Freya, Norse goddess of love, fertility and beauty, travelled in a chariot drawn by huge cats and, thus begins our journey into the world of the Norwegian Forest Cat. The Norwegian Forest Cat (NFC) is truly a natural breed, originating from the farms of Norway. Its exact origins will never be precisely established, but one thing is certain; the Forest Cat was produced by nature. There are at least three theories on how the Norwegian Forest Cat arrived in Scandinavia. One theory suggests that the cats that came to Norway were probably shorthaired cats that emigrated from Southern Europe during prehistoric times. Due to natural selection imposed by the harsh climatic conditions, only individual cats with particularly thick coats and other adaptations to the cold survived. Another theory argues that the ancestors of the Norwegian Forest Cats may have been the results of matings between shorthaired cats brought from England by the Vikings and longhaired cats brought in by the Crusaders. A third theory believes that it is possible that the ancestors to the Norwegian Forest Cat (longhaired Turkish cats) may have been given as gifts to the Scandinavian guards - the vaeringer by the Byzantine emperors. One thing is certain however; the original cats are thought to have arrived in Norway in approximately 1000 AD. Norwegian Forest Cats have been featured in folk tales and mythology for centuries. The earliest literary descriptions suspected to be the Norwegian Forest Cat come from the Norse myths, describing the large, strong cats that drew Freyas chariot. Or the cat so heavy that not even Thorr, God of Thunder, could lift it from the floor. In Asbjornsen and Moes folk tale the forest cat appears several times. Here they are called Huldrekat which in the glossary is described as forest cat with a thick bushy tail. In the Norwegian townships there were of course many cats, but in the oral tradition and in folk tales there is one kind which is mentioned repeatedly, and that is the large, longhaired cat. Because of its size and the lynx-like characteristics many people believed that it was a cross between a dog and a cat Folk tales and legends are not the only evidence of the frequent natural occurrences of the forest cats. The Skogkatt has been around for centuries. We know this because of cat descriptions in fairy tales that historians say are very old indeed. It has been described in a childrens book in 1912, and the artist Olaf Gulbransson has a drawing of a grand champion type Skogkatt in his autobiography - the drawing was made about 1910. The Norwegian author Gabriel Scott wrote in 1912 a very well read childrens book call Sølvfaks (Silverfaks). The main character in the book is a forest cat called Sølvfaks. The oldest tales tell us that the Norwegian Forest Cats were the pets of the Vikings. The Vikings took the cats on their journeys and this could possibly explain the number of half-long and half-wild cats in Normandy and even in the United States of America. Vikings kept cats for their valuable skills as mousers as well as keeping them as pets. The kittens were sometimes given to new brides as an essential part of setting up new household. It is specially appropriate that brides should receive cats, since cats were associated with Freya, the goddess of love. In 1559, the Danish priest and naturalist Peter Clausson Friis, who had lived a great part of his life in Norway, separated the lynx into three sub-species: the wolf- lynx, the fox-lynx and the cat-lynx. There are similarities between the lynx and the Forest Cat. Both are big with long legs, they both have tufts on the ears, they both like water and some Norwegian Forest Cats have been known swim to catch their to fish. The Forest cat evidently utilises the same methods as the Norwegian lynx when it goes fishing. These similarities between the lynx and the Forest cat have often been the reason why people have shown great interest in the Forest cat.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 17:12:21 +0000
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