The Golden Compass Page by Page
Chapter 19 - Captivity



After a break of many months, I’m finally doing Chapter 19. I can’t believe I’ve been at this for over a year now. Well, only a few chapters left, so lets get to this.

Going back once again to the film adaptation, it’s almost incredible how much they cut from this whole sequence of Lyra being imprisoned by the bears. In fact it’s nearly so bad that they could have cut this entire plot from the movie, the only point to this in the movie was Iorek regaining his throne, and that didn’t matter since the bears didn’t participate in the battle of Bolvangar, which in the film version comes AFTER Svalbard, which is in itself geographically impossible.

I wonder how legitimately “sane” Jotham Santelia is. He sounds almost entirely nutty until he starts talking about Lord Asriel, then he seems perfectly normal. Was the Palmerian Professor at Jordan really a scam artist who ripped off everyone else's work, or is Jotham just playa hatin?

If this guy is really the one who uncovered the final evidence of multiple worlds, what is his relation to the research done by Lord Asriel? Where they formerly partners or something? Did Asriel divine help or advice from him while they were imprisoned together?

The lies Lyra tells in this chapter to Iofur Raknison are by far my favorite in this book, and perhaps the entire trilogy. It’s funny how Iofur Raknison has has been lied and manipulated to by every member of Lyra’s family, and their use of this single pathetic character for their own ends is one of the few things Asriel, Marissa and Lyra have in common.

Yeah, this sure took entirely too long to get out. Hopefully I can do one of these a week four just four weeks more and I’ll be done with this.



To submit feedback, please use the site guestbook or email the author at,



This work is the intellectual property of Super Train Station H and is protected under US Copyright.
Use of it by third parties is bound by Copyright law and the terms defined in this site's Terms of Use Agreement.
Works discussed by other authors are the property of their respective copyright holders.




<<<< Back to STSH - The Golden Compass Page by Page