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Originally Posted by Mithalwen
I doubt that any cat would care about anyone's opinion of them ...... dogs think they are humans... cats think they are gods.... and they do have Baudelaire and Verlaine to fight their corner... of course cats do have that love of sitting on paper which is annoying for scholars.......
In the UK cats were regarded as both lucky and unlucky according to region .... the long association with witchcraft maybe...
Tolkien makes up for the eaten ponies in the Hobbit in LOTR .... Bill and Merry's ponies all survive ..... even Boromir's horse gets home.... but the talking animal stuff... hmmmm in the cases where it can't be explained by "lesser Maiar" or certqain individuals eg ... Beorn/ Radagast having a particular understanding of otherwise ordinary animals ....well it just seems a weakness to me...... keep thinking of Skippy and Lassie... 
But the thing I want to know concerns Asfaloth ..... the "elf horse" .... is there more significance to that than him being a horse owned by an elf? In the appendixes it mentions Glorfindel riding up on his white horse - surely it can't have been the same one..... or is there an implication of some race of immortal elf horses......? |
I can see why Tolkien based most of his works upon the ethnics of myth from northern europe... If Tolkien had grown and lived in northern africa and the middle east, the fact that cats were governed by Sauron's will would have been changed dramatically, (think of cats being viewed and respected much like shadowflax or the Eagles). If you know your Ancient Egyptian and Persian and Lybian mythology you might have an understanding of the point i'm trying to make.
As for "witchcraft" and cats... First of all, as a Scholar i would like to point out that the time period of the Inquisitions was the churches way of establishing (and with vindictive jealousy against both royalty and state) that they were in "command". Also, they wished to establish and utterly control the roles of both women and men. When cats came into the matter is untraceable, but it was one way and symbol the church saw as influencing the stupid multitude with their cause. Thus, cats went from good, okay, and then to "evil".
Since this cat subject seems to be interesting to a wide range of people, i would suguest this valueable resource to all who wish to read it:
Cult of the Cat by:Patricia Dale-Green (it is currently out of print at some websites but, it can be found in mostly any buy and sell bookstore.good luck!)
Blessed Be, THE Ka
