Things of Middle-earth
Cat
Type: Songs & Stories
Description:
The fat cat on the matFrom the preface to "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" in The Tolkien Reader:
may seem to dream
of nice mice that suffice
for him, or cream;
but he free, maybe,
walks in thought
unbowed, proud, where loud
roared and fought
his kin, lean and slim,
or deep in den
in the East feasted on beasts
and tender men.
The giant lion with iron
claw in paw,
and huge ruthless tooth
in gory jaw;
the pard dark-starred,
fleet upon feet,
that oft soft from aloft
leaps on his meat
where woods loom in the gloom--
far now they be,
fierce and free,
and tamed is he;
but fat cat on the mat
kept as a pet,
he does not forget.
["Cat"] is also marked SG [, Samwise Gamgee,] though at most Sam can only have touched up an older piece of the comic bestiary lore of which Hobbits appear to have been fond.
The Tolkien Reader, "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" preface, "Cat".
Contributors: Meril. 6Dec04.
