Books SFF Bestiary White Cat at the Gates of Death: Garth Nix’s Sabriel There is a great deal more to this cat than appears on the surface… By Judith Tarr | Published on April 13, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share I blush to admit how long it took me to get to Sabriel in the TBR pile, aka Mount TBRest. But it worked out, because we are talking about cats in genre, and Sabriel has a rather epic representative of the species. It takes a while to get to him, but the wait is worth it. After many alarums and highly fraught excursions, the titular protagonist finds him sitting at the gate of her father’s magical stronghold. He manifests to her as a small, green-eyed white cat. He talks, of course, and he has clearly expressed and frequent Opinions. The name he tells Sabriel to call him is Mogget. I am guessing that Nix is being a little bit wicked here, because the British term “moggy” refers to what in the US we would call an alley cat: a cat of questionable parentage. There is a great deal more to Mogget than appears on the surface. He is a magical being, a creature of the Free Magic, and he is ancient. One of her ancestors bound him at least a thousand years ago. The binding appears to her as a red leather collar with a tiny bell. Bells are significant in this magic system. Sabriel is the heir to the Abhorsen, one of the most powerful magical practitioners in the world. He is, in superficial terms, a necromancer, but what he does is different. Instead of raising the dead and trying to control them, he maintains the border between life and death. He undertakes to keep the dead on their own side of the line, and protect the living from the ravening dead. He, or rather they because it’s a long line of both genders, works magic in part through a series of seven bells carried on a bandolier across the chest. It’s sound magic, music magic. It can be wielded other ways, such as by whistling or by playing on pan pipes, but the bells are strongest and surest. The bell on Mogget’s collar is a miniature version of Saraneth, the Binder. The collar can be removed, and he tries to trick Sabriel into doing it when they first meet. Sabriel may be young and not as well educated as she might be, but she knows better than to fall for that. It’s good she doesn’t, because later, when she needs the powers that Mogget can raise through the Free Magic, she discovers his dark side. Mogget unbound is a humanoid figure of white light, tremendously powerful and determined to kill her in revenge for his centuries of binding. It’s all she can do to get him back under control, with the help of an enchanted ring. Mogget under binding is a highly valuable guide and mentor. He teaches Sabriel what she needs to know in order to find her father the Abhorsen and finish what he began. Some things, important things, he can’t say; he’s prevented by the magic that constrains him. But he gets a great deal of it across and assists her in every way a small and supernaturally intelligent cat can. He is, in this form, very catlike. He has the body language, the sound effects, the cattitude. He’s highly portable: he can ride around on a human’s shoulders, he can perch pretty much anywhere, he can get into spaces a larger creature can’t manage. He has not always appeared to the Abhorsens as a cat. Sabriel’s father knew him as a “a sort of albino dwarf-boy” who stayed close to home. That’s quite unlike the cat who follows Sabriel all over the world. Sabriel at one point wonders why he chooses to be a cat. The question is never answered in the first volume. If you’ve read the rest of the series and there’s been an answer, do let me know. I haven’t got that far yet. In the meantime, I am guessing that the reason is portability, but also certain other aspects of feline existence. Keen senses, rapid reflexes, sharp claws and teeth. Cats are magical creatures anyway. They’re beings of the borders, the liminal times between dark and light. They’re most active at dawn and dusk. They hunt the things that haunt the twilight. That’s very much in tune with the Abhorsen. They stand between life and death, and can pass the borders in both directions. Like cats, they’re powerful and deadly hunters. They hold the dead at bay and defend the living. Also like cats, they’re prey as well as predator. Great powers of the dead hunt Sabriel and her father before her. She needs all the skills and knowledge and powers she can muster. A good part of that knowledge comes from Mogget. There’s another thing about cats, that fits who Mogget is. Cats are never far from their wild selves. Humans can bind them, whether with bell and collar or by keeping them indoors, but they can go feral with remarkable speed. Some in fact, if born in the wild, can never be domesticated at all (as many a cat rescue knows; a feral mamacat can be so dangerous she has to be handled with Kevlar). Mogget in his collar is a valuable and loyal ally. Mogget freed is a deadly enemy, but still, in his way, valuable—like what we call “working cats,” ferals who can’t be tamed but do good service as rodent control in barns and warehouses and ranches. It makes sense to me that he chooses to be a cat for Sabriel. That’s what she needs, on multiple levels. It’s notable that he gets to choose. He may be bound, but he’s not completely without freedom. He gets a say in what he is and does, and how he does it. That’s a cat. Technically they’re domesticated, but it’s on their terms. There’s always a part of a cat that belongs to the wild, no matter how many generations it’s been bound to humans.[end-mark] The post White Cat at the Gates of Death: Garth Nix’s <i>Sabriel</i> appeared first on Reactor.