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Reading Notes: Lang Unit II, Another Cat!


Today I chose to read the second Lang unit. I took notes over "The Cottager and his Cat" from because I enjoyed "Puss in Boots" so much from the first unit. I wondered if it wouldn't be a similar story and it turned out to be true! This is two stories now that I have read in which cats bring the character great luck, and to me that just reinforces my love of them. So here are my notes.


  • Characters: Rich old man, his wife, his son, the king, and many hut inhabitants 
  • Setting: tumble down cottage not fit for pigs, the forest, other huts, the Great Hall of the Palace
Plot

  • The old man was rich even though they lived in a hut 
  • He got ill one day and died 
  • In a dream, a man appeared to the son telling him half the the father's gold was ill gotten so he should give it back to the poor and throw the rest into the sea, keeping only what floats
  • When he did this, six shillings floated up wrapped in paper
  • He worked in his garden with his mother for the next few weeks but then she died too
  • He was so sad that he wandered the forest until he was very hungry when he came upon a hut
  • He knocked, asked for milk, and was invited in and given lodging 
    • European Wild Cat
  • By the fire sat a grey animal that wasn't very big with large bright eyes that was "singing"
  • He asked what kind of animal it was and the others in the hut told him that is was a cat
  • He asked if they would part with it, and they did for the six shillings he had 
  • The next day he kept walking until he came to another hut where he knocked, asked for a place to rest, told them he had no money, and was given a place to sleep
  • Those there marveled at his cat and told him to go a see the king for counsel
  • The next day he went to the king who was in the great hall eating with his court
  • When the boy came in he found that there were rats all over the hall, but didn't know what they were
  • Suddenly the cat zipped around and killed all the rats in the hall 
  • The king was so grateful  that he offered the young man marriage to one of his daughters or the seat of prime minister 
I included a photo of a grey domestic cat at the top of this story because that is the kind of cat that I imagined the story was about, but while I was looking for pictures I found an article about the European Wild Cat which inhabits large portions of Europe. Considering the son didn't know what a cat was, I can imagine that this story originated from a time just as cats were beginning to be domesticated so it isn't much of a stretch to guess that the cat in the story is more similar to the European Wild Cat than what we think of as cats. This story would make a great basis for a story about the origins of domesticated cats, and I would love to write that this week for a final story. 






Bibliography 

The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
European Wild Cat Photo by Lviatour [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Beautiful Grey Cat Photo by ~Pawsitive~Candie_N via Flickr
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