Explainers

What is a Gyptian on His Dark Materials?

What is a Gyptian on His Dark Materials?
Dafne Keen and Lucian Msamati on His Dark Materials. Pic credit: BBC

His Dark Materials premiered this week on Sunday night on BBC and in America on Monday night on HBO and introduced the world to the Gyptian.

The series, based on the epic trilogy of novels by Philip Pullman, tells the story of a world on the brink of revolution and an orphan girl with a great destiny.

On the premiere episode, there were children taken by mysterious figures and many of these children were from a group of people known as the Gyptians.

What is a Gyptian on His Dark Materials?

The Gyptians are an ethnic group living in the Fens of Brytain in the world of Lyra. These people were basically nomads who travel by canals and rivers but are also a close-knit community.

As their name indicates, the Gyptians are based loosely on the Romani people, often referred to as Gypsies in the real world.

On the premiere episode, there was a ceremony where a young Gyptian earned his daemon. The entire community banded together to donate their silver to make the ring binding the two.

However, fears and supposed superstitions cause many of the Gyptians on the premiere to refuse to show up when it comes time to find a missing boy Billy Costa, even though it was the little brother of the one they were there for the night before.

Despite this, the Gyptians prove to be strong and determined, Lord John Faa leads many of them to Brytain at the end of the premiere episode to try to find the missing children, whose number continued to rise.

The reason the elders and fighters were so determined was that the Gyptians are very protective of their children and the members of their community will protect any child if a parent is not there to do it themselves.

If the His Dark Materials HBO series sticks close to the books on which it is based, the Gyptians will play a large role in the series and the battle to save the children.

His Dark Materials airs on Mondays on HBO at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments