Northern Lights Chapter Two
Chapter 2, The Idea of North
"She knew the scholars well: the Librarian, the Sub-Rector, the Enquirer and the rest; they were men who had been around all her life, taught her, chastised her, consoled her, given her little presents, chased her away from the fruit trees in the Garden; they were all she had for a family."
Good God, they're God!
Master: The devil! He knew about the wine, I'm sure of it.
Librarian: He's going to ask for funds. If he forces a vote -
Master: If he does that, we might just argue against, with all the eloquence we have.
The funny bit I find here is calling our Angel the devil.
We should probably also be aware that the Librarian is on the Master's side.
Dust is introduced. looking like light, it comes down and surrounds humans, including 'unsevered children". There is a city covered in Dust in the sky.
Azriel has calmly returned a severed head of a Scholar, associated with the College and The German Academy. It has been scalped and there is a hole in the top of it's skull. (Is there a hole in the top of the skull? / "You are [correct]" / "Trepanning?" / "Exactly" <-what does this mean?)
Then a lot of people, places and organisations are introduced:
-Tartars have been seen scalping people.
-Scalping is a technique found among the aboriginals of Siberia and the Tungusk, from whence it spread to the land of the Skraelings.
-It is banned in New Denmark.
-The Tartars are not usually found as north as this man was killed, are they still suspects?
-Svalbard is the place near which the man was found dead.
-The paserbørne are suggested to have had something to do with this, as they are apparently near Svalbard (my own inference, as their --involvement was suggested immediately after confirmation of the previous statement.)
-Iofur Raknison is king of Svalbard and one of the paserbøne, a "usurpur, of sorts", powerful, may have tricked his way onto the throne, clever, eccentric (built a palace of imported marble, the fact he started a university is also used as proof of this though I find that a commendable thing), could be flattered into behaving better but it wouldn't surprise people if he had started scalping people in the Tartar fashion. Raknison desperately wants a daemon. (Not everyone has them! We learn more!)
The Master and the Librarian talk alone, with only an omnipresent narrator so as not to warp our views. They seem more reasonable than before:
The Master argues they only tried to kill Azriel because "the question was whether doing that would be worse than the consequences of not doing it".
Apparently the althiometer warns of terrible things if Azriel continues his research.
They also want to keep "the child" (Lyra, we assume) safe for as long as possible. An admirable desire.
"She knew the scholars well: the Librarian, the Sub-Rector, the Enquirer and the rest; they were men who had been around all her life, taught her, chastised her, consoled her, given her little presents, chased her away from the fruit trees in the Garden; they were all she had for a family."
Good God, they're God!
Master: The devil! He knew about the wine, I'm sure of it.
Librarian: He's going to ask for funds. If he forces a vote -
Master: If he does that, we might just argue against, with all the eloquence we have.
The funny bit I find here is calling our Angel the devil.
We should probably also be aware that the Librarian is on the Master's side.
Dust is introduced. looking like light, it comes down and surrounds humans, including 'unsevered children". There is a city covered in Dust in the sky.
Azriel has calmly returned a severed head of a Scholar, associated with the College and The German Academy. It has been scalped and there is a hole in the top of it's skull. (Is there a hole in the top of the skull? / "You are [correct]" / "Trepanning?" / "Exactly" <-what does this mean?)
Then a lot of people, places and organisations are introduced:
-Tartars have been seen scalping people.
-Scalping is a technique found among the aboriginals of Siberia and the Tungusk, from whence it spread to the land of the Skraelings.
-It is banned in New Denmark.
-The Tartars are not usually found as north as this man was killed, are they still suspects?
-Svalbard is the place near which the man was found dead.
-The paserbørne are suggested to have had something to do with this, as they are apparently near Svalbard (my own inference, as their --involvement was suggested immediately after confirmation of the previous statement.)
-Iofur Raknison is king of Svalbard and one of the paserbøne, a "usurpur, of sorts", powerful, may have tricked his way onto the throne, clever, eccentric (built a palace of imported marble, the fact he started a university is also used as proof of this though I find that a commendable thing), could be flattered into behaving better but it wouldn't surprise people if he had started scalping people in the Tartar fashion. Raknison desperately wants a daemon. (Not everyone has them! We learn more!)
The Master and the Librarian talk alone, with only an omnipresent narrator so as not to warp our views. They seem more reasonable than before:
The Master argues they only tried to kill Azriel because "the question was whether doing that would be worse than the consequences of not doing it".
Apparently the althiometer warns of terrible things if Azriel continues his research.
They also want to keep "the child" (Lyra, we assume) safe for as long as possible. An admirable desire.