Summary
Part Two of the novel opens as Lyra and the gyptian rescue party approach the northern port town of Trollesund in the country of Norroway. During the sea journey, Lyra makes friends with a sailor named Jerry, who teaches her new skills and answers her questions about growing up. Importantly, Lyra expresses to Jerry her desire for Pantalaimon to be able to change forms forever. Jerry explains to her that all dæmons must eventually settle on a form, and that there is a good side to having certainty about what kind of person one is.
Arriving in the Trollesund, Farder Coram and Lyra go straight to the witches’ consul, which is like an ambassador for the witches in Norroway. The witches are a magical people who live in the forests and tundra further inland, but they have friendly relations with the coastal Norrowegians. Farder Coram believes that the witches will help the gyptians in their cause because forty years ago he saved the life of a witch name Serafina Pekkala.
Farder Coram asks the consul two questions. First, he requests to be put in contact with Serafina Pekkala. The consul informs him that she is now a witch clan’s queen in a faraway region. He agrees to tell Serafina that Farder Coram is looking for her. Second, he asks if the consul has any information regarding the kidnapped children. The consul is reluctant to share any information because they want to protect the witches’ relationship with their non-witch neighbors. However, because of Farder Coram’s history with Serafina the consul is obliged to help him under the condition of secrecy.
The consul informs the party that the General Oblation Board operates in the North under the guise of an organization called the Northern Progress Exploration Company. A shipment of twelve children arrived in Trollesund a week earlier but they have already left. He does not know where the children are taken. He also informs Farder Coram that there is a renegade armored bear named Iorek Byrnison who they may be able to hire as a mercenary for their cause.
The consul inexplicably knows that Lyra has an alethiometer and he is curious to see her use it. Farder Coram is reluctant to let the consul know that Lyra can read the alethiometer. But Lyra feels that they should repay the consul’s honesty in kind. The consul tests Lyra with a few questions that she answers easily, and he is convinced that she truly knows how to operate the device.
While Lyra is outside playing with a flying broomstick, or “cloud-pine,” that once belonged to Serafina Pekkala, the consul tells Farder Coram of a prophecy among his people. The prophecy holds that a young girl will be responsible for saving the world, although she must do so in ignorance of her destiny. Moreover, her actions must take place in a faraway world, different from the one they live in. The consul believes that Lyra is the girl the prophecy describes. He instructs Farder Coram to take care of her but to allow her to make mistakes, because if she knows her destiny she will be unable to fulfill it. As Lyra and Farder Coram leave, the consul gives Lyra a twig from Serafina’s broomstick. Lyra treasures this and stores it in her purse next to the alethiometer.
Farder Coram and Lyra next visit Iorek Byrnison and ask him to join their team. Iorek says he will do so only if they help him to recover his armor, which the townspeople of Trollesund have stolen and hidden. They return to the ship to consult with John Faa, who wants to avoid confrontation with the Norrowegian government. They decide to try to negotiate with the government for Iorek’s armor, an effort which is almost certain to fail. John also informs Farder Coram and Lyra that he has hired an aeronaut from Texas who will assist their journey with his hot-air balloon.
Later that evening, Serafina Pekkala’s dæmon, a great gray goose named Kaisa, arrives for a visit. While regular humans’ dæmons cannot venture far from their human bodies, witches’ dæmons have the ability to travel far away. As Serafina attends to matters in her clan she sends Kaisa to help the gyptians’ cause. Kaisa informs Farder Coram, John Faa, and Lyra that the Oblation Board has been present in the area for ten years, and that the witches call them Dust Hunters. The Dust Hunters have made pacts with certain witches clans to build research stations all over the North. The Oblation Board calls the one where children are held “the station” but everyone else calls it Bolvangar, which means “the evil fields.”
The three southerners also learn from Kaisa that Lord Asriel has been on a mission to build a bridge to other worlds. Most people do not believe in the existence of these other worlds. But the witches have long known of their existence because they can sometimes see them through the mesmerizing lights of the aurora. In fact, just before Kaisa arrived on the ship, Lyra saw a city in the sky while looking at the aurora lights. Kaisa says that the witches are divided into many clans, some of which are involved in a war against spirit forces. Kaisa’s clan, of which Serafina Pekkala is Queen, has so far remained neutral in the war, and for this reason is able to help the gyptians in their quest.
As John Faa and Farder Coram attempt to negotiate with the authorities of Trollesund to release Iorek Byrnison’s armor, Lyra takes matters into her own hands. She asks her alethiometer where the armor is, and tells Iorek its answer on the condition that he take no revenge on the townspeople. When Iorek recovers his armor he almost breaks into a violent fit of rage. But Lyra appeals to the debt he owes her and convinces him to leave the town peacefully. Lee Scoresby, the aeronaut John Faa hired to help on their journey, reveals that he is a long-time friend of Iorek’s. Under a sky lit up by the aurora the gyptians, Lyra, Iorek, and Lee Scoresby set out towards Bolvangar in a caravan of sleds.
Analysis
The Golden Compass is divided into three parts. Each part is named after an important setting where the story takes place: Part One is "Oxford," Part Two is "Bolvangar," and Part Three is "Svalbard." There are some parallels between the events in each part.
At the beginning of Part Two, the arc of the story begins to rise. Lyra meets the witches’ consul and the consul gives her a piece of Serafina Pekkala’s broomstick. At the time neither Lyra nor the reader know the significance of the twig. But Lyra instinctively stores it in her purse alongside her alethiometer. In Part One, the Master, an important adult in Lyra’s life, gave her the alethiometer, which has become a significant object in the story. That Lyra saves the small piece of cloud-pine next to the alethiometer foreshadows the object’s eventual importance.
As Pullman introduces new characters he often pays special attention to their eyes. In this way, eyes serve as a characterization device that reveals a person’s true character. For example the narrator describes the witches’ consul as a fat man with a red face dressed in a boring suit. This is far from what one might imagine a witches’ consul to look like. However, his brilliant, green eyes offer the only hint that there is something fundamentally special about him.
While in Trollesund Lyra is confronted with new, strange realities. For example, she learns that witches have the unique ability to be far away from their dæmons, while armored bears have no dæmons at all. Both of these facts leave Lyra feeling profoundly uncomfortable. Yet she must overcome this discomfort if she is to organize a successful team with such diverse allies. In order to overcome her discomfort, Lyra must learn to empathize with realities that are different from her own. For example, Iorek explains that a bear’s armor is just as important to him as a dæmon is to a human. Later Iorek’s armor is described as his “soul,” a metaphor that helps Lyra to relate to and understand the bear’s reality.
This section also presents us with many examples of the importance of social debt to the characters of The Golden Compass. Despite the complicated political situation of Serafina’s clan, the witches agree to help the gyptians’ rescue party. This is because Farder Coram saved her life forty years ago. Similarly, to convince Iorek not to take revenge against the people of Trollesund, Lyra argues that she has helped him and now he must help her. She does this while putting “her hand on the one vulnerable spot in the bear’s armor”—between his helmet and his back plate. The “vulnerable spot” in an otherwise impenetrable armor symbolizes the jaded bear’s respect for the concept of social debt. He accepts Lyra’s argument and gives up the opportunity for revenge despite years of humiliation and mistreatment.
This section features the motif of the northern lights, also known as the aurora, which Lord Asriel first mentioned during his presentation at Jordan College. Soon after Lyra sees the lights for the first time, Kaisa appears. The next time the lights appear the group is finally heading north out of Trollesund. Just as in the first instance, the appearance of the aurora accompanies the arrival of an outsider. But this time the visitor does not make herself known. Rather, a nearly sleeping Pantalaimon senses her presence. Pantalaimon foreshadows the visitor’s identity by revealing that he feels he is put “uneasily in mind of a monkey.” In this way, he suggests a connection to Marisa Coulter, whose dæmon is a golden monkey.
