The Keys to the Kingdom

Not to be confused with The Keys of the Kingdom.
This article is about the book series. For the song, see Keys to the Kingdom.
The Keys to the Kingdom

Scholastic Inc. Covers for Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday and Sir Thursday.
Author Garth Nix
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Fantasy, thriller, Young adult fiction
Publisher Scholastic Publishing
Published 1 July 2003 - 2010
Media type Print (hardcover and paperback)
Audiobook

The Keys to the Kingdom is a fantasy–adventure book series written by Garth Nix, published in seven books between 2003 and 2010. The series chronicles the adventures of Arthur Penhaligon, an asthmatic 12-year-old boy who is chosen to become the Rightful Heir of the House, the center of the universe. The core storyline involves Arthur attempting to defeat the Morrow Days, the criminal Trustees of the House. The series takes place over a span of three weeks (time moves at different speeds at different locations in the series).

Plot

The series' protagonist is an asthmatic 12-year-old boy, Arthur Penhaligon. The series begins on a Monday, with the main events starting a week later on the next Monday. Each book moves onto the next day of the week, over the course of about three weeks in Earth time, concluding on a Sunday. Each day features beings, collectively known as the Trustees, who each govern a portion of the House, which is the center of the Universe. The seven demesnes of the House are, in the order Arthur visits them: the Lower House, the Far Reaches, the Border Sea, the Great Maze, the Middle House, the Upper House, and the Incomparable Gardens.

In the beginning of the first book, Arthur lives a relatively normal life as an adopted child in a large and caring family. An asthma attack on a Monday that should have killed him brings him into contact with Mister Monday, who rules the Lower House. He eventually finds his way to the Lower House himself, where he is to find the cure to a plague brought to his world by dog faced 'Fetchers'. By convenience, he is declared Heir to the Kingdom and given the Lesser Half of the First Key, which is shaped like the minute hand of a clock. Because of this Key's magical properties, Arthur is relieved of his asthma while in contact with the Key or in the House, and proceeds to a strange and dangerous set of adventures.

As Arthur discovers, the Will of the Architect (creator of the House and the "Secondary Realms" that surround it) was not fulfilled as it should have been. Instead, it was broken into seven pieces by the Architect's Trustees, the self-named Morrow Days. The Will was forced to act on its own, and its First Part chooses Arthur to be the Heir to the Kingdom. It thus becomes Arthur's responsibility to recover each of the missing pieces of the Will, defeat each Trustee – each of whom has been afflicted with one of the seven deadly sins - claim their domains by taking each Key, and ultimately fulfill the Will.

After Arthur has taken each of the seven keys, and the will becomes fulfilled, a huge wave of Nothing dissolves the Incomparable Gardens, Lord Sunday's domain, and the first thing the Architect created. This causes the whole of creation to be destroyed with it including all of the secondary realms (including Earth). Arthur regains consciousness in the void of Nothing (as he holds the power of all seven keys, he is unable to be destroyed unless he so wishes), and he meets the Architect, who is revealed to be the Old One and the Will, once split into two parts to govern the house and the secondary realms respectively. When the Architect and the Old One fell out, the Architect chained the Old One eternally. Doing this meant that she could not return to Nothing when she wished, as she had to go as one. The only way to release the Old One was to destroy creation. These terms were laid out in the will.

In the void of Nothing, the Architect explains this and also explains how she has appointed Arthur as the New Architect. When the Architect finally lets Nothing destroy her, Arthur decides what to do as the New Architect. He uses the Compleat Atlas of the House, a magic book which contains all the information of the entire house, to rebuild the house, and the secondary realms exactly as it was a few seconds before its ultimate demise. Unfortunately, as it only "saved" the universe a few seconds before its end, Arthur's mother is gone forever, as she was in the destroyed part of the Incomparable Gardens, and only one tiny part of the house remained, containing only a few people. The Great Architect splits himself into two, one part himself and the other part Arthur, whom he lets go back to Earth.

Author Garth Nix's approach to the narrative has drawn heavily on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, with continuous references to archetype and the number 7.

Characters

Each Trustee was assigned three principal servants; however, technically there are only six of each as Grim Tuesday reshaped his attendants into seven beings, of lesser power than the original Dawn, Noon and Dusk, known as the Grim's Grotesques.
  • Dawn - A Dawn represents the hour of sunrise, and is usually dressed in bright colours and speaks loudly. They possess a golden tongue.
  • Noon — A Noon represents the hour between 12 noon and 1 pm, and is recognisable for his red, yellow, and white colouring. Noon is the most powerful of the trio. He has a silver tongue.
  • Dusk - A Dusk represents the hour of sunset, and is known for dressing in dark colours and speaks softly. He has a black tongue.[1]

The House and The Morrow Days

The House is the second creation of the Architect and its purpose is to record and acknowledge the events of the Secondary Realms, essentially making it the epicentre of the Universe. The House is divided into seven parts, each ruled by a respective Trustee. Each is related to one of the seven deadly sins. These parts include the following.

The Keys

The Keys to the Kingdom are seven objects of power given to the Trustees along with command over their demesnes. It is unknown whether, but implied that, control of the Key is that which gives one control over a demesne and its namesake day in the Secondary Realms. The Key will bond to the rightful owner of a Key, and protect him or her from harm, somewhat from pain but not at all from discomfort. A rightful owner of a Key is an Heir, the Trustee to whom it was originally entrusted, or a Steward. Over time, the use of a Key will irreparably turn a mortal into a Denizen, though it is mentioned that after a few centuries, this process may reverse a little. Because the presence of a Denizen in the Secondary Realms is inimical to mortal life, Arthur attempted to use the Keys as little as possible, as he wishes to remain mortal and return to his family; however, he later realizes that without the keys he would not be alive, and used the powers to protect the Lower House and his home town.

The Keys hold sovereign power in their own demesne and their day. All other Keys are of equal power when they are not in their realm. The exception to this is Sunday's Key, which is paramount over the others. They can do much of what is asked of them, such as opening, locking, manipulating, and freezing items. The full powers of the Keys are not known, as of Lady Friday. According to Arthur, the Keys have the ability to kill anything they wish, be it Denizen, mortal, or Nithling. Beings that are none of these, such as the Architect, her consort the Old One, their three sons, and possibly Arthur in later books, may be immune.

Nothing

Nothing is the mythical substance used in the series. From it the entire Universe formed through a concentration-based process. It appears as oily black smoke, or a black liquid, and contains the properties of being able to dissolve (with the exception of Immaterial objects) or create anything. When enough Nothing comes together, it can form a Nithling. Nithlings are creatures not created by the Architect, but self-made from uncontained or uncontrolled Nothing. The Nithlings have this autonomy in common with both the Architect and the Old One, but apparently lack the power and creative impulses demonstrated by those elder beings. Nothing is likely based on Aether. For more information on the various types of Nithling, see below.

Nithlings

Nithlings are entities formed from Nothing. They are feared by most of the House due to their ability to kill even an immortal Denizen with a festering bite. Nithlings take a variety of shapes and are incorporated into every book in some form. They appear to lack complex intelligence, although some types can be used as servants (notably the Fetchers, sent to retrieve the Key in Book One). Most lower forms of Nithling can be dispatched with silver or salt, though this has little effect on higher or more substantially Made Nithlings.

Nithlings dissolve into Nothing when killed. They are employed by many Denizens and the Morrow Days for menial tasks, especially when someone is needed to venture into the Secondary Realms. Nithling species usually are named; this implies that they are usually made in regular forms. The Nithlings seen so far in the books are:

Note: There is some question on whether all of the above species classify as Nithlings, shown in Mister Monday, when the Atlas says (in reference to creating Fetchers) "...it is not the high treason of treating with the Nithlings, those self-willed things that occasionally emerge from Nothing". This seems to imply that species created by someone are not true Nithlings, as a true Nithling is self-made.

Religious, cultural, and literary references

The Keys to the Kingdom appears to contain many examples of religious symbolism and references, possibly as a reference to the idea that not even the architect is as creative as humans, particularly in Judeo-Christian tradition. One example is the title of the series, a reference to the words spoken by Jesus Christ to the Apostle Peter in the Bible at Matthew 16:19 - "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven". Another example is the affliction of each Morrow Day with one of the seven deadly sins that results from their choice not to obey the Will.

Other religious references include the Old One, a Prometheus-like character who held great power but was chained and punished by the Architect for his interference with Her creations, including the liver being chopped out and regrown before the 'eagles' come back again, only difference is that it is clockwork characters and they only chopped the liver previously, now they do eyeballs. (alternatively seen as a Lucifer character). However, the revelation in the final installment that the Old One was split from the entity of the Architect, and retained her powers, strongly suggest that he is a reference to God. The Drasil trees' name resembles that of the Norse "World Tree", Yggdrasil. There is even a range of literary and mythological reference in the series: Mister Monday's butler is compared to Nestor of The Adventures of Tintin; a character describes Monday's Noon as exactly how she imagined Jane Austen's Mr Darcy; the Piper is a re-creation of the legendary Pied Piper of Hamelin, who with his music led a population of rats from a city, later to do the same to the town's children, whose parents had refused to pay him the promised fee. The Mariner is likely a reference to the title character of the ballad The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Both the mariner of the book and the one of the poem had shot a bird and suffered misery as a result, though Garth Nix does not specify what type of bird the mariner in his book had shot. In addition, the name "Artful Loungers", used for Superior Saturday's servants, may be a reference to "Artful Dodger", the name of a street thief in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. References to Dickens and the society wherein he lived are also implied in the personalities of the Piper's Children and in the Denizens' clothes. In Drowned Wednesday, Arthur suggests that a passage may open 'through the wardrobe', which is most likely a reference to the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, through which the protagonist children enter Narnia. The same book also includes an "exchange of blows" wherein each fighter tries to kill each other by means of one strike only, similar to the challenge issued by the Green Knight. Also, the Incomparable Gardens may represent the Garden of Eden,and Saturday's Tower would be analogous to the Tower of Babel, an attempt to reach Heaven. The character of Lord Sunday who claims that his only wish is to care for his garden may be a reference to Candide, who decides that "we must all tend to our gardens". In addition, the three sons of the Architect and the Old One may reference the Holy Trinity, the Father (Lord Sunday), the Son (The Mariner), and the Holy Spirit (The Piper), as well as the three Greek gods Zeus (Lord Sunday), Poseidon (The Mariner), and Hades (Pied Piper; he was banished to the Void of Nothing)

A cultural reference is found in the use of the word Architect to designate the Creator. It may signify either an association with Freemasonry or a simple leap of logic, in that the Freemasons use the epithet "Great Architect" to signify the Supreme Being whereas in a history of the world wherein the Epicenter of the Universe is a house, its maker must necessarily be an architect.

Friday's actions in regard to "experiencing" the humans can be compared to those of a drug addict: She sadly remarks about the feelings "fading", and then desires more before remarking that she would "run out" and then leaves to find "another distraction". When Arthur takes the Fifth Key from her, her pleading for "one last experiencing" is similar to a drug addict. It is also comparable to some perceptions of vampires.

Another cultural reference is the usage of the name Seven Dials to describe the Lower House's transport into the Secondary Realms. The Seven Dials is a large conjunction of roads in the West End of London.

Arthur's name implies reference to archetypes: Arthur Penhaligon might be a play on Arthur Pendragon, who is otherwise known as King Arthur. A pun to this is that he is known as Lord Arthur, by some Denizens. The "Return of the Pendragon", a supposedly prophesied idea wherein King Arthur would return from the land of the dead and bring a golden age to the Earth, may be implied here; Lord Arthur of the House represents the Pendragon, in which role he restores balance to the House and thence to the Universe. In keeping with the Christian theme of the books, he could be seen as being a counterpart to Jesus, further backed by the fact that he has adopted parents, paralleling Jesus' adopted father, Saint Joseph.

The metal gloves of Grim Tuesday may be a reference to Járngreipr, a pair of metal gloves that Thor used in Norse mythology. This is made more likely by the fact that Thor used them to catch balls of molten iron, and Arthur and Grim Tuesday used them to catch floating gobbets of Nothing.

In Drowned Wednesday, when Arthur is transported to the House, he is wearing his dressing gown whilst "all at sea". This is likely a subtle reference to Arthur Dent in The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy" series who spends most of the time in his dressing gown, too.

In Lord Sunday, everything is destroyed by "the nothing" and all must be restored by the human boy. This story may have been influenced by The NeverEnding Story with its similar ending.

Books in the series

The title of each book refers to the antagonist that Arthur fights in the novel.

Possible film adaptation

In an interview, Garth Nix said that he was willing to sell the rights to studios and directors for an adaptation of the series, if they were "the right person". His reason is that he does not want to sell it to any studio over concerns that the studio would ruin the film.[2] At the 2012 Texas Book Festival, Nix stated that "(I) have no plans for movies but would like to see a card game."

See also

References

  1. ↑ Nix, Garth: Mister Monday, page 218. Harper Collins, 2003.
  2. ↑ Author News & Interviews | Kidsreads
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