The Subtle Knife characters

Appears from the start

A serious, self-reliant boy of about twelve from an Oxford in a world much like our own. For years he has quietly cared for his mentally ill mother while hiding her condition from the authorities, and he carries the mystery of his father, an explorer who vanished in the Arctic when Will was a baby. When men come searching for his father's old letters, a struggle leaves one of them dead, and Will flees, stumbling through a strange window hanging in the air into another world. Guarded and fiercely protective, he becomes at once a fugitive and a traveler between worlds, determined to find out what became of his father.

Also known as Lyra Silvertongue

First appears in chapter 3

The girl from a world parallel to Will's, where each person has an animal daemon, who has crossed a bridge made by her father, Lord Asriel, into a strange, half-deserted city. Bold, cunning, and used to relying on her wits and on the truth-telling alethiometer she carries, she has come out of great dangers in the North. When she meets Will she is at first wary, but the alethiometer tells her that her task now is to help this boy, and she throws herself into his quest as fully as her own. Her shape-shifting daemon Pantalaimon is always at her side.

Also known as Pan

First appears in chapter 3

Lyra's daemon, the visible form of her soul, still able to change shape because she is a child. He stays close to Lyra at all times, since neither can bear to be far from the other, and he serves as her cautious counselor and comfort. Will, who comes from a world where he has never seen a daemon, only slowly comes to understand what Pantalaimon is. That some people carry their souls outside their bodies becomes important to the mysteries the two children face.

First appears in chapter 2

The queen of a clan of northern witches from Lyra's world, long-lived and able to fly on cloud-pine. Having helped Lyra in the North, she now gathers her witches and follows to protect her, aware that prophecy marks the girl for a great destiny. Serafina and her clan take part in the conflict spreading across the worlds, offering counsel, healing, and force of arms to Lyra and her companions.

First appears in chapter 5

A physicist in Will's Oxford, a former nun who now studies dark matter, which she calls Shadows, on a specialized computer she has nicknamed the Cave. When Lyra seeks her out, Mary is astonished to realize that the mysterious particles she studies are conscious and connected to the Dust of Lyra's world. Thoughtful and open-minded, she is drawn out of her ordinary life when the particles themselves, speaking through the machine, urge her onward. Her research becomes central to understanding Dust across the worlds.

Also known as Lord Boreal

First appears in chapter 7

A wealthy, cultured older man in Will's Oxford who takes an unsettling interest in Will and Lyra. He is in truth Lord Boreal, a man from Lyra's world who long ago learned to pass secretly between the worlds. Smooth and manipulative, he steals Lyra's alethiometer and offers to return it only if the children bring him a particular knife from a tower in the abandoned city. His scheming pulls Will and Lyra into dangers far beyond a simple theft.

First appears in chapter 8

An old man in the deserted city of Cittagazze who is the current bearer of the subtle knife, a blade of extraordinary power kept in the Tower of the Angels. Wounded and aware that his time is ending, he explains the knife's long history and its terrible responsibilities, and instructs its new bearer in how it must be used and the strict rules that govern it. He belongs to a line of guardians charged with the most dangerous object in the worlds.

First appears in chapter 6

The Texan aeronaut from Lyra's world, an old friend and protector of the girl, who sets out on a mission of his own to keep her safe. Believing that an explorer known as Stanislaus Grumman holds knowledge that could protect Lyra, Lee travels by balloon to find him, calling on old contacts and his own courage. Loyal and resourceful, he is ready to risk everything for Lyra's sake. His daemon is the hare Hester.

Also known as Jopari

First appears in chapter 10

A shaman and explorer whom Lee Scoresby sets out to find, renowned for surviving a trepanning and for deep knowledge of Dust, the many worlds, and a knife of great power. Though he took a northern name and became a healer and shaman in Lyra's world, he grasps that a devastating war between great powers is beginning and that the bearer of that knife will be decisive. He means to find and help the bearer, and his true origins and purpose are bound up with secrets that reach back many years.

First appears in chapter 13

Lyra's mother, a beautiful and formidable woman from Lyra's world who wields great influence within its powerful Church. Ruthless, intelligent, and expert at charm and deception, she is determined to find her daughter, whom prophecy has made an object of intense interest and fear to the Church. She too has learned to move between worlds, and she pursues Lyra with a mixture of maternal obsession and cold calculation, ready to use anyone in her path. Her daemon is a vicious golden monkey.

First appears in chapter 3

One of the children living wild in the abandoned city of Cittagazze, where grown-ups are preyed upon by soul-devouring Spectres that leave children untouched until they come of age. With her younger brother Paolo and other children, she scavenges and survives among the empty streets. Encounters with these children reveal the strange rules of the haunted city and turn dangerous when their own desires collide with Will and Lyra's quest.