You might have heard of the Nemean lion, whom Hercules valiantly fought and defeated; maybe you’ve encountered Bastet, the Egyptian goddess with the head of a cat; you might even be familiar with the Norse goddess Freyja’s cats, who are said to draw her chariot across the lands. But a feline far more obscure from the common kitty is the monstrous creature called Cath Palug (kath pah-LOOG).
Cath Palug is a gigantic, semi-aquatic beast of a cat who’s come to life among the lands of Welsh myth and Arthurian legend. His biggest claim to fame? A deadly battle with none other than King Arthur himself. But as for which among them truly emerged victorious? Well, the story is more complex than you might expect.
As we’re getting ready to introduce the first scent in our new Mythology & Folklore Collection, we’re taking a deep dive into the legends behind the extraordinary creature Cath Palug. If you’re a fan of our furry feline friends, we’ve crafted this one just for you.
Cath Palug incense features a lush blend of cedarwood, lemon, and patchouli essential oils. Sink into the soft and sun-warmed belly of a sleeping kitty as we take a tour through the time-worn tomes of King Arthur’s myths.
In this blog:
- What Does Cath Palug Mean?
- What Does Cath Palug Look Like?
- Where Does Cath Palug Come From?
- The Kitten, the Fisherman, and the Monster of Lake Lausanne
- Cath Palug and King Arthur
- Introducing: Cath Palug Premium Incense
What Does Cath Palug Mean?
From Welsh, Cath Palug literally translates to Palug’s cat, in reference to the sons of Palug who raised Cath Palug on the island of Anglesey (or Ynys Môn) in one version of the kitty’s myth.
An alternate interpretation of the Welsh Cath Palug translates the name to scratching or clawing cat, with the word palug or paluc suggesting a relation to claws, digging, scratching, hitting, or striking.
Still another idea about the meaning of Cath Palug draws on the French form of the creature’s name, Chapalu. Chat translates to cat, and palus or palud points to an old word for bog, swamp, or wetland. This solidifies Cath Palug’s relationship with water as a semi-aquatic feline beast.
What Does Cath Palug Look Like?
The physical appearance of Cath Palug is a little hard to pin down, as he tends to shift his shape ever so slightly from tale to tale across time. He seems to generally appear as an enormous cat around the size of a horse with knife-like claws and fangs to scale. His fur is either black or spotted, and is occasionally pictured with glowing red eyes.
The confusing aspect to imagine about Cath Palug is his semi-aquatic nature. He is frequently described as having fish-like features, though it’s unclear how exactly these manifest. Gills? Scales? Fish fins or even a tail? Your interpretation works as well as mine.
Where Does Cath Palug Come From?
The earliest mentions of Cath Palug appear in centuries-old fragments of Welsh poetry. We can look to the 13th century tome Trioedd Ynys Prydein, or Triads of the Island of Britain for answers.
Encased within these medieval texts comprising the Welsh Triads are rich local histories of ancient folklore and mythology. In this particular collection, we encounter references to such figures as King Arthur, Brân the Blessed, and others.
Triad 26, titled “Three Powerful Swineherds of the Island of Britain,” tells us the story of the swine-tending sons of Pwyll, Lord of Annwfn. The third of these sons had come by a seemingly enchanted sow named Henwen. She was the supposed mother of Cath Palug, and had been predicted to give birth to a terrible monster that would bring ruin to all the land.
“And the third, Coll son of Collfrewy, tending the swine of Dallwyr Dallben in Glyn Dallwyr in Cornwall. And one of the swine was pregnant, Henwen was her name. And it was prophesied that the Island of Britain would be the worse for the womb-burden. Then Arthur assembled the army of the Island of Britain, and set out to seek to destroy her.”
With King Arthur and his army at her heels, Henwen fled for the sea, “bringing forth” (I can only assume this means “giving birth to”) multiple creatures and grain varieties on her way. At last, her kitten was born, only to be launched into the waters below—undoubtedly forming the cat’s connection to aquatic worlds.
“And at Llanfair in Arfon under the Black Rock she brought forth a kitten, and the Powerful Swineherd threw it from the Rock into the sea. And the sons of Palug fostered it in Môn, to their own harm: and that was Palug’s Cat, and it was one of the Three Great Oppressions of Môn, nurtured therein.”
The other reference we get to Cath Palug from early Welsh poetry comes in another 13th century collection of manuscripts known as Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, the Black Book of Carmarthen. We can look to its 31st poem, “Pa Ŵr yw'r Porthor?” (literally "What man is the gatekeeper?”) to find our fiendish feline.
A page from the Black Book of Carmarthen, thought to be the earliest surviving manuscript written solely in Welsh.
Notably, this poem is one of the earliest pieces of literature we can find about the exploits of King Arthur and his men. The poem is a dialogue between Arthur and a porter, in which Arthur regales him with tales of their triumphs and their deeds. He describes the battle of one of his men, Cai the fair, against none other than Cath Palug:
Cai the fair went to Mona,
To devastate Llewon.
His shield was readyf
Against Oath Palug
When the people welcomed him.
Who pierced the Cath Palug?
Nine score before dawn
Would fall for its food.
Nine score chieftains...
Yet here the text breaks off before we can find out what happened between the two, with the rest of the passage seemingly lost to time. Nevertheless, these two fragments solidly establish the existence of Cath Palug in the ancient Welsh literary canon.
A fun aside: This poem (much to my surprise!) also mentions Mabon, son of Modron, the famous namesake for many modern witches’ celebration of the autumnal equinox. (I dive deeper into that here.) In the poem, he is referred to as “The servant of Uthyr Pendragon,” who was, of course, father to King Arthur!
By around this time, Arthurian legend had taken hold beyond the British Isles and developed a notable literary presence in France. It’s there that we find the meat of the tales about King Arthur and his adversary Chapalu or Capalus (with the modern French “chat” meaning “cat”).
The Kitten, the Fisherman, and the Monster of Lake Lausanne
An alternate version of Cath Palug’s myth was penned down in thirteenth-century France with the composition of the Vulgate Cycle, otherwise known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle—the first series of stories to tell the legend of King Arthur in relative entirety.
The Cycle features a wealth of tales about Arthur and the magician Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table, the affair between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, and the quest for the Holy Grail. (Fans of BBC Merlin and Monty Python stand up!)
Our fearsome feline Cath Palug enters the scene as a kitten given to a fisherman. The story, as told by Merlin to King Arthur in a Middle English version of the text, goes like this:
A fisherman had come to the Lake of Lausanne (now Lake Geneva), promising to offer his first catch to God. However, the first fish he netted was so large and so great that he decided he should keep this one for himself, and offer the next catch to God instead. But when the second catch proved even greater than the first, the fisherman decided to keep this fish as well, and offer the third catch to God instead.
God, on the other hand, was having none of this. Frustrated by the fisherman’s greed, God sent down a tiny black kitten to be scooped up by the fisherman’s net, which the fisherman decided to bring home to hunt down rats and mice.
In the fisherman’s care, the cat grew so big and so strong that he eventually strangled the man and his family and escaped toward a mountain just beyond the Lake of Lausanne. Merlin explains this tale to Arthur, saying:
And [he] hath be ther into this tyme, and distroieth and sleth all that he may se and areche. And he is grete and horible that it is merveile hym to se…
And he has been there into this time, and destroys and slays all that he may see and reach. And he is great and horrible that it is a marvel to see him…
Thus their quest to slay the cat had begun, and they set off with their retinue of knights to find this monster of the Lake Lausanne.
Cath Palug and King Arthur
The battle between Cath Palug and King Arthur has been told and retold so many times that no one true account of the story exists. In many versions, it is King Arthur who emerges triumphant, having slain the beast and liberated the good people of the countryside from the monster’s reign of terror.
In other versions, however, it is the cat who ultimately defeats King Arthur and sends him off to meet his maker. Sometimes, Cath Palug is even said to have swum to England after killing Arthur and taken the throne to rule as king—making him the first feline to reign in Britain!
Our telling of the Vulgate Cycle, as recounted above, provides a detailed account of Arthur’s fight with Cath Palug, rich with descriptions of the cat’s lust for blood and skill as a warrior in his own right.
As Arthur’s retinue reaches the cave in which Cath Palug dwells, Merlin whistles low to summon the beast, who leaps forth, wild and hungry, and lunges at the king.
And as soone as the kynge saugh hym comynge, he bar agein hym a short spere and wende to smyte hym thourgh the body. But the feend caught the steill heed in his teth so harde that he made it bende; and in the turnynge that the kynge made, the shaft tobrake faste by the heed that was in [the] cattes mowthe.
And as soon as the king saw him coming, he levied a short spear against him so as to stab him through the body. But the fiend caught the steel head in his teeth so hard that he made it bend; and as the king turned, the shaft snapped off by the head that was in the cat’s mouth.
Tensions are high as the battle seems to be evenly matched—sword and shield against vicious claws and teeth. Cath Palug pierces so much of Arthur’s armor that the king watches him “[lick] its claws that were wet with blood.”
The climax of the story, translated into modern English, follows. (Note: the pronouns used for Cath Palug switch between masculine and feminine—in-keeping with the shape-shifting tendencies of available depictions of the beast.)
[Arthur] gripped the shield tightly and struck the cat with his sword upon both legs so that he cut them asunder at the knees, and the cat fell to the ground. And the king cast away his shield and ran toward it with sword drawn; but the cat stood up on its hind feet and grinned with its teeth, lunging for the king's throat. The king lunged at it, intending to strike it on the head. At that, the cat strained its hind feet and leapt into his face, gripping him with its hind feet and its teeth into his flesh, so that the blood streamed out in many places from his chest and shoulders.
When the king felt it holding him so hard, he set the point of his sword to its belly to pierce it through; and when the cat felt the sword, she let go of her bite and tried to fall to the ground. But the two hind feet were so deeply fixed in the chainmail that the head of the cat hung downward; then the king struck off the two hind feet, and the body fell to the ground.
As soon as the cat had fallen, she began to howl and bray so loudly that it was heard throughout the army. [...] But the king went between her and the cave and ran upon the cat; and the cat lunged toward him, trying to catch him with her teeth. But in that lunge, the king struck off her two front legs.
With that, the beast lay dead before the victorious King Arthur, who proclaims humbly, “I have slain this devil that has done great harm in this country. And know truly that I was never so afraid for myself as I was just now against this cat, except only for the giant that I slew the other day on the mountain.”
Monstrous cat of Lake Lausanne (chat du lac de Losane) confronting Arthur. By Guillaume II Le Roy - Pierre Sala (1457?-1529).
In this telling, Arthur’s battle against Cath Palug was just one in a long series of quests and noble deeds. It would take more than a giant cat monster to fulfill the mortal destiny that awaited him yet.
As for Cath Palug, who’s to say what has become of the beast now? Perhaps their spirit wanders yet around the rivers and bogs lying beyond Camelot, awaiting the chance to strike Arthur down for once and for all.
Introducing: Cath Palug Premium Incense
The first scent from our brand new Mythology & Folklore Collection is about to arrive. Meet Cath Palug essential oil incense: a handcrafted blend of lemon, cedarwood, and patchouli. Think: summertime forests and sun-warmed kitten fur.
From the time-worn tomes of Welsh myth and Arthurian legend springs the monster Cath Palug (kath pah-LOOG), a giant cat who feasts upon the flesh of men. One day, he will meet his end at the hand of King Arthur—until then, you might spot him rolling in sunbeams and sleeping in swamps.
Retire your armor and rest like a kitten in the sun as the lush aromas of fairytale forests wash through.
