Iorek Byrnison

Iorek Byrnison is a panserbjorn (“armored bear” in Danish and Norwegian). Like all panserbjorne, Iorek follows a very strict code of conduct, and will, in no situation, betray a promise he has made. He possesses incredible strength, and like many of his kind is an expert smith. He is a great friend and comrade to both Lyra and Lee Scoresby.

We first meet Iorek Byrnison shaping metal for humans in an Arctic port town. Humans have deceived Iorek by giving him alcohol, then stolen his sky-iron armour while he was intoxicated. This left him no choice but to work for the humans. He tells Lyra that if he had his armor, he would kill the humans who stole it, but that without it he would simply be gunned down attempting to get it back. Upon hearing this, Lyra decides to use her alethiometer to find the location of his armour, so that he can break free and join her quest.

Later in the story it is revealed that by bloodline, Iorek would have become King of the bears in his homeland, Svalbard, had it not been for his exile. This exile was mainly the fault of Iofar Rakinson, Iorek’s successor as King, who was suspected, but never explicitly proven to have used drugs on another bear in order to make him act unusually. This befuddled bear went up against Iorek Byrnison in a ritual of dominance to win over a female bear. In his drugged state, however, the bear went against normal procedures and would not back down when any bear would normally have done so. This situation ended in Iorek killing the bear, which condemned him to exile.

Later in the story Iorek is forced to take his bears on a voyage down to the Himalayas because the climate in his home country of Svalbad has become inhospitable due to Lord Asriel’s unintentional changing of the climate by opening a rift between two worlds.
He and a regiment of his subjects fight on Lord Asriel’s side in the battle on the plains. He takes Lyra and Will to find their lost dæmons.

At the end of the story it is revealed that Iorek returns to Svalbard and reigns as king of the bears.