42 pages • 1 hour read
Philip PullmanThe Subtle Knife
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Æsahættr”
When moonrise arrives, the witches’ spell to heal Will’s hand is ready. They chant and wail while slicing open a young tree and a rabbit, rubbing the blood and sap into Will’s wound. To the children’s surprise, both plant and animal seem unharmed. Will is finally able to sleep deeply after the spell, and the group spends a night in the woods. They are freezing cold, but know they are safe from the dangers of the world; the Specters are afraid of the knife, and the other children are afraid of the witches.
In the morning, the witches decide that the party will set out to finish Lyra’s task, helping Will find his father. Using the alethiometer as a guide, they begin their journey on foot. Will and Lyra walk together and talk about Will’s mother. He tells her that he knew children could do evil things after he found a group of them torturing his mother during one of her episodes of confusion. He fought them off and knew from then on that he would always have to be a fighter. He speculates that whatever the Specters are, they may be the same thing causing his mother’s distress. For much of his life he thought she was mentally ill and scared of things that didn’t exist. When the men started coming to their house, he realized her fears were real.
As darkness falls, Will begins to bleed and feel weak again. Serafina is concerned that the spell does not seem to have worked well, but hides her fear and tells him to eat a handful of bitter leaves, which make him feel somewhat better. They make camp for the night and are soon joined by Ruta Skadi, who has just returned from Lord Asriel’s fortress. She describes the enormous castle, with warriors from many worlds gathering for a great battle. As Lord Asriel’s former lover, she had easily gained access to his chamber, where she learned about the horrors they were preparing to fight.
She tells the witches that she wants to join him, but silently left his chamber to come ask their opinions first. On her way, she says she was blown onto a cliff and came across an ancient cliff ghast, a type of creature who feeds on dead bodies during war. He spoke to the younger ghasts, describing an idyllic future where they would have an endless supply on which to feast. They also mention a weapon called Æsahættr, which is powerful enough to kill God.
Ruta implores Serafina to take up Lord Asriel’s cause, but Serafina reminds her that she has to stay to help Lyra and Will find Will’s father. Ruta asks her why she thinks Will is so important, and both witches agree that he reminds them of Lord Asriel. They discuss Lyra and Will and what their futures may be, then notice another group of shining angels in the sky. Ruta leaves to follow them; she feels a duty to return to Lord Asriel and assist him in fighting the coming enemy.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Alamo Gulch”
Lee Scoresby’s balloon barely escaped the soldiers on the Yenisei, and he and Stanislaus Grumman/John Parry/Jopari are riding the shaman-summoned wind over the world of Cittàgazze. They quickly realize they are being followed by four Church zeppelins, which are much faster than the balloon and are armed with large guns. Scoresby is a skilled pilot and Grumman successfully destroys one of the crafts by manipulating the weather. However, they realize they will have to crash the balloon to have any hope of escape.
Grumman uses his shamanic power to ignite fires and destroy two more zeppelins, killing everyone on board. The fourth crashes along with the balloon, and its gun-wielding passengers begin to track down the men. Scoresby tells Grumman to run; he must find the knife bearer elsewhere in Cittàgazze. Meanwhile, Scoresby counts the bullets in his gun and realizes he has barely enough to take down the soldiers if he does not miss a shot. He imagines he is back in Texas playing with his friends, pretending to fight at the Alamo. One by one, he picks off the soldiers as Grumman makes a successful escape.
Scoresby is shot several times and begins to weaken. Just then, he remembers that Serafina gave him a flower that would allow him to call her for help whenever he needed it. He calls her name, but it is too late. Just as he shoots the final soldier, he succumbs to his injuries and dies with his rabbit daemon Hester snuggled as close to him as possible.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Bloodmoss”
Serafina leaves Will and Lyra with the other witches and leaves to help Lee. The children and witches press on through the mountainous terrain. Lena Feldt, a fellow witch, sees several people gaining ground behind them and sneaks back to take a look. It is Mrs. Coulter and Lord Boreal, a group of Specters huddled behind them. Mrs. Coulter appears to be in control of the creatures. She flirts with Lord Boreal, having her money daemon stroke his snake daemon suggestively. Then, she tells a Specter to attack him. Another Specter captures Lena’s daemon and begins to torment it, which causes Lena immense pain. In desperation, she tells Mrs. Coulter the name that all of the witches had tried to keep secret; to them, Lyra is Eve, and she is destined to cause humanity’s second fall from grace. Furious, Mrs. Coulter tells the Specter to finish off Lena and her daemon, leaving the witch soulless and blank, staring into space without noticing Mrs. Coulter’s next move. Mrs. Coulter calls her group of Specters and commands them to “forget they [are] earth bound” (581). Although normally they are unable to fly, they begin to float into the sky toward Lyra, Will, and the other witches.
The children and witches have stopped to camp for the night, and Lyra is already asleep. Will is restless. He cannot stop thinking about his mother, the pain in his hand, his new status as the knife bearer, and the need to find his father. Unable to sleep, he begins walking, clambering up a steep mountainside in the dark. A witch’s robin daemon sees him leave and informs the witch, who follows him silently to keep him safe.
At the top of the mountain, Will rests in the brilliant moonlight, but suddenly the entire world is engulfed in near darkness. Will feels someone strong grab onto his arm. He fights, but the person refuses to let go. Will’s anger rises as he continues to struggle, but the grip holds fast. He realizes that the man is not fighting back. Instead, he is feeling Will’s injured hand. Realizing that Will is missing two fingers, the man asks if he is the knife bearer. He tells Will that he has been looking for him, and that he is the only person who knows what the knife is truly for. Will realizes that the man will not harm him when he applies a salve to his fingers which finally seems to dull the pain and begin to heal the wounds.
The man tells Will about the history of the knife and how it will be used in the final fight with The Authority, a being who has declared himself to be God. The knife is the only weapon that can kill him. Will argues that he does not want to be responsible for such a duty, but the man tells him he has no choice. The man reaches into his bag and lights a small lantern, hoping to finally see the knife bearer who he has been seeking for so long.
As soon as they see each other’s faces, Will and John Perry realize they are father and son. Before either can say a word, a witch, whom Perry had romantically scorned years before, shoots Perry and kills him. Will rages at the witch but is soon distracted by a group of angels descending from the sky, ready to take Will to Lord Asriel.
Will says he needs to check on Lyra before leaving but finds a horrible scene at the camp site. The Specters have attacked all of the witches, leaving them blank shells of themselves. Lyra has been captured, leaving her alethiometer behind.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
The Subtle Knife ends on a cliffhanger with Lyra’s capture. It sets the story to lead into The Amber Spyglass, highlighting that His Dark Materials was always intended to be a trilogy. Although many storylines are left unfinished at the book’s conclusion, both main characters succeed in their original, stated goals: Will finds his father and Lyra finds someone to help her learn about Dust.
The book’s climax arrives when Will and John come face-to-face for the first time. Here, Pullman examines Free Will Versus Destiny. Both father and son realize the true purpose of their journeys, and Will accepts that he was fated to carry the knife. The progression of Will’s injury reflects the power of destiny. As Will bleeds and becomes weaker across the Cittàgazze landscape, he fights to hold on to his free will, insisting that he does not want the knife, and resists the idea that he was chosen for a reason. Bandages, antibiotic ointment, and even witches’ spells cannot quell the bleeding, but his father is able to heal him almost instantly, implying that their meeting is fated.
The book treats John’s shamanic powers, as well as the witches’ magic, somewhat cryptically. On the one hand, the witches can fly, an obviously otherworldly power. However, many of the witches’ and shamans’ abilities could just as easily be real-world traditional medicinal techniques, albeit with a theatrical flair. When the witches perform a chant and apply curative substances to Will’s wounded hand, it is never made clear if the ritual is truly supernatural, or if the witches’ knowledge of the natural world and ability to put on a show simply make it seem that way. The latter is suggested by the failure of the spell; this may be due to the plants being weaker in Cittàgazze. John Parry’s shamanic powers are presented in a similarly mysterious light. In Chapter 10, when Lee encounters John for the first time, the practical aeronaut is taken aback when John claims that he summoned Lee using Lee’s mother’s ring. It is never made clear how much of their meeting is fated—and how much is freely willed by Lee’s careful tracking and agency.
The final chapters bring the book’s connection to Paradise Lost and the fall from Eden to the forefront when Mrs. Coulter learns that Lyra is Eve. They also invert Milton’s narrative, as the God in Paradise Lost is presented as genuine. In His Dark Materials, the God who will eventually be killed is known to be an imposter. The real god, it seems, is the Dust.
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