IntroductionThe Middle Ages. What a fun time to be alive! It was an era of sieges and superstition, bloodshed and bloodlines, conquest and chaos. Between 500 and 1500 ce, mythical megastars such as Robin Hood and King Arthur rubbed muddy metaphorical shoulders with real-life legends such as Leonardo da Vinci and Joan of Arc, to name just two heroes of history. It was also a time before cutlery, underwear, and flushable toilets, and, boy, does it show. If the medieval ages were a modern Hollywood movie, critics would call it “the bloodiest action-mystery-thriller-fantasy-horror-romance-drama ever made,” with a thousand-strong cast of lunatics, heretics, shamans, pagans, witches, warlords, and dictators too unbelievable to lead the way—but who most certainly did. It was a wild, wicked, and weird time, no doubt. It comes as little surprise that nobody got out of it alive.
At the heart of all this mayhem, there was a horse-and-cartload of curious medieval cats bearing witness—when they weren’t napping in a nice warm spot, of course—to a rather epic thousand years of human misadventure. However, cats did more than just simply observe our shenanigans. They became integral to them (though not by choice). We squeezed them into our storytelling, our superstitions, our sin—even our language—almost as soon as the Dark Ages kicked in. At first, these domestic pets simply kept the rodents in check before being elevated to valued status symbols, creatures we allowed to pounce playfully across the parchment of important manuscripts, their antics recorded with joy by their narrators. Alas, as the medieval age evolved across Europe, cats soon transmogrified into agents of evil in league with the devil, condemned to live their nine lives as mere puppets of sorcerers, according to the stupid and
superstitious. (Cats work for no man, not even the Dark Lord; anyone who’s ever met a cat knows that!) We can laugh about it now, but the end of the medieval era was not cool for cats. Thankfully, they landed on their paws and are now pretty much adored all over. As for humans, the jury’s still out.
Anyway, welcome to this curious compendium that goes seriously medieval on cats. Inside, you’ll find a catalog of frisky felines from ye olde times of yester yore getting up to all sorts of fun—and a whole lot more. Now tell me, which medieval cat is
your favorite?
Copyright © 2025 by Catherine Nappington. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
