Mogget

Character Analysis

When is a Cat Not a Cat?

When it's a thousand-year-old vicious Free Magic spirit, of course.

Mogget, a Free Magic spirit trapped in cat form, is Sabriel's companion for a large part of her adventures. She first meets him at Abhorsen's House, where he shocks her by talking (7.44) and explains that he's been a servant of the Abhorsen for a long time. A very long time, it turns out—Sabriel notices that the magic on the binding collar keeping Mogget in cat form is over a thousand years old (8.5). He may eat, purr, and sleep like a cat, but the spirit inside his body is an unpredictable and unknown force.

Helping the Abhorsen for over a thousand years has made Mogget insanely knowledgeable about the job, but he seems to enjoy being cryptic. His personality is very cat-like, even though he's not really a cat—"'I was once many things, but now I am only several'" (8.4), he explains, which is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to frustrating Mogget explanations. He can be loyal and helpful to a life-saving degree, but he doesn't always give straight answers.

Not only that, trapped underneath that adorable white kitty-cat exterior is a powerful, formless spirit who would much rather murder Sabriel than assist her. It's a little unnerving to know that the only thing keeping Mogget from murdering our main character is a thousand-year-old binding spell and a red collar with a little silver bell.

He's Just a Free Spirit

When Mogget is in his true form, he's pretty terrifying:

A thing of most basic anatomy, its eyes were like the sinkhole, deep pits without apparent bottom. It had no nose, but a mouth that split the horrid face in two, a mouth slightly parted to reveal the burning blue-white glare that it had first used as flesh. (12.34)

Let's see… adorable kitty or terrifying monster? We'll take the cat.

Sabriel's father is the only person who can shed light on some of Mogget's history. He says:

"That is the Wallmaker relic, or their last creation, or their child—no one knows, possibly not even him." (22.74)

The Wallmaker line was one of the original five bloodlines of the Charter, and Mogget seems to be a powerful force left over from an ancient time.

Although Mogget's loyalties seem fickle and unpredictable, he is bound to serve the Abhorsen, and much of Sabriel's success is due to his knowledge. It's Mogget who first tells her she's inherited the Abhorsen title (8.55), who shows her how to escape from Abhorsen's House, and who saves her when her Paperwing crashes, though she's forced to release him into his original, dangerous form to do so.

Ironically, it's Mogget who gives Sabriel the tool she needs in order to subdue him, in the form of a ring that stretches to trap his spirit. She uses this same ring later to trap Kerrigor and Mogget together. Looked at from this angle, it seems that perhaps Mogget—in the end—is his own worst enemy.