The Golden Compass: Chapter Seven Summary & Analysis

Lyra feels much better with a goal, so she throws herself into chores on the boat. She doesn't notice that the Costas watch closely for signs that anyone is unusually interested in her, as they know that the Oblation Board is looking for her. Tony hears gossip in pubs that the Board is conducting raids with no explanation, and it's rumored that they're after a girl—which is odd, as they've taken no interest in all the other missing children. Because of this, Lyra must stay below when they pass inhabited areas. Ma Costa even hides Lyra in a secret compartment while police search their boat. Despite these setbacks, the Costas' boat approaches the wild fens, a swampy wilderness where East Anglia meets Holland.

The Costas' boat and a thousand other gyptian boats head for an ancient meeting hall, the Zaal, in the middle of the fens. Lyra listens to the gyptian legends and picks up words in the Fen-Dutch gyptian dialect. One afternoon, Ma Costa reminds Lyra that she's not actually gyptian: she's made of fire, while gyptians are water people. Lyra doesn't take this as a compliment and doesn't understand why it should be. The Costas reach the Zaal by evening and Ma Costa cooks eels for dinner. Tony has a drink in a bar and returns with the news that the Roping—the meeting—is tonight, and there are rumors that Lyra is with gyptians and will be there. He laughs and Lyra feels hopeful.

As Tony and Ma Costa lead Lyra to the Zaal, people stare and point. They enter the craggy old hall and squeeze in on the side. Eight men step onto a platform and seven sit in carved wooden chairs. Tony whispers that the standing one is John Faa. John Faa welcomes the gyptians, states the purpose of the meeting, and says that anyone who wants to give Lyra to the police and cash in on the thousand-sovereign reward can leave. Then, he states what they know: the Gobblers are taking gyptian and "landloper" children to the North. They don't know exactly what happens, but they know that the police and the clergy facilitate this. He proposes that they send a rescue expedition.

One man stands and asks if they're supposed to rescue landloper kids too. John Faa says it'd be cruel to leave them; they're innocent. He asks for the assembly's blessing, and they all roar their approval. John Faa asks the families to raise a tax and to return in three days. After he dismisses everyone, Ma Costa points out who the other men on the platform are and specifically mentions Farder Coram, an extremely old man. Tony takes Lyra to speak to John Faa, and Lyra feels extremely shy knowing that she's worth so much money. John Faa shakes Lyra's hand warmly and then leads her into a big room with Farder Coram. Lyra is scared of the shaky old man.

Lyra tells John Faa about running away from Mrs. Coulter, who she says is one of the Gobblers. She says that Mrs. Coulter didn’t realize that Lyra knows children who were taken, and she shares what she knows about Grumman's head and Lord Asriel's work, and states her intention to rescue him. She tells them everything she can remember about Lord Asriel's visit and about Dust, and specifically about the special photographs of the city in the Aurora. John Faa says that Farder Coram is a wise seer; he's been following the Gobblers and Lyra herself for years. Anxiously, Lyra insists that she never would've pulled the bung on the Costas' boat, which makes the men laugh. They assure her that she's not in trouble.

John Faa asks Lyra if she knows where she came from. Dazed, Lyra says that her parents died in an airship accident, but John Faa says this isn't true: her father is Lord Asriel. He says that both Lord Asriel and Lyra's mother were passionate, impulsive people, and they fell in love immediately even though Lyra's mother was already married. When Lyra's mother gave birth she was afraid of her husband's reaction, so she sent Lyra to Oxfordshire to live with a gyptian wet nurse. When her husband found out, he went intending to kill the nurse and baby Lyra. Lord Asriel stopped him and killed him, and in the ensuing lawsuit, Lord Asriel lost all his assets. Lyra's mother wanted nothing to do with Lyra, so Lord Asriel took Lyra to Jordan College. He insisted that Lyra's mother never have access to her.

John Faa says that in the years after, people began to get anxious about Dust. He tells Lyra that the pastry cook at Jordan has been watching over her and passed it on when Lyra left with the person Lord Asriel said she should never leave with: Mrs. Coulter, her mother. Lyra is shocked. John Faa says that Mrs. Coulter must have some power over the Master. Lyra studies John Faa and Farder Coram and then tells them that she saw the Master try to poison Lord Asriel, and says that the Master gave her the alethiometer. She pulls out the instrument and says she doesn't know how to read it.

Farder Coram says it's a truth teller and explains briefly how to read it: a person can ask a question by pointing the three short hands at different pictures with many meanings, and then the long needle will show the answer. He says that there's a book with all the meanings in a library somewhere. Lyra says that she kept the alethiometer secret, but the golden monkey found it. John Faa states what they know: the Master did his best to keep Lyra safe; Mrs. Coulter got the Church to help with the Oblation Board; and with the Church gaining power recently, the Master must have felt that Jordan College was dangerous. He knows that the Master loves Lyra, so the Master must have felt that giving her to Mrs. Coulter would be safer than letting her stay at Jordan.

They discuss what the Master intended in giving Lyra the alethiometer. Lyra thinks that the Master wanted her to keep it from Lord Asriel, but Farder Coram wonders if he intended the opposite. He suggests that the alethiometer could help Lord Asriel free himself from the bears. The men give the alethiometer back to Lyra, who feels suddenly shy. She asks which gyptian women nursed her, and John Faa says that it was Ma Costa. They send her back outside where Ma Costa hugs Lyra, kisses her, and takes her to bed.