47 pages • 1 hour read
Philip PullmanThe Golden Compass
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 10-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Bolvangar”
Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary: “The Consul and the Bear”
The crew heads to Trollesund to meet with the witches, whose support (or at least neutrality) they need to save the kidnapped children. John Faa gets Lyra and Farder Coram on board with his plan. The witches owe Farder Coram a favor for saving a witch’s life 40 years ago. They talk about the witches and their ability to separate themselves from their dæmons. Lyra is curious about the witches. They sail across the cold seas and make their way to a harbor where Lyra and Farder Coram go to the witch consul. The servant brings them to the parlor where they meet with Dr. Martin Lanselius, who tells them what he knows about intercision, also known as the Maystadt process. He advises them to seek the services of an armored bear that is not employed by the Oblation Board, such as Iorek Byrnison. Lyra shows Dr. Lanselisus how she uses her alethiometer by asking about the intentions of the Tartars. She explains how she understands it. Lyra and Farder Coram know Dr. Lanselius was testing Lyra, but they are glad for the tip about the armored bear. They get some winter clothing and go to meet Iorek, who is eating in a shed. They want to employ Iorek to take them north. Iorek dislikes the child cutters, so he agrees to help them if they get his armor back.
Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary: “Armor”
While the leaders meet, Lyra goes to bed and thinks about Iorek and her father. Lyra sees the Aurora and sees a bird fly toward the ship. It is the daemon of Serafina Pekkala, queen of the witch clan, who is looking for Farder Coram. Lyra calls for him, and he, Lyra, John Faa, and the witch’s dæmon goose all meet on the ship deck, discussing the Oblation Board. Lyra campaigns to help Iorek get his armor back, even though it may get them in trouble with the locals. When Lyra awakes the next morning, she chats with Tony Costa and his friends. John Faa and Farder Coram are talking with the sysselman, a local governor. Lyra is curious about a newcomer, the aeronaut Lee Scoresby. Lyra sneaks off to get Iorek’s armor, and as Pan flies away from Lyra to get the bear, she feels a painful tugging. It hurts her intensely to be physically distant from Pan. She chats with Iorek and uses her alethiometer to find his armor: It is at the priest’s house. Iorek runs to the priest’s house, causes a commotion, and emerges in his armor, which Iorek tells Lyra is like his soul. The sentry there tried to shoot Iorek, and to prevent Iorek from retaliating, Lyra reaches into a vulnerable spot in his armor. She asks him to repay his debt to her by turning down the fight and coming with her. He takes off his armor and goes in the water. Lyra tells Tony what’s happened, and many onlookers come. Lee sits with Iorek’s armor and holds his gun to the sysselman. Lee is furious about how the armor is so rusty and unkempt. Iorek emerges from the water with a seal in his mouth. Lee and Iorek know each other. The sysselman warns Iorek not to come back to their town again, but Iorek does not care. They clean the armor and get ready to go north in sledges. When Lyra goes to sleep, Pan is restless, thinking he sees the shape of a monkey following them.
Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary: “The Lost Boy”
They travel for a while and stop to eat. Lyra’s alethiometer tells her she must do something important in a nearby village. Lord Faa grants Lyra permission to go to the village if Iorek takes her. Iorek agrees, and they go toward the village, which is about an hour’s journey. Hundreds of birds fly overhead. Iorek says they are witches. Lyra says she needs to find a child or ghost to bring back to Lord Faa, so they check the houses. A man chats with Iorek in a language Lyra does not know. The man wants to know if they are going to take the child away, as the townspeople are afraid of it. They keep trying to scare it off, but it keeps coming back. Lyra is upset with the townspeople treating the child this way, but she instructs Iorek to tell the man they are going to take the child. She wants to know where the child is, and Iorek translates that he is in the fish house. Lyra and Pan are terrified to go in, but they get a lantern and go look. The Gobblers severed the child from his dæmon, the process known as intercision.
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary: “Fencing”
Lyra is horrified by the child, as “a human being with no dæmon was like someone without a face” (214). The boy, Tony Makarios, asks Lyra where Ratter is, as he has lost his dæmon. They return, and everyone is shocked by what they see. Iorek tells them to be kind because Tony has been through so much. Lyra chats with Iorek, and he tells her about how he made his armor. The king of the armored bears is Iofur Raknison. Lee will inflate his balloon and look for spies, and Lyra talks to him.
Part 2, Chapters 10-13 Analysis
This harrowing section presents the core conflict of the story: how living beings are being separated from their souls. In the case of the humans, it is preteen children like Lyra who are being cleaved from their dæmons and left half-alive. For Iorek the armored bear, the separation from his armor makes him less whole, and when he is reunited with it, he becomes himself again. The idea of witches features prominently in this section, and though they are regarded with some skepticism by a lot of society due to their ability to move apart from their dæmons, they do not suffer from the soullessness of people like Tony, who was separated from his dæmon entirely. This conflict in viewpoints on The Nature of a Soul casts light on some central questions of the novel around self, sin, and religion, though these central questions do not fully develop until later in the story. For now, the initial groundwork is laid within the plot to show a fate potentially worse than death, further increasing the already very high stakes.
These stakes are amplified by the specter of Mrs. Coulter’s dæmon and the lingering notion of severed children. Like the reader, Lyra does not exactly understand what is happening and why, but she has enough of an idea after seeing Tony to be terrified. Iorek, too, sides with Lyra on this issue because he understands how profoundly wrong and unnatural such a separation is.
The introduction of Iorek’s character in this section foreshadows the struggles to come among the armored bears while underscoring the idea of trying to control souls and sin by unnatural processes. Iorek and Lyra represent the natural state and base goodness of society. Iorek, with his armor, helps Lyra and Pan out of a sense of duty. Unlike Iofur, the current king of the armored bears who exiled Iorek, the latter is content to be himself with his armor and takes pride in his status as an armored bear. His downfall comes when he latches onto human emotions and gets tricked in battle. Iorek pays his dues as a result and is a diligent worker, but he can see how unnatural Iofur is in his desire to have a dæmon like humans. Iofur does not accept himself and seems to resent being an armored bear, just like Mrs. Coulter resents being a human with dæmon and Dust. This emerging parallel between Iofur and Mrs. Coulter hints at their partnership, although it is not directly addressed until later in the novel.
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By Philip Pullman
