Iofur Raknison Character Analysis

The illegitimate king of the bears. Iofur is even bigger than Iorek, and desperately wants to be a human. This desire (and his related discomfort with his identity as a bear) means that he's susceptible to Mrs. Coulter's flattery and machinations; she orchestrated, through Iofur, the fight between Iorek and another bear that resulted in Iorek killing that bear and thus losing his right to the throne. As king, Iofur upends panserbjørne (armored bear) traditions and builds a marble and granite palace to emulate human palaces. He also wants to build a university. While he's technically successful in building the palace, the fact that it's dirty, malodorous, and covered in bird droppings suggests that his desire to change the culture is ill-fated and not something that makes sense for the bears. In addition to wanting to be human, as represented by having a dæmon, Iofur's greatest wish is to be baptized as a Christian in Geneva. Though Iorek insists that bears can't be tricked, Lyra learns that a bear who doesn't want to be a bear can, in fact, be tricked just like a human. Using this information and the realization that Iofur carries a stuffed doll with him that resembles Mrs. Coulter (the doll is supposed to emulate a dæmon), Lyra tells him that she's Iorek's dæmon and that the only way that he can obtain her is to fight Iorek in single combat and win her from him. Because of Iofur's discomfort with being a bear, he's not comfortable in his beautifully ornate armor, which is more decorative than useful. He ultimately loses the battle with Iorek and dies because of this.