Transcript

Bhí captaen loinge ann fadó agus do fuair sé orduithe chun dul amach 'on oileán go dtísna (domhaintí). Agus ar a theacht chun an chuain ar maidin (do chuaigh) ar bord na loinge. Do bhuail cailín beag uime agus do bhí cat aici agus (...) (san fhalla). Agus d'fhiafraigh sé dhi an dtabharfadh sí an cat dó. Agus dúirt sí go dtabharfadh. Agus do thug. Agus do thug sé (sabhran) di ar an gcat. Do chuaigh sé ar bord na loinge agus do (sheol) sé chun farraige. Agus i gceann (suim) mhór aimsire do shaothraigh sé an t-oileán. Do (shuigh) sé a chuid ládáil na loinge (...) san oileán.

Agus lá dhos na laethanta do chuir rí an oileáin iarraidh air chun teacht ar dinnéar ina theannta. Agus do chuaigh. Agus nuair a bhí an bia á chur ar an mbord is air a bhí an ionadh nuair a chonaic sé beirt fhear agus dhá shúiste acu á bhfáil féin ullamh. Agus nu-, chomh tapaidh agus a cuireadh an bia ar an mbord do líon an tigh isteach do fhrancachaibh ó, as nach aon pholl agus as nach aon chúinne. Agus faid a bhí an dinnéar á chaitheamh do bhíodar á marú chomh tiubh agus dob fhéidir leo é. D'fhiafraigh sé dhon rí an mbíonn siad mar sin i gcónaí.

"Bímíd" arsa an rí.

"Tiocfadsa arís amárach," ar seisean, "am dinnéir."

"Tá go maith," arsa an rí.

Agus do tháinig. Agus ní (dheaghaidh) sé an cat gan é a thabhairt leis. Ach (...) (sé é ina dhiaidh). Nuair a cuireadh an dinnéar ar an gclár an tarna lá do bhí na fir á bhfháil féin ullamh arís. Agus dúirt sé leo stad. Scaoil sé an cat ar fuaid an urláir. Do mheall an cat agus ar chrapadh na súl ní raibh francach le fáil. Agus do tháinig (...) ar an rí agus d'fhiafraigh sé dhe, "An ndíolfá é sin?"

"Ní (deocair) liom tú a eiteach," arsa an captaen, "ach do bheinn ana-chiotach ina dhiaidh. Ach mar a chéile, tabharfaidh mé dhuit é". Agus do thug.

Do fuair sé orduithe san oileán teacht abhaile ina dhúthaigh féin agus ládáil chat a thabhairt amach ann. Agus do dhein. Do dhein sé saibhreas go brách orthu. Ní dheaghaidh sé ar farraige go brách arís. Agus sin é deireadh mo scéilse agus má tá bréag ann bíodh.

Translation

There was a ship's captain long ago and he received orders to go out to an island that was in the (...). And when he came to the harbour in the morning he went on board the ship. He ran into a little girl and she had a cat and (...) in the wall (?). And he asked her would she give him the cat. And she said she would. And she did. And he gave her a sovereign for the cat. He went on board the ship and he sailed out to sea. And after a great amount of time he made his way to the island. He was loading the ship hastily (?) on the island.

And one day the king of the island invited him to come to dinner with him. And he went. And when the food was being put out on the table he was surprised to see two men with two flails at the ready. And when... as soon as the food was put on the table the house filled up with rats, from every hole and every corner. And while the dinner was being eaten they were killing them as fast as they could. He asked the king if they were always thus.

"Yes" said the king.

"I will come again tomorrow," he said, "at dinnertime."

"Very well," said the king.

And he came. And he didn't go (?) without bringing the cat with him. But he didn't (...) it after (?). When dinner was put on the table the second day the men were getting ready again. And he told them to stop. He let the cat down on the floor. The cat mewed and in the blink of an eye there was no rat to be seen. And the king became (...) and he asked him, "Would you sell that?"

"I don't want to refuse you," said the captain, "but I would be lost without him. But all the same, I will give him to you." And he did.

He received orders on the island to come home to his own land and to bring a shipload of cats out there. And he did. He made his fortune on them. He never went to sea again. And that's the end of my story and if there's an untruth in it so be it.

Commentary

This story is a version of a well-known international folk tale, known as ATU 1651 'Whittington's cat', according to Hans Jorg Uther's The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). It is most famous in its English-language form, which concerns a fourteenth-century merchant named Richard Whittington, and since at least the seventeenth century has formed the basis for various stage productions, usually under the title 'Dick Whittington and his cat'. Despite the English form being most famous, it is truly an international tale, with versions known from Ireland to Indonesia, and with a concentration of examples from Finnish oral tradition. See Stith Thompson, The folktale (New York, 1978), 179. Versions of the story have been told in Europe since at least the thirteenth century, as evidenced by Albert von Stade's entry for 1256 in his Annales. See Georg Heinrich Pertz Monumenta Germaniae Historica XVI (Hanover, 1859), 335-40. A comprehensive list of versions from a range of different countries can be found in Matilda Koén-Sarano and Reginetta Haboucha, King Solomon and the golden fish: tales from the Sephardic tradition (Detroit, 2004), 299ff.

Motifs included in the the story are F708.1 Country without cats, and N411.1 Whittington’s cat. ‘A cat in a mouse-infested land without cats sold for a fortune’. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8).

The story is closely related to another international folktale, ATU 1281 Getting rid of an unknown animal. This usually appears as a follow-up story to ATU 1651, but is clearly absent in this version. It is based on the motif J2101 Getting rid of the cat. ‘In a land in which cats are not known, one is bought at a great price. It eats many mice. By misunderstanding, they think the cat is a monster. In order to get rid of it they set the house on fire’.