Rescue from Bolvangar
A desperate raid on a frozen prison where children are torn from their daemons.
The rescue from Bolvangar is the climax of the Gyptian expedition to the Arctic in Northern Lights. Bolvangar is the Gobbler research station in the far north of Lyra's world, where the General Oblation Board experiments on kidnapped children by severing the bond between human and dæmon, a procedure called intercision. Lyra is captured and taken there, where she is briefly reunited with her friend Roger.
Quick Facts
- Primary antagonist
- The General Oblation Board
- Key protagonists
- Lyra Belacqua
- Roger Parslow
- Lee Scoresby
- Outcome
- Mass Escape and Destruction of the Facility
Lore & Background
The Gyptians, canal-faring nomads whose children have been abducted by the Gobblers, form an expedition to the Arctic with Lyra to rescue them. On the way Lyra recruits the armoured bear Iorek Byrnison and his human aeronaut friend, Lee Scoresby. Near Bolvangar, Lyra finds an abandoned child who has been cut from his dæmon and who soon dies. The name Bolvangar means 'Fields of Evil'.
Reader's Guide
Lyra and her companions are attacked by bounty hunters, and Lyra is captured and taken to Bolvangar. She is sent to be separated from Pantalaimon, but just before this can happen Mrs Coulter arrives and halts the intercision. Mrs Coulter tells Lyra that intercision prevents the onset of troubling adult emotions. Lyra activates the station's emergency alarm, sets the station on fire and evacuates the children. They are rescued by Scoresby, Iorek, the Gyptians and the witch clan of Serafina Pekkala, who battle the station attendants while Lyra, Roger and Iorek flee in Scoresby's hot air balloon.
More in Narrative Arcs & Timeline
Elsewhere in His Dark Materials
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