Objects of His Dark Materials

This is a list of objects of His Dark Materials trilogy of novels by the fantasy fiction author Philip Pullman. An alethiometer is a device which measures the truth. The word comes from the Greek alētheia (ἀλήθεια) for "truth", and meter for measure so alethiometer literally means truth measurer. A misunderstanding over the author's early title for the trilogy ("The Golden Compasses"), and the resemblance of the device to a large navigational com... more

This is a list of objects of His Dark Materials trilogy of novels by the fantasy fiction author Philip Pullman. An alethiometer is a device which measures the truth. The word comes from the Greek alētheia (ἀλήθεια) for "truth", and meter for measure so alethiometer literally means truth measurer. A misunderstanding over the author's early title for the trilogy ("The Golden Compasses"), and the resemblance of the device to a large navigational compass caused the American publishers of the first book, originally entitled Northern Lights, to retitle that book The Golden Compass. It is described in Northern Lights thus: To use the alethiometer, the user directs three needles to lie over certain symbols on the face of device, and forms a question in his or her mind. The fourth needle then responds to the question, swinging over different symbols to form answers. Any given symbol may have numerous meanings.There are thirty-six symbols altogether on the alethiometer.The user needs a special... less