The White Cat

Cultural origins: This is a French fairytale written by the great Comtesse d'Aulnoy. It is a literary tale, so the storyteller must be faithful to d'Aulnoy's story. I first heard this story told by Holly Black when talking about her childhood to a group of high school girls. They adored the story, and laughed at the sheer lunacy of the idea of a castle full of cats. It also inspired many of them to read her book based on the story, White Cat.

Intended audience: Early Middle School (11-13)

Why this audience?: This is a long story, full of bizarre plot twists. However, all ends well in this love story featuring years of cat merriment, fireworks and hand-filled hallways. Nothing in this tale seems familiar except perhaps the Beauty and the Beast  element of stumbling across a perfect castle in the middle of the woods with an enchanted animal inside. 

Characters:  The King
                        The Oldest Son
                        The Middle Son
                        The Youngest Son
                        The White Cat
                        

Scenes/Settings: The castle of the King and his three sons
                                 The castle of the White Cat 

Synopsis: The King decides that in his age he must appoint a successor to his kingdom so he sends his three sons on three missions to find unique items. Each mission takes a year and the son that has found the best item wins that challenge. The first year the sons are sent to find the smallest puppy in all the land.

Instead, the youngest son stumbles upon an elegant castle in the woods populated entirely with cats and a white cat queen. They spend the year together in merriment until he has quite forgotten his mission. On the day before the white cat queen produces a small hazelnut for him to bring to his father's court for his item. When the youngest son produces the hazelnut his father and brothers laugh at him but he cracks open the shell and inside is the tiniest pug in the world and fits on the King's fingertip.

The King sends his sons looking for a piece of the finest muslin for their second year. While the two older sons set about traveling the youngest son quickly returns to the court of the white cat and enjoys himself again for another year of fireworks, theater, hunting trips and fine food. At the end of the year when he has quite forgotten his mission the white cat produces a walnut and assures the youngest prince that this will please his father. After cracking open six nuts within nuts he does indeed produce the finest muslin in all the land and wins his father's favor yet again.

The final task is to bring back the most beautiful princess and though the prince does not think his white cat can conjure a princess from inside a nut he returns to her palace anyway. He has another year of fun until he confesses that he must return to his father's castle with a beautiful princess. At that, the white cat queen tells him to cut off her head. He is shocked, but obeys her command and as her head rolls to the floor a brilliantly beautiful princess appears. She had been cursed in the cat's body until a man returned to her who was faithful and true. 

They arrived at castle of the King in a carriage of crystal. The white Princess outshone the other two princesses by far. However she cried there was no need to give the kingdom to the youngest prince. She was heir to seven kingdoms already. If everyone took one she and the youngest prince would still have three kingdoms to rule. Everyone was happy with this arrangement. There would be no fighting and the white Princess had what she wanted more than anything else, a man who truly loved and respected her.

Story Climaxes/High Points: The youngest prince arrives at his father's palace to present his bride. His brother's princesses are very beautiful and when he tells them that he has brought a white cat they laugh at him. However, when the King pulls back the curtain to the chariot the crystal it is made of breaks into a thousand pieces and the cat is in fact a beautiful, shimmering princess.

Special Chants/Phrases: None

Bibliographic Information:

Lang, Andrew. (1965). The White Cat. In The Blue Fairy Book (pp. 157-173). New York: Dover Publications.