One of Philip Pullman's most striking concepts in His Dark Materials trilogy is the concept of a daemon -- the physical manifestation of part of your soul. The daemon takes the form of an animal -- an alpine chough (bet you don't know what that is; neither did I!), a panther, a monkey, a mouse. It's your most intimate companion, conscience, comforter and the voice inside your head. Its gender (yes, you language purists, I know it's more accurate to say 'sex' but I'm shy) tends to be the opposite of yours.
A number of pop quizzes have popped up across the Web purporting to tell you what your daemon is likely to be, based on your answers to the questions. Try this or this and tell me what YOUR daemon would be. Mine would seem to be a cat (like Will's), goose (Serafina Pekkala's) or an eagle/hawk (like John Parry's).
My vote goes to the goose or hawk. Being able to fly is a marvellous thing. I live on the 25th floor of a building with a clear fantastic view of hillsides and I often see black kites wheeling, cawing, plummeting, soaring. They seem quite drunk with flight. So if I ever become a mutant superhero, you already know what my power is going to be. Kwaaak! Kwaak!
Photo by raptor.org.tw
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