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Heroine

As you might gather from the title and the (rather long) summary, Sabriel is the hero. The book maps her journey from Anselstierre to her true home, the Old Kingdom, and back again. It documents the changes she undergoes and also the kingdom shaping events she is a pivotal part of.

Plot Summary

The wall separates two lands, Anselstierre (much like 1920s Britain) and the Old Kingdom (a place of magic, necromancy and, at the time of the story, Anarchy). Sabriel is a citizen of the Old Kingdom who, at her father’s behest, attends a highly thought of Boarding School for girls in rural Anselstierre. Her father, who still lives in the Old Kingdom during her schooling and who goes by the name of ‘Abhorsen’, visits her periodically (both in physical and magical forms) to give her his own type of lessons. He instructs her in necromantic arts but rather than enslaving the spirits and flesh of the dead to do her bidding, she is trained to bind them and banish them to die a final death.

When Sabriel is 18, her father fails to appear at the scheduled time. Instead he sends a dead messenger with his Sword and the 7 Bells which are his necromantic tools. Sabriel is forced to conclude that her father is in deep trouble either in The Old Kingdom or in Death itself and that she is the only one who can find him and alleviate the dead threat. She crosses the wall alone and makes her way, pursued by the forces of some unknown dead adept, to her father’s house. There she discovers his irascible ‘servant’ Mogget, a dangerous magical being bound in to the form of a small white cat. With Mogget in toe Sabriel sets out to find her father, only now becoming aware that ‘Abhorsen’ is not a name. It is a title, a very important title, and that it is she who must take it on.

Collecting a strange man, who had been preserved as a wooden carving in a royal burial ground for 200 years, on the way, Sabriel journeys to the capital of the Old Kingdom, her father’s last known destination. As she travels she slowly becomes aware that something happened 200 years ago, coinciding with the death of the royals and the descent in to anarchy. Both Mogget and her new companion, who favours the name ‘Touchstone’ and who seems wracked with guilt, know of what happened but are not permitted to speak of it due to some corruption of Charter Magic.

Sabriel reaches the capital and locates her father’s body in a place of great history and magic, only to discover that his spirit has been trapped in death. She leaves Mogget and Touchstone on guard by the body and journeys in to death herself to retrieve her father. Upon freeing him she learns that the dead adept against whom she has been fighting is a deceased member of the royal family who cannot truly die until his body has been destroyed. Inconveniently, she also learns Touchstone’s true identity, an identity that may prove problematic.

Sabriel’s search for her Enemy’s corporeal body leads her back across the wall, with in 10 miles of her old school. With the dead forces slowly approaching she is forced to move the battle to the school itself.

Departure

The 5 stages are mostly present in the early chapters of Sabriel’s story but some could be said to happen in a different order than Mr. Campbell’s structure. It all depends on how you interpret the stages. The Supernatural Aid occurs several times through out the first part of the journey for example and the Belly of the Whale is also hard to define as it could apply to several events.

Sabriel receives the Call to Adventure when her father’s dead messenger arrives. At first she thinks it is a rogue spirit that has crept in from across the wall (the great structure that separates mundane Ancelstierre from the magical ‘Old Kingdom’) but, after a brief foray in to death to deal with it, she discovers that it has brought her her father’s necromantic tools. From this she surmise’s that Abhorsen is in trouble in the Old Kingdom and she must leave her boarding school and go there in order to help him. She receives confirmation from the call from her friend the Magistrix Greenwood, her magic teacher at the school who sees a reflection of Sabriel

crossing the wall in the metal of the necromantic bells.

The Refusal of the Call is more or less skipped in the story. Sabriel doesn’t really refuse the call; she accepts it very willingly with only a few

misgivings. She is a very pragmatic person and believes it is her duty to help her father.

The Supernatural Aid first comes in the form of her father’s tools, then from other sources. She receives help from a spirit representing her mother once she has entered the Old Kingdom, a spirit whom can answer any question she needs to ask and who gives her directions to her father’s house which is her initial goal. The spirit also warns her of a spirit which is menacing Sabriel’s corporeal form while her spirit form is in death, allowing the girl to return to life in time to prevent the attack. She also receives supernatural aid from the magical servants at her father’s house, both the sarcastic cat being Mogget and the silent ‘sendings.’

The Crossing of the First Threshold seems to happen when Sabriel crosses the wall in to The Old Kingdom. She has not been there for 14 years and it is where she is meant to belong. It is strange for her as she experiences the military who protect the non-magical side of the wall and here their experiences with the dead. She has a long conversation with the colonel during which she starts to realise her father’s true importance and the desolation she will find on the other side of the wall. When she crosses the threshold to find that it is snowing (whereas it is a warm day on the other side) she truly enters the magical world for the first time. This difference is reinforced when she discovers a dead soldier by the side of the road (though this could be argued to be the beginning of the Belly of the Whale).

The Belly of the Whale could be said to come when Sabriel discovers the dead soldier, then when she discovers more bodies on a bridge and a message that says they were killed by one of the greater dead. This is the first inclination that she gets that all is not right in the kingdom (aside from her father’s vanishing) and truly wake her up to her situation and position. Likewise this stage could also be represented by her encounter with the dead being who attacks her after her encounter with her mother’s spirit (who also mentions the greater dead) or when she is pursued to the gates of her Father’s island house by a very dangerous dead creature. All these stages mark a transition for Sabriel, the transition in to the true peril of the old kingdom. Though she has been prepared by her father to deal with such dangers all her life, it is her first real taste of them while she is alone and in the world where they (and she) truly belong.

Initiation

Sabriel faces trials throughout her journey, so her Road of Trials is actually all encompassing. However, the proper road might be said to begin when she has battled her way to her father’s house. There she has to deal with the taunts and sarcasm of her father’s servant Mogget (a magical being bound in to the form of a cat) who proves to be somewhat of a trial himself despite being a supernatural aid. She has to develop a plan to find her father when her childish hope that Mogget will know exactly where he is is dashed. The next true trial is to escape the house when it is besieged by the dead servants of the greater dead being who seems to be causing havoc in the kingdom. Sabriel and Mogget have to flee the house in a very unconventional way; they call up an ancient defence (calling mountain water that makes the river rise) and flying away from the house in a paperwing (an enchanted aircraft made out of spelled paper). When the paperwing crashes, facilitating Sabriel’s freeing of Mogget from his binding in order to save their lives, she faces another trial. The unbound thing that used to be Mogget tries to kill her, demanding a sacrifice for all his years of servitude. She manages to bind him again and they explore the strange place they have crashed. Further trials ensue; she has to free a man trapped as a block of wood, put up with his servile attitude, work out how to get out of the underground sinkhole they’re in, devise a way to get to the Capital city and achieve that way. A great trial happens when she and her companions arrive at a fishing village in order to obtain boats; she is forced to act as the Abhorsen in order to free the remaining villagers of a dead spirit that has been preying on them where they are hiding. A related trial is that she is asked to free the village itself from the dead who have invaded it (causing the villagers to go in to hiding) but cannot as she must find her father if the kingdom is to be freed of the greater dead threat who is the cause of all the chaos. As the Abhorsen, refusing a request for help is hard. She also faces the constant trial of her ignorance of the kingdom’s ways, something which gets in the way and which Mogget constantly reminds her about. All through her road of trials, she is being pursued by the same beast that chased her to her father’s house.

Sabriel does not really experience a true love in the traditional sense of Meeting with the Goddess. She has loves; her love for her father is what drives her, her love for her office as Abhorsen develops over time and her burgeoning love for Touchstone (whom she rescues) surprises her toward the end of the novel. None of these though, except perhaps the love for her father, truly fit the stage.

Woman as Temptress: She is tempted throughout the novel but never by a lover. Before the journey even starts she is tempted to go against the rule her father sets for her (not to bring back anything or anyone who has died) and returns a pet rabbit to life. This temptation to ‘play god’ (something the Abhorsen should never do as they are there to make sure that the dead stay dead) occurs when she decides to free Touchstone’s spirit from death and return his body from its entrapped, wooden state. She also faces the temptation to help others which would take her away from her journey. This occurs both when she encounters the villagers on the coast and also when she reaches the Capital city. While walking to the abandoned part of the city to find the place of ancient magic where she believes her father to be trapped, she sees looters walking by with chains of children who they intend to use as bate; Touchstone has to help her fight the temptation to go after the children rather than after her father. If she did that, she would delay learning about the greater dead threat and ultimately not help the people. A temptation that is talked about but which she does not truly experience is the temptation to raise her father from the dead which Mogget tells her her father would not wish; as it transpires she needs to raise him to learn information and is told by him that she can only raise him for a short time anyway so she is not faced with the moral dilemma.

Atonement with the Father: Sabriel’s atonement is actually with her father. When she locates his spirit in death and raises it, he tells her how well she has done to get so far and furnishes her with the knowledge she needs to defeat the greater dead threat (which is also something of the ultimate boon). He tells her that the only way to defeat the enemy is to locate his body across the wall in the Ancelstierre and destroy it. He also tells her Touchstone’s true identity. He informs her that he is dying and that he will use one of the necromantic bells to give her more time to escape and find the body at a cost to his own life. He passes on the mantel of Abhorsen to her and says good bye as her father as well.

Apotheosis is a tricky stage for this book as Sabriel actually does ‘die’ in the finale. However, I believe her spiritual, emotional death and rebirth happens when she says good bye to her father and escapes with Touchstone, fighting a strong call to death from the bell her father is using. She has to finally accept the loss of the one thing she has been fighting for. She has to accept that her hero’s journey was never to save her father but to become the Abhorsen in his place and defeat the greater dead threat, restore the royal family to the thrown and bring peace back to the Old Kingdom.  She dies when her father does and has to go on in her new role, with her new goal. 

The Ultimate Boon is the new knowledge and role that Sabriel gains. She is told how to defeat the greater dead adept and also forced to take up the mantel vacated by her father. She is the Abhorsen and as such has to use that boon and also the boon of the information she has gained in order to return peace to the kingdom to which she owes protection and save the land where she grew up. However, in order to use that boon she has to return home and locate the body of her enemy, then face him one last time.

Return

The stages of the return are slightly less pronounced in the book. Sabriel does return to her old home in Ancelstierre but her trials are not over as she still must use the ultimate boon in order to defeat an enemy that threatens both worlds. Forgive me if my interpretations of the stages seem quite tenuous for this reason.

The only way in which the Refusal of the Call is present is Sabriel’s reluctance to leave her father and to respond to the call to death. She is forced on by her need to save Touchstone and the rest of the kingdom however so her refusal doesn’t stand for long.

The Magical Flight begins when Sabriel and Touchstone have to flee, being pursued by the looters they saw earlier. Sabriel is shot and Touchstone has to use magic in order to stave off there pursuers. This use of previously undemonstrated magical skill on his part and the fact that he then enters a berserk war rage (allowing him to run fast enough to escape attack) is the only real evidence of transformation and it is transformation of a secondary hero rather than of Sabriel herself (though her changed opinion of him may count as transformation for her). They then find and speak to two people Sabriel’s father told them about, people who give them further details on what is to be done with the boon and where they must go in Ancelstierre. They also give them a paperwing to undertake the journey. For this reason, I think the magical flight lasts until Sabriel reaches the non-magical side of the wall and even beyond as she has to rush to the location of the body in order to destroy it.

The Rescue from Without starts with Touchstone’s aid, then the aid of the paperwing givers and then the aid of the Ancelstierran military upon their re-crossing of the wall. The soldiers are shocked by the news Sabriel brings, that her father is dead meaning that his protection to prevent the dead around the wall from rising will fail that night and that a greater dead adept is on the way, and the colonel whom she talked to before her mobilises his troops to help her find the body. Without their help she would not be able to secure the body or use the boon in time.

The Crossing of the Return Threshold might occur with the symbolic re-crossing of the wall. Sabriel reencounters the Ancelstierran military and shares the knowledge that she has gained and also her pressing need to get back to the area around her old school in order to find the body. However, I believe that the true crossing of the return threshold occurs when Sabriel obtains the body and is forced to seek shelter with it in her old school while she attempts to destroy it. She has to share the boon with the people she used to know and also try to protect them from what she has found in the Old Kingdom.

Sabriel’s Mastery of Two Worlds comes when she defeats the greater death threat in the hall of her old school. She shows that she can protect both the magical and non-magical world and that her school life has helped her to become the Abhorsen that is needed to deal with the situation. Her old self and new self marry up properly to help her to defeat her enemy in the location she left during departure. Unfortunately, this mastery of both worlds does not last long as she is killed in the process of banishing the greater dead adept. For this reason, I think that Sabriel obtains a mastery of three worlds as she enters and accepts the world of death but escapes with the help of her ancestors.

It is this final mastery that gives her the Freedom to Live. Her ancestors find Sabriel in death and tell her that she cannot die yet as she is the only remaining Abhorsen, she cannot die until there is another to take her place. With this knowledge and responsibility, Sabriel returns to life, very literally obtaining the freedom to live. However, it is not as simple as Mr. Campbell’s idea about a freedom to live in either world. Because of who she is, Sabriel must live and work in the Old Kingdom and to some extent in death, though she still has routes in Ancelstierre as shown by her ability to vanquish her foe there. The final words of the book fit in quite neatly with the idea of a granting of life. When told that she is alive, Sabriel responds simply with “Yes I am.”

Final Thoughts

I have learned a lot about the formulation of my specific heroine and heroes in general by doing the project. It has allowed me to put Sabriel’s experiences in to a framework and aided me in understanding Garth Nix’s excellent character development and story progression even more than I did do before. It has helped me to see how the story is constructed but also how it flows. It has also got me interested in other theories about hero development and I intend to look in to them so that I can use them in my own work. I have already tried applying Mr. Campbell’s theory to the books I’ve already written and I was surprised to find certain elements there that I hadn’t consciously included. It has really made me think about the progression of my own heroes and I think it will be useful for future written undertakings. I’m very reluctant to follow a specific pattern though so it may only play a minor role in what I write. It is still a very interesting point though.

I think that Sabriel follows Mr. Campbell’s ideas to some extent. The first part of the book is very close to the first two stages and there are many similarities in the return stage as well. The fact that her journey can be split in to 3 stages shows how apt the theory is in this instance. It is also interesting that, though all the stages may not appear in the narrative, elements of the theory can be seen in the journeys of other characters in the book. Sabriel’s journey spans 2 other books, though she isn’t the main character in those; I will be interested to read those again so that I can see how her journey continues now that I’ve looked at it from this point of view. I have already seen elements of the Monomyth in the other characters in these two sequels as well as some books and series I know of like The Hobbit (J.R.R Tolkien), Song of the Lioness quartet (Tamora Pierce), His Dark Materials series (Philip Pullman) and The Goose Girl (Shannon Hale). In addition, I’ve also seen elements of the Monomyth in my own work.