|
A dæmon is a type of fictional being in the Philip Pullman fantasy trilogy ''His Dark Materials''. Dæmons are the external physical manifestation of a person's 'inner-self' that takes the form of an animal. Dæmons have human intelligence, are capable of human speech—regardless of the form they take—and usually behave as though they are independent of their humans. Pre-pubescent children's dæmons can change form voluntarily, almost instantaneously, to become any creature, real or imaginary. During their adolescence a person's dæmon undergoes "settling", an event in which that person's dæmon permanently and involuntarily assumes the form of the animal which the person most resembles in character. Dæmons and their humans are almost always of different genders. Although dæmons mimic the appearance and behaviour of the animals they resemble perfectly, dæmons are not true animals, and humans, other dæmons, and true animals are able to distinguish them on sight. The faculty or quality that makes this possible is not explained in the books, but it is demonstrated extensively, and is reliable enough to allow humans to distinguish a bird-shaped dæmon within a flock of birds in flight. Dæmons frequently interact with each in other in ways that mirror the behavior of their humans, such as fighting one another when their humans are fighting, or nuzzling one another when their humans embrace, and such contact between dæmons is unremarkable. ==Form== In Lyra's world, every human or witch has a dæmon which manifests itself as an animal.〔early editions of ''Northern Lights'' mention that a deceased scholar's dæmon had the form of a "young woman". However, this was removed in later editions〕 It is separate from, and outside its human, despite being an integral part of that person ''(i.e. they are one entity in two bodies)''. Humans in every universe are said to have dæmons, although in some universes they are invisible. In our universe, the books suggest, dæmons are integrated within the person. They have a naturally occurring external physical manifestation in Lyra's universe and some others. Dæmons that are already physical, such as Lyra's dæmon Pantalaimon, remain external even when they visit universes with normally-internal dæmons, such as our own universe. Typically dæmons and their humans are conscious or sleep at the same time. However, the dæmons of witches and shamans—as revealed in ''The Amber Spyglass''—can remain awake while their humans sleep, and it is implied in ''Northern Lights'' that cedarwood can have a soporific effect on dæmons that allows them to sleep even if their humans are awake. "''The worst breach of etiquette imaginable''" is for a human to touch another person's dæmon; even in battle, most soldiers would never touch an enemy's dæmon, though exceptions can be made ''(such as between lovers)''. The physical handling of a dæmon causes vulnerability and weakness in the person whose dæmon is being touched, suggesting a sexual element to human-dæmon contact. Lyra Belacqua feels violated when doctors manhandle her dæmon into a machine intended to separate them, and later experiences a flush when Pantalaimon licks Will Parry's injuries while in an Irish wolfhound form to comfort him due to Will lacking a dæmon of his own. However, dæmons can touch other dæmons freely; interactions between dæmons usually accentuate and illuminate the relationships between the characters, and can also be used as a means of passing information between humans without being overheard. A child's dæmon has no fixed form, and may suddenly change into another animal's shape according to whim and circumstance. This "shape-shifting" ability, and the fact that a dæmon disappears instantly upon its human's death, implies that dæmons are not completely corporeal. However, their bodies are solid, and they can interact fully with people and objects in the material world. In ''Northern Lights'' (titled ''The Golden Compass'' in the US) and ''The Amber Spyglass'', it is noted that Pantalaimon has a heartbeat of his own. As children develop their mature personalities, (during puberty), their dæmons "settle" into a form which reflects the person's personality. For example, a human with a dog dæmon may tend to follow authority—in ''Northern Lights'' it is noted that all servants have dog dæmons (although a maid was noted with a hen dæmon)—and likewise all witches' dæmons take the form of a bird of some kind. A person with a cat dæmon may be very independent. There is no mention that some extraordinary change in personality might cause a dæmon's form to later change. At the beginning of the trilogy, Lord Asriel claims that the act of settling triggers Dust to begin to be attracted to the person. A person's dæmon is usually of the opposite sex to its human; however, very occasionally, it may be the same sex as the person. Pullman has admitted that the reason for this is unknown even to himself, and has agreed that it may also indicate some other gift or quality, such as second sight, or that the person is homosexual, adding "There are plenty of things about my worlds I don’t know, and that’s one of them".〔(Interview ) at Lexicon (Unicon 2000)〕 The single reference to such individuals is in ''Northern Lights'', where their rarity is established. Mary Malone is taught that, with practice, it is possible to see non-physical manifestations of dæmons in her (''our'') universe of people who do not even know that they have them. The suggestion is that we all have dæmons, but we have not learned to recognize and display them. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dæmon (His Dark Materials)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|