Kisa the Cat is an Icelandic
fairy tale collected in ''Neuisländischen Volksmärchen''.
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...
included an adapted version in ''
The Brown Fairy Book
''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...
''.
[Andrew Lang, ''The Brown Fairy Book'']
"Kisa the Cat"
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Synopsis
A queen had a cat.
One day, she lamented that the cat had a kitten but she had no child. The cat consulted a fairy, and soon after, the queen had a princess. The baby was very fond of the kitten, but one day, the kitten vanished and could not be found. Many years later, the princess was playing with a ball and threw it farther than usual; then she heard a voice calling her, and saying she was Kisa her sister. Ingibjorg had not remembered what had happened when she was a baby, and Kisa tried to persuade her when Ingibjorg's women arrived, and Kisa left. Ingibjorg told her mother, who told her it was true.
The next day, Ingibjorg went to the forest, but was kidnapped by a giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
. When she began to cry, the giant, to give her something to cry about, cut off her feet. Kisa came and brought a cart to carry her off. Kisa then went to the giants' home and tipped salt into their broth. This made them thirsty, and when they went to the river to drink, Kisa stole back the feet, put them back on the princess, and brought her home. Then she left.
Ingibjorg was despondent that Kisa had left without a word. The king resolved to marry her off to hearten her. He summoned handsome princes, and Ingibjorg chose one. Then Kisa reappeared and asked to sleep at the foot of her bed on her wedding night. Ingibjorg agreed, and in the morning, Kisa had turned into a beautiful princess. She told how she and her mother had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy, and she lived in their castle until she married a prince herself.
See also
* Prince Ring
References
{{reflist
Fictional cats
Icelandic fairy tales
Fictional princesses
Fiction about shapeshifting
Animal tales