The King o' the Cats or The King of the Cats is an English fairy tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

 adapted by Joseph Jacobs

Joseph Jacobs

Joseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...

 from several sources, including one collected by Charlotte S. Burne in Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

. It is Aarne-Thompson type 6070B.

The story

A sexton (or in some versions, a gravedigger) returns to his wife in deep distress. He tells her that he had seen cats burying a coffin with a velvet pall and a golden coronet, and one had told him to tell Tom Tildrum, that Tim Toldrum's dead, but he has never heard of Tom Tildrum.

As soon as the sexton relates his tale, the family's tom-cat jumps up and says that if Tim Toldrum's dead, then he is now the king of cats! The cat then rushes up the chimney and is never seen again.

Variants

Another tale features a man selling a calf at the November fair in Macroom, Co Cork, Ireland. After he sold the calf, late in the fair, he ate and drank before he left. He heard the news as he passed the graveyard of Inchigeela, a cat put his head through the railings and said to the man, "Tell Balgeary that Balgury is dead."

The rest of the tale follows the same format.

In popular culture

"The King o' the Cats" is referenced, with slight changes, in Diane Duane

Diane Duane

Diane Duane is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her works include the Young Wizards young adult fantasy series and the Rihannsu Star Trek novels.-Biography :...

's Young Wizards novel, A Wizard Abroad

A Wizard Abroad

A Wizard Abroad is the fourth book in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. It is the sequel to High Wizardry.- Synopsis :Nita and Kit's parents have never been fully behind their children's practices and in this book Nita's parents reveal that they are sending her to live with her aunt in...

.

The story is also referenced several times in the Peter Straub

Peter Straub

Peter Francis Straub is an American author and poet, most famous for his work in the horror genre. His horror fiction has received numerous literary honors such as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award, placing him among the most-honored horror authors in...

 novel, Shadowland

Shadowland (Straub novel)

Shadowland is a novel by Peter Straub, first published in 1980 by Coward, McCann and Geohegen. It is a horror novel that has strong elements of fantasy...

.

Carbonel: The King of the Cats

Carbonel: the King of the Cats

Carbonel: the King of the Cats is a children's book by Barbara Sleigh, first published by Puffin Books in 1955, and in the US by Bobbs-Merrill, 1955. It has two sequels, The Kingdom of Carbonel and Carbonel and Calidor: Being the Further Adventures of a Royal Cat , making up the Carbonel series...

by Barbara Sleigh

Barbara Sleigh

Barbara Grace de Riemer Sleigh was a well-known British children's writer and broadcaster.-Family and career:Barbara Sleigh was born in Birmingham, the daughter of the artist Bernard Sleigh and his wife Stella, née Phillp, who had married in 1901. Both came from a Methodist background, but she was...

 is inspired in part by this tale, as are its two sequels, The Kingdom of Carbonel and Carbonel and Callidor, making up the Carbonel series

Carbonel series

Carbonel is a children's book series by Barbara Sleigh, first published by Puffin Books from 1955 to 1978. Also published in the US by Bobbs-Merrill from 1955. It has three novels, first Carbonel: the King of the Cats and two sequels, The Kingdom of Carbonel and Carbonel and Calidor: Being the...

. See: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales by Donald Haase.

DC Comics' Batman has a character named the King of the Cats, who is Catwoman's brother before he was eliminated in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists have an EP titled "Tell Balgeary that Balgury is Dead" seemingly referencing this story.

The University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

has a poetry group called King Of The Cats, popularly abbreviated as Cats.

In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt is referred to by Mercutio as "King of Cats"