There is an old Lancashire folktale about a little tomcat named Dildrum. He was supposedly the adored pet of the local blacksmith and his wife, who were both unaware that their furry friend had an interesting secret.
One night the blacksmith had been dozing by the fire, his cat curled up on his knee. Suddenly he was awoken when a black cat fell down the chimney and screamed "Tell Dildrum Doldrum's dead!" With that he darted back up the chimney.
Little Dildrum woke with a start and much to his owner's surprise, cried out "Did you say Doldrum's dead?" and disappeared up the chimney himself, never to be seen again. Doldrum, you see, was supposedly the king of all cats and Dildrum, his heir.
The King O' the Cats; "tell Tom Tildrum that Tim Toldrum's dead." It was popular throughout England and Scotland, with variations of course. It's also my Sooty's favourite cat story :)
ReplyDeleteThis one's actually quite common; some version have a traveller late at night stumbling on a strange funeral of a cat and communicating the fact to a cat in someone's house later on. The common thread seems to be a cat entering or leaving the house via the chimney, which is seen as significant in a folkloric sort of way...
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