“I fear that to me Siamese cats belong to the fauna of Mordor….”
Tolkien’s letter to Allen & Unwin, 16 October 1959 (Letter 219)
The above quote from Tolkien’s reply to a cat breeder, who was looking for a name for her Siamese cat, seems to indicate Tolkien’s general attitude toward cats. While he never explicitly stated an actual disdain against cats, the way he treated felines in Middle-earth legendarium seems to indicate otherwise. One can only look at his early version of Sauron, who he dubbed “Tevildo, the Prince of Cats.” Described as an evil fay with a gold collar that becomes the source of his power, his name is said to be derived from tefe, a Quenya root which means “hate/hatred.” In The Tale of Tinúviel, one of the early versions of the story of Beren and Lúthien, Beren was forced to work in Tevildo’s kitchen by Melkor. Tevildo is also assisted by several other evil cats: Oikeroi, Umuiyan, and Miaulë. Queen Berúthiel and her cats are also depicted in sinister way, associated with winter, shapeless eerie statues, bleakness, and fear.
Judging from such depictions, it is amazing to know that Tolkien also wrote a cute, whimsical poem about a cat. Not even a magical or evil cat with power; just a regular house cat, sleeping and dreaming. I’m of course talking about a poem titled, you guess it, Cat.
Tolkien wrote Cat in 1956 for his grandchild, but he described it as a poem written by Samwise Gamgee, recorded in the Red Book of Westmarch. It was supposed to be a proof of Hobbit’s love toward whimsical animal lore, starting with the image of a fat cat sleeping on a mat. However, even in seemingly simple and casual poem, Tolkien found a way to evoke “stories of the past”, reflected in the cat’s dream.
The fat cat on the mat
may seem to dream
of nice mice that suffice
for him, or cream;
but he free, maybe,
walks in thought
unbowed, proud, where loud
roared and fought
his kin, lean and slim,
or deep in den
in the East feasted on beasts
and tender men.
Tolkien broke the assumption of anyone who might look at the sleeping at and think nothing of the seemingly cute image, contrasting it with the image of a proud feline that “feasted on beasts and tender men.”
The giant lion with iron
claw in paw,
and huge ruthless tooth
in gory jaw;
the pard, dark-starred,
fleet upon feet,
that oft soft from aloft
leaps on his meat
where woods loom in gloom–
far now they be,
fierce and free,
and tamed is he;
but fat cat on the mat
kept as a pet,
he does not forget.
Tolkien brought the readers along the interesting journey of the cat’s dream, from its “iron claw in paw” to its “huge, ruthless tooth in gory jaw.” He even took a reference from a pard, a legendary feline listed in Medieval bestiaries and is often depicted as a swift beast, killing its prey in a single leap. The poem finally brings the readers back into the more quaint image of the “fat cat on the mat, kept as a pet,” before ending it with a subtle yet powerful remark:
“he does not forget.”
Poetic Praises for Cats
Cat was published as the twelfth poem in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), which was later included in Tales from the Perilous Realm, a collection of Tolkien’s shorter works. While individual cats might not get notable mentions within Tolkien’s grander works (compared to Huan the dog, for example), the poem is a refreshing text, made to be the part of Hobbit’s lore and literary appreciation toward domestic animals.
This is not the only poem that refers to cats in lighthearted or whimsical ways. T. S. Eliot famously wrote Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939), a collection of whimsical poems depicting cat psychology and sociology, later adapted by Andrew Lloyd Weber into his famous musical Cats. John Keats’ To Mrs. Reynolds’s Cat was inspired by his friend’s wife’s cat. Keats took similar route to Tolkien, using an imagined backstory to describe the cat. In the poem, Keats saw the elderly cat and imagined its past career, such as killing for foods and stealing scraps.
W. B. Yeats even went further: describing an image of a black cat dancing under the moonlight in a childlike way. Titled The Cat and the Moon, the poem evokes an image akin to a fairy tale even when he described something as simple as a cat creeping through grasses. The poem also equates the cat’s eyes to the moon at the end, constantly changing as they watch over the changing world. Meanwhile, Emily Dickinson’s She Sights a Bird – She Chuckles delightfully describes a cat getting ready to pounce on a robin, using whimsical exaggeration and eccentric phrases.
However, since Medieval literature was one of Tolkien’s biggest interests, it’s only apt to include Pangur Bán (“White Pangur”), an Old Irish poem from the 9th Century. Written by an unknown Irish monk from (or near) Reichenau Abbey, the poem describes the monk’s white cat chasing a mouse, equating it with his own pursuit of knowledge. The poem uses a quaint image of a cat and its owner as a parable of non-competitive joy in purposefulness and pursuing different types of arts. Like Tolkien’s cat poem, this poem delights readers with its contrasting images (the “whimsical” and the “evocative”), starting from the quaint image of a domestic cat.
Domestic Cats in Classic Manuscripts
More than whimsical, quaint poems, domestic cats have earned respected places in various written traditions. Javanese culture, for example, has manuscripts titled Serat Katuranggan Kucing and Serat Ngalamating Kucing, both describe various types of cats based on their appearances and the effects they bring to their owners. The descriptions were written in poetic verses that can be sung (tembang), with cats getting names such as Wulan Krahingan (“daylight moon”, black cat with white belly spot), Sangga Buana (“pillar of the earth”, a cat with several spots on its back), or Pandita Lelaku (“priest-like”, a cat with white line on its back and extending to its mouth).
Similar cat manuscript can be found in Bali, in a form of manuskrip lontar (palm-leaf manuscript) titled Carcan Kucing. Just like the Javanese versions, this manuscript describes different types of cats and their effects to their owners, from their physical characteristics to their behaviors. For example, a cat that sleeps on its owners’ traditional headgear (Balinese udeng), or a black cat with short, curled tail, is considered a good omen for the owner.
Finally, Thailand has Tamra Maew (“The Treatise on Cat”), an illustrated Thai manuscript that consists of “auspicious” cat types (possibly serves as breeding standard). Each cat picture is accompanied by a poetic verse that describes its characteristics. It is believed to be originated from the Ayutthaya period, and is a class of samut khoi, a folding book manuscript widely used in many Buddhist cultures. Each verse takes special care in describing the type of cat, complete with unique names such as Ninlarat (“dark sapphire”, a perfectly shiny black cat) and Suphalak (“excellence/copper”, a reddish cat).
Cats might not get prestigious spots in Tolkien’s works, and they are even portrayed in rather negative light in Middle-earth legendarium. However, the presence of cat in a whimsical poem supposedly written by a Hobbit (and a respected one like Samwise Gamgee, no less), is a proof that domestic cats have a notable place in legendarium, proving the notion that nothing is too small to be in Tolkien’s universe and contribute to its richness.
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