The Subtle Knife is the second book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, following Will Parare and Lyra’s adventures across multiple universes. The knife, also known as Aesahaettr or God Destroyer, can cut through portals between worlds and threaten the Authority. However, its use releases Spectres and causes disease from Dust seeping out of worlds. Will ultimately destroys the knife to preserve Dust in the world.
The Subtle Knife is both the name of the second book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials fantasy series, and the name of an object in those same books. As an item, the Subtle Knife is also known by the name Aesahaettr, or God Destroyer.
While the first book in the series, Northern Lights – The Golden Compass – in the United States, followed the story of a girl named Lyra in a world very different from ours, the second book begins in our world, following a boy named Will Parare . Will stumbles through a window to another world and finds himself in Cittagazze. Here he meets Lyra and their story continues together. The two return to Will’s world and learn more about the mysterious Dust and its relationship to quantum physics.
The two return to Cittagazze after Lyra’s alethiometer is stolen, and there Will becomes the wielder of the slender knife, which is capable of cutting through portals between worlds. The story continues, following other characters from the previous novel as more of the prophecy surrounding Lyra is revealed and the plot against Heaven thickens. The book ends with Will discovering that Lyra is missing and being taken under the wing of two angels.
The thin knife itself, Aesahaettr, was made by men of the world of Cittagazze in ages past. The knife has an incredibly sharp edge, capable of cutting even steel as if it were paper. It also has another edge, with a sharpness far beyond anything on a gross physical level, capable of cutting through the very fabric of space to blow holes to other universes.
The Thin Knife is also known as the God Killer, because its sharpness allows it to cut through any substance, even threatening the Authority itself. It’s for this reason that the Magisterium attempts to capture the knife from Will, to protect the Authority from its misuse, and because Lord Asriel needs it to win his war. It is revealed that the main reason the first War in Heaven failed was that none of the rebel angels were able to harm the Authority.
If used without proper concentration, the thin knife shatters and at one point is broken in this way by Will without meaning to. After much persuasion, armored bear Iorek Byrnison agrees to reforge the slim knife. When he decides, however, he probes the nature of the knife with his deep empathy for the metal and tells Will that he has his wishes and wills for him, and that these weren’t necessarily good.
The people who made the subtle knife, the philosophers of the Tower of Angels, have used the knife to travel to many other universes. They often went in search of new wisdom or technology to enrich their lives and that of their world. While they were supposed to seal every fracture they cut after cutting, sometimes they forgot to do so, leaving connections between universes, like the one Will discovered in his world.
Whenever the slender knife was used in this way, it released a creature of darkness, a Spectre, from the Abyss. Also, when holes were left open between worlds, sustaining Dust was attracted to those holes, which eventually seep out of the worlds and cause severe disease. This is why Will ultimately had to close every hole and destroy the thin knife, to ensure it could never be used again, to preserve the Dust in the world.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
