Hell on Earth in Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom

I explore psychological meanings embedded in the Old Kingdom. Its River of Death is a hell impinging on life: Like Dante’s Inferno it has nine sectors; the dead take hideous Boschian forms; and helped by necromancers wielding “free magic” they often return to life. On this metaphor Nix builds the insight that desiring to live deeply and joyously risks turning hellish if early life was loveless. Necromancers and Free Magic are battled by Abhorsens and others wielding “Charter magic,” Free Magic transformed by symbols. Immersion in the Charter gives a joyous experience of connection to all life. Symbolization must unite with Free Magic to create this experience; symbolization alone is inadequate, as we see in the example of mundanely rational people across the Wall. But the source of joyous access to the Charter is also the source of access to Death, demonstrating jouissance that can provide great pleasure or great horror. Integrating symbolic with nonsymbolic experience is fundamental to humanness, becoming crucial when language develops around year three. The theme of dead mothers indicates how this development can leave gaps that horror creeps through. The mothers of Abhorsens Terciel, Sabriel, and Lirael are literally dead. Other mothers are emotionally dead, particularly Clariel’s, one reason Clariel becomes the Dead arch-foe Chlorr. Desire for joyous connection turns hellish under the sway of the dead mother