa while working as a pastry chef at Jordan College.[9]
Serafina Pekkala is a clan queen of the witches of Lake Enara who, along with her snow goose dæmon Kaisa, is closely associated with Lyra and her journey.[1] She assists Lyra in her fight at Bolvangar and throughout His Dark Materials, travelling into other worlds and attempting to heal Will Parry. At the end of The Amber Spyglass, she names Will's dæmon, and encourages Will and Lyra's dæmons to return to them.
Serafina claims to be three hundred years old or more.[1] Before the events of La Belle Sauvage, Farder Coram saved her life from an attack by another witch's dæmon, and they became lovers. They had a son who died from a disease from the East.[1]
Pullman claimed on the BBC World Service programme World Book Club in December 2005, that Serafina's name came from a Finnish telephone directory.[10] In context, Pullman was teasing the audience, however the claim has since been repeated on several fan-sites. Later in the same programme and in a speech made in Dundee, he said that the name came from a list of politicians living in Copenhagen.
In the film The Golden Compass, Serafina Pekkala is played by Eva Green while Hellena Taylor voices her in the video game adaptation. In the 2003 Royal National Theatre production of His Dark Materials she is played by Niamh Cusack. In the TV series His Dark Materials, Ruta Gedmintas plays the character, and in the audiobooks she is played by Susan Sheridan.[citation needed]
Lee Scoresby is a skilled "aëronaut" (balloonist) from the country of Texas with an arctic hare dæmon named Hester.[1]
Lee meets Iorek Byrnison in Once Upon a Time in the North when he is twenty-four. In Northern Lights, Lee is hired by John Faa and the Gyptians to aid in their mission to save the kidnapped children; following the rescue, he helps transport Lyra to Svalbard.[1] In The Subtle Knife, he pledges to help the witches in their fight against the Magisterium and sets out to find Stanislaus Grumman. Grumman, also known as Jopari or John Parry, is a shaman and travels with Lee into the world of Cittàgazze. Lee gives his life fighting Magisterium soldiers, allowing John Parry to reach his goal.
Following their deaths, Lee and Parry fight Spectres after they are released from the Land of the Dead in The Amber Spyglass. After this task is done, Lee allows himself to dissolve so that his atoms can be mixed with the atoms of Hester and his other loved ones.
Philip Pullman said of Scoresby's name that "the Lee part comes from the actor Lee Van Cleef ... because I thought my Lee would look like him, and the Scoresby comes from William Scoresby, who was a real Arctic explorer."[11]
American actor Sam Elliott plays Lee Scoresby in the film The Golden Compass while James Horan voices him in the video game adaptation. Lin-Manuel Miranda plays the character in the His Dark Materials TV series. In the audiobooks Lee is played by Garrick Hagon, who also directed the productions.[citation needed]
Iofur Raknison is an armoured bear who wishes to be equal to a human.[1] After usurping Iorek Byrnison as king of the armoured bears, he commands his subjects to build a palace of stone and wear ornamentation of gold and silver, which had been traditionally despised. He had dealings with the Magisterium and Mrs Coulter, allowing them access to his kingdom in exchange for the ability to be baptised as a Christian. Lyra is able to trick him into fighting Iorek Byrnison by convincing him that she is herself a dæmon and that she could become his dæmon.[1] Traditionally, armoured bears are unable to be tricked but in his behaving like a human, he loses this ability; Iorek is able to exploit this by feigning injury. After Iofur's defeat, Iorek is proclaimed the king, and his first command is that the bears discard their pseudo-human trinkets and tear down Iofur's palace.[1]
In the 2007 film adaptation, The Golden Compass, the character is renamed Ragnar Sturlusson to prevent confusion with Iorek Byrnison[12] and is voiced by Ian McShane while JB Blanc voices him the video game adaptation. In the TV series, Iofur is motion-captured by Joi Johannsson and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz. In the audiobook of Northern Lights, he is voiced by Douglas Blackwell.[citation needed]
Roger Parslow, a young kitchen boy and youngest of the Parslow family – who had long been employed as masons for Jordan College – was the best friend of Lyra Belacqua during her early life in Jordan College. Roger's dæmon, named Salcilia, often appears as a terrier.[1]
Roger is kidnapped by the General Oblation Board ("the Gobblers") and taken to their experimental centre in Bolvangar. When Lyra arrives there he assists her in helping the children escape and goes on with her to see Lord Asriel in Svalbard. Asriel uses Roger to create a bridge between worlds by severing him from Salcilia, killing him in the process of channelling the energy from the severing to create the bridge.[1]
In The Amber Spyglass, he appears trapped in the Land of the Dead. Lyra is eventually able to free him and all the other dead souls to merge with the Dust in the living worlds.
In the movie, Roger is played by Ben Walker. In the TV series, Roger is played by Lewin Lloyd. In the audiobooks, he is voiced by Susan Sheridan.[citation needed]
Lord Carlo Boreal, or Sir Charles Latrom, CBE as he is known as in Will Parry's world, serves as a minor character in Northern Lights, but is a main antagonist in The Subtle Knife. He is an old Englishman, appearing to be in his sixties. He normally wears pale suits and is described as smelling sweetly. His daemon is a snake.
Lord Boreal is first seen in Lyra Belacqua's world at the cocktail party of Mrs Coulter. He interacts shortly with Lyra. He is also mentioned just before Lord Asriel crosses the bridge to Cittàgazze in Northern Lights as having been Mrs Coulter's lover.
In The Subtle Knife, Boreal watches Lyra exploring a museum in Will's world and approaches her, appearing to be a kindly old man whose only interest in her is to discuss the skulls. Lyra remembers seeing him previously, but is unsure of his identity. Later, when Lyra is being chased by the men who are after John Parry's notes, Latrom is in a chauffeured limousine and offers her a lift, at which time he steals her alethiometer. Lord Boreal tells them that they must get the Subtle Knife for him from Cittàgazze and he will return the alethiometer. After retrieving the knife, Lyra and Will steal back the alethiometer by cutting through from Cittàgazze into Will's world directly within Boreal's study. During this, they overhear a conversation between Coulter and Boreal, where he explains how he was able to set up a life in that world. Later, Boreal attempts to learn what Mary Malone knows about Dust by offering to continue funding her and her colleague's work.
In a tent in the mountains of Cittàgazze, Mrs Coulter 'spikes' Boreal's drink in order to make him tell her about the Subtle Knife; he dies shortly thereafter from the poisoned drink.
Boreal's name means "northern" or "related to the north", as in aurora borealis. His pseudonym, Latrom, is "mortal" spelled backwards.
Ariyon Bakare plays this character in the TV series, in which the role is expanded, including that he is assigned to look for John Parry and enlists a pale-faced contact on Earth to help search for him while spying on Parry's family.[citation needed] In the audiobooks, he is voiced by Stephen Thorne.[citation needed] Edward de Souza played the non-speaking role in the final cut of The Golden Compass in a scene opposite Derek Jacobi and Christopher Lee. He is credited only as the Second High Councilor of the Magisterium.[citation needed]
Coram Van Texel is a gyptian with a large, unusually beautiful, golden-brown cat dæmon named Sophonax. His voice is described as "rich and musical, with as many tones in it as there were colours in his dæmon’s fur". By Northern Lights, he is known as Farder Coram and is a respected, elderly, adviser to the Gyptian King John Faa.[1]
More than fifty years prior to the start of the trilogy, Coram travelled to the north, where he witnessed a witch, Serafina Pekkala, being attacked by another witch's dæmon. Farder Coram shot the rogue dæmon and rescued Serafina, thereafter they became lovers and had a son, who was killed in his youth by a disease from the east. After the son's death, Serafina Pekkala returned to her people as the clan-queen, and Coram returned to the Gyptians.[1] In La Belle Sauvage, Coram is working for Oakley Street, a secret society opposing the influence of the Church. He obtains information about Mrs Coulter, fights Gerard Bonneville, and warns Malcolm Polstead of the upcoming flood.[6]
He accompanies Lyra to Bolvangar to rescue the captured children and guides her in mastering the alethiometer.[1]
Coram re-appears briefly at the conclusion of The Amber Spyglass when he and other Gyptians are drawn into the world of the Mulefa to meet Lyra and bring her home before the worlds separate once again.
'Farder' is possibly a dialect variant of 'Father', honouring his role as 'Elder' to the Gyptians. He is played by Tom Courtenay in the film The Golden Compass, in which his dæmon is a caracal.
James Cosmo plays the character in the His Dark Materials TV series, whilst Stephen Thorne provides his voice in the audiobooks.[citation needed]
The Master of Jordan heads Jordan College, part of Oxford University in Lyra's world. Helped by other Jordan College employees, he is raising the supposedly orphaned Lyra.[1] His daemon is a raven.
In La Belle Sauvage, he offers scholastic refuge to Lyra. In Northern Lights, he tries unsuccessfully to poison Lord Asriel, hoping that it will protect Lyra and prevent conflict. In The Amber Spyglass, he offers Lyra a place to live at Jordan, and funding for her education.
In the film The Golden Compass, he is played by Jack Shepherd. In the television adaptation, he is played by Clarke Peters, and in the audiobooks he is voiced by Stephen Thorne.[citation needed]
Dame Hannah Relf and her marmoset dæmon Jesper are scholars at St Sophia's college. In La Belle Sauvage, she is an alethiometrist and a member of Oakley street, a secret society opposing the Magisterium. By the time of Northern Lights, she is the Mistress of St Sophia's college.[1]
In The Amber Spyglass, she invites Lyra to study at St Sophia's and learn to read the alethiometer from her.
Will Parry is the bearer of the Subtle Knife and a point of view protagonist of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. He is the son of John Parry, an explorer, and of Elaine Parry, a woman who suffers from mental health problems. Will does not remember his father, a former Royal Marine, who has not been heard of since he vanished on an expedition to the Arctic when Will was an infant. It is later revealed that John Parry has wandered into another world and is unable to find his way back. Will becomes the companion of, and ultimately falls in love with, Lyra Belacqua, and also becomes the bearer of the Subtle Knife by winning a fight, in which he loses two fingers on his left hand. At the end of the third book, he must leave Lyra Belacqua and live entirely in his own world, where he is taken care of by Mary Malone and his cat dæmon, Kirjava (which means 'mottled' in Finnish).
In the unabridged audiobooks, Will was voiced by Steven Webb for The Subtle Knife and by Peter England for The Amber Spyglass.[13] In the TV series, he is played by Amir Wilson.
Dr. Mary Malone is a physicist from Will's world investigating dark matter, which is equated with Dust, and is a point of view protagonist in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. She is a former nun, and in the witches' prophecy involving Lyra, she plays the part of the serpent to Lyra's Eve.
In The Subtle Knife, Lyra meets her and tells her about her world's research into Dust, which Mary equates with dark matter and refers to as Shadows. Lyra demonstrates the use of her alethiometer, and Mary is able to program her dark matter detector to function similarly. The detector instructs her to go through the window into Cittàgazze, which she does, eventually arriving at the world of the Mulefa. There she builds the titular Amber Spyglass, allowing her to see Dust, and investigates the death of the trees that are essential to the Mulefa's environment. She discovers that the Dust is no longer falling from the sky to pollinate the trees, but is instead flowing sideways. When Lyra arrives, a conversation with Mary begins to inspire in her a sexual awakening, leading to her dæmon's shape settling and to her beginning to attract Dust; this action is enough to arrest the loss of Dust and to save the trees, and as such she fulfils the prophecy.
At the end of The Amber Spyglass, Serafina Pekkala reveals to Mary both how to see her dæmon and also its form – that of an alpine chough. She offers to help Will upon their return to their own world.
Mary Malone does not appear in Nicholas Wright's stage adaptation of the novels due to the difficulty of representing Mulefa onstage. The role of the tempter was given to Serafina Pekkala, who was also the bearer of the spyglass, which had been created by Jopari (John Parry) as a device to view Dust.
In the TV series, she is introduced in the second series and played by Simone Kirby. In the audiobooks, she is played by Kate Lock.[citation needed]
Tullio is a teenage boy who lives in Cittàgazze. He is the owner of the Subtle Knife until he loses it fighting Will Parry who loses two fingers. Tullio is later attacked by the Spectres and his soul is eaten.
In the TV series, Tullio is played by Lewis MacDougall.
Angelica and Paolo are a brother and sister who live in Cittàgazze and are the younger siblings of Tullio. They were separated from their parents when the Spectres first appeared. After Tullio is killed by the Spectres, they lead other children in an attack on Lyra and Will in order to avenge Tullio but are repelled by the Witches.
In The Amber Spyglass, Angelica and Paolo encounter Mary Malone where they