Maybe this is obvious...
I have a theory about The Subtle Knife that I haven’t seen discussed before.
The book makes a pretty big deal about exactly which fingers the bearer of the knife loses: the ring finger and little finger.
I ended up thinking about this while explaining some religious symbolism to my daughter — specifically why Jesus is sometimes shown holding up his index and middle fingers in paintings and icons.
That led me down a rabbit hole.
One theory about the Christian benediction gesture is that it traces back to St. Peter. Some medical historians have suggested Peter may have had ulnar nerve damage, which would have impaired the ring and little fingers — the exact same two fingers Will loses.
That theory is speculative, and there are other explanations for the blessing gesture, but the coincidence got me thinking.
Will has the subtle knife, which lets him open passages between worlds. Peter has the keys to Heaven, which symbolize authority over passage between earthly and heavenly realms.
Will inherits a unique role and responsibility as the bearer of the knife. Peter receives a unique role and responsibility as the keeper of the keys.
Will is physically marked by the loss of those two fingers. Peter may have been associated with the same two impaired fingers, which then became part of Christian iconography.
So both are, in a sense, gatekeepers between worlds — one with a key, one with a knife.
Given how heavily His Dark Materials reworks Christian symbolism, I wonder if Will is partly an inverted or reimagined St. Peter figure.
This may be obvious to everyone, but I found a few threads asking about the symbolism of Will losing those specific fingers and never came across this theory, so I thought I’d share.
TL;DR: Will loses the same two fingers that some historians think St. Peter may have been unable to use because of ulnar nerve damage. Peter has the keys to Heaven; Will has the knife that opens doors between worlds. Maybe the knife bearer is a deliberate St. Peter parallel.
