(also , , , literally 'Palug's Cat') was a monstrous cat in
Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology (also commonly known as ''Y Chwedlau'', meaning "The Legends") consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of t ...
associated with Arthurian legend. Given birth to in by the pig Henwen of Cornwall, the cat was to haunt the
Isle of Anglesey
Anglesey ( ; ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the Principal areas of Wales, county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island () and some islets and Skerry, sker ...
until Kay went to the island to hunt it down. Outside of Wales, the cat's opponent has been transposed to
King Arthur
According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...
himself or, occasionally, other legendary heroes such as Ogier the Dane. Cath Palug's name in French literature is (
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th Anglo-Norman poem (see #Li Romanz des Franceis">§''Li Romanz des Franceis''), Chapalu and are connected in the story (the words are end-rhymed in the couplet).
Aquatic nature
Cath Palug is always localised near water, such as the lakes of Lac du Bourget and Lake Geneva in France, the sea in Wales. One story describes it as some sort of fish-cat. The monstrous cat of Lausanne, which was the analogue in the Vulgate Cycle, Vulgate ''Merlin'' started out as a black kitten caught by a fisherman in his net.
Welsh sources
Cath Palug is mentioned in just two works among early Welsh sources, the triads and a fragmentary poem.
Triads
Cath Palug's birth origins are given in "The Powerful Swineherds" in the Welsh Triads (, end of the 13th century). According to this source, it started life as a kitten (lit "whelp"), given birth by the great white sow at the black rock in . There the kitten was cast into the sea, but it crossed the
Menai Strait
The Menai Strait () is a strait which separates the island of Anglesey from Gwynedd, on the mainland of Wales. It is situated between Caernarfon Bay in the south-west and Conwy Bay in the north-east, which are both inlets of the Irish Sea. The s ...
and was found on (
Anglesey
Anglesey ( ; ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the Principal areas of Wales, county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island () and some islets and Skerry, sker ...
), where the sons of raised it, not realizing the cat was to become one of the three great plagues of the island.
'
Cath Palug was fought and slain by Cai ( Kay), or so it is implied, in the incomplete
Old Welsh
Old Welsh () is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic around 550, ha ...
poem found in the ' (''The Black Book of Carmarthen'', written before 1250). Kay had gone to destroy (possibly meaning 'lions') in (Anglesey). In the encounter, nine scores (180) warriors have been killed by the cat.
The fragmentary poem states that Kay's shield is against the cat, which has been construed in various ways, but plausibly interpreted as "polished against Palug's cat". This description coincides with the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...
story in the Lambeth manuscript, in which Arthur raises a shield (presumably mirrored) causing the cats to attack their own shadows reflected in it.
Arthur stories
The () is the equivalent monster in
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...
and Anglo-Norman sources. Several works relate a battle between Chapalu (or an anonymous monster cat) with
King Arthur
According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...
himself, rather than with his knight Kay. Sometimes the beast wins, sometimes Arthur wins.
Some of the works only speak of an anonymous cat or cats, but are considered examples of Chapalu encounters by commentators, due to the parallels. The cat of Lausanne (Losan) that Arthur fights in the Vulgate Cycle is a notable example of the cat not being named.
The king is the victor in the Vulgate ''Merlin'' and in a Middle-English romance in the Lambert ms. noted above. His defeat is noted in several romances that are essentially non-Arthurian, but can be viewed as a French joke against the English, although some researchers believed some genuine tradition of an alternative death of Arthur.
The oldest chivalric romance in Spanish, '' The Book of the Knight Zifar'' speaks of a perilous situation figuratively, as tantamount to King Arthur facing the , which is considered a reference to Arthur fighting the monstrous cat.
The fight between Arthur and Cath Palug is figured on a mosaic at Otranto Cathedral in Italy. The creature believed to represent the Cath Palug is a spotted feline, seeming to attack King Arthur (labeled ) mounted on some horned animal, wearing a crown, and holding a club (or sceptre). The crown on Arthur and the horns on the mounting beast appear to be artefacts of the restorer, based on preserved drawings of the mosaic from earlier.
'
In the early 13th century, the Anglo-Norman poet André de Coutance rebuked the French for having written a vindictive poem (or poems) describing King Arthur's death by a cat. André indignantly added that this was an utter lie.
This passage in André's work ' (''The Romance of the French'') has been excerpted and commented in various studies., see , tr. Eng. in: André's short résumé of the French work was that Chapalu kicked Arthur into a bog, afterwards killed Arthur, swam to England and became king in his place.
'
A French original is thought to have existed to the fragmentary, Middle German poem ' written between 1170 and the beginning of the 13th century. It implies that slain by a sort of a "fish-cat","''gatto-pesce'', , tr. Eng. in or strictly according to the text, it was a fish which at the same time "had the form of a cat ()".
This was considered to be a work in the same tradition as the French works that told of Arthur's dishonorable demise, such as polemicized against by André.
Vulgate ''Merlin''
In the early 13th-century (''The Story of Merlin''), a man fishing in the lake of Lausanne swears that he will dedicate to God the first creature that he catches, but fails to keep his oath. At the third cast of his line he catches a black kitten, which he takes home, only for it to grow to gigantic proportions. The giant cat then kills the fisherman and his entire family, and subsequently any traveller unwise enough to come near the lake. It is finally slain by Arthur., Ch. 55, "The Devil Cat of Lausanne; King Claudas's Men Routed", ''Story of Merlin'', pp. 410–
'
' (''Galeran of Brittany'', written in the 13th century) is another work that refers to Arthur's combat with the cat. According to the summary given by (and by
Gaston Paris
Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris (; 9 August 1839 – 5 March 1903) was a French literary historian, philologist, and scholar specialized in Romance studies and medieval French literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901, ...
), Galeran of Brittany beats his German opponent Guynant, and the latter tries to rile up the Breton by repeating the ('idle lie') that the great cat killed Arthur in a pitched battle.
There is some issue of dissent regarding this interpretation. The text can be read in the converse, so that the German knight says Arthur had killed the cat. Freymond noted that while this was grammatically possible, it was not an allowable interpretation in the context. Paris agreed on this point. However, John Beston (2008) translated the portion at issue as "the proverb about King Arthur killing the cat".
Other heroes
Chapalu is encountered by heroes from the Charlemagne cycle, in either late interpolations or later prose sequels to the original .
Rainouart
Chapalu is fought by the knight Rainouart in a late version of ' in the Guillaume d'Orange cycle ('). The epic originally written did not contain the episode, but a late-13th century interpolation to it introduced Arthurian elements. An extract containing the Chapalu portion was published by Antoine Le Roux de Lincy in 1836; Paulin Paris wrote summaries based on a different manuscript.
Chapalu here was the son born after the Gringalet raped the fée (fairy) Brunehold while she bathed in the fountain of Oricon. Although Chapalu was beautiful, his mother could not bear her shame and turned him into a hideously shaped monster, and this curse could only be lifted when he has sucked a few drops of Rainouart's blood. The description of Chapalu after his metamorphosis was that he had a cat's head with red eyes, a horse's body, a griffon's talons (or dragon's feet), and a lion's tail., "Teste ot de chat et queue de lyon, Cors de cheval, ot ongles de griphon, Les dens agus assez plus d'un gaignon;" (gaignon=mâtin)" The last portion reads "teeth as sharp as a
mastiff
A mastiff is a large and powerful Dog type, type of dog. Mastiffs are among the largest dogs, and typically have a short Coat (dog), coat, a long low-set tail and large feet; the skull is large and bulky, the muzzle broad and short (brachycephal ...
-dog's". Rainouart is then brought to Avalon by three fairies, and Arthur the king of Avalon commands Chapalu to fight this newcomer. In the ensuing battle, Chapalu laps some blood from his opponent's heel, and his human form is restored.
Ogier
Ogier the Dane appears in Jean d'Outremeuse's ''Ly Myreur des Histors'' where he fights Chapalu that turns out to be the metamorphosis of his
squire
In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Boys served a knight as an attendant, doing simple but important tasks such as saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour.
Terminology
''Squire'' ...
Benoit, or else the monster from which Benoit's soul must be liberated. The narrative is similar to Renoart's Avalon adventure in ''La Bataille Loquifer'', and there is "no doubt" Jean knew the chanson in question.
According to the ''Myreur'', Ogier was traveling in the year 896 to succor Guillaume d'Orange when he was shipwrecked with his horse Passevent on an isle (Ysle de Trist, nine days sailing from
Cyprus
Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
), and combats with Chapalu (). A fight ensues between Ogier and beasts, including Chapalu, but this is actually Ogier's squire Benoit (or his soul) trapped in monster form due to enchantment, and Ogier is required to tap the creature between the eyes to lift the curse. Ogier subsequently fights Arthur and
Gawain
Gawain ( ), also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Matter of Britain, Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and one of the premier Knights of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned und ...
, until Arthur's sister Morgan is summoned by her son Auberon (Alberon) to stop the fight.
A similar narrative is incorporated into late reworked versions of the Ogier romance, except Gawain goes without mention. The reworkings (or ) exist in decasyllabic form (Rifacimento A) and alexandrines (B). The decasyllabic ''Roman d'Ogier'' (c. 1310) summarized by Knut Togeby, and here too, the capalu was a knight transformed into a
lutin
A () is a type of hobgoblin (an amusing goblin) in French folklore and fairy tales. Female lutins are called ().
A ''lutin'' (varieties include the '' Nain Rouge'' or "red dwarf") plays a similar role in the folklore of Normandy to househo ...
by the fées, and he offers to become Ogier's squire.
Location
The legend's fight between Arthur and the devil cat of the Lake of Lausanne (in present-day Switzerland) is now considered to have been located at the Col du Chat ('cat pass') in the
Savoie
Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...
region of France near Lake Bourget. This conforms with the account in the ''Estoire de Merlin'' that Arthur, in order to commemorate his victory over the cat, renamed a place that was called ('lake mountain') as ('cat mountain').
The modern rediscovery of the Arthurian lore here is credited to , who initially searched for local tradition or onomastics around Lausanne, in vain, then crossing the border into France, and found this spot. The community still retained vestigial lore of encounters with the monstrous cat, though Arthur did not figure in them. There was also a piece of 13th-century writing by Etienne de Bourbon saying that King Arthur carried out a hunt at Mont du Chat.
The Welsh tradition gives as location the Isle of Anglesey, but has the cat born at Llanveir.