Of Tevildo, the Prince of Cats

“‘What is it – be swift,’ said he, ‘for this is no hour to come desiring audience of Tevildo Prince of Cats.'”

When one thinks of Middle-earth, thoughts of epic battles and the clash of blades, of the fair ethereal Elves, of the valiant champions of Men, of the Dwarves as jewel-smiths and master craftsmen of the mountain-halls, of wise angelic Wizards, of the tyrannical Dark Powers and their hordes of warmongering Orcs and other foul monsters pop up in our mind’s eye. But just how many of you would picture a cat playing a part in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium? Enter Tevildo, the Prince of Cats, a character that featured as an antagonist in the early drafts of Beren and Lúthien, at that point titled The Tale of Tinúviel.

“Now Tevildo was a mighty cat—the mightiest of all—and possessed of an evil sprite, as some say, and he was in Melko[<Melkor]’s constant following; and that cat had all cats subject to him, and he and his subjects were the chasers and getters of meat for Melko’s table and for his frequent feasts.”

So in the early stages in the development of Tolkien’s legendarium, more specifically of The Silmarillion (then known as The Book of Lost Tales), Tevildo was envisioned as a servant and “a close companion of Morgoth” (Melkor),  the first Dark Lord of Middle-earth. Though in reality an evil fay, Tevildo assumed the form of a great “coal-black” cat, akin to a panther, and whose “purr was like the roll of drums and his growl like thunder”. Around his neck lay an enchanted golden collar, gifted to him by Morgoth and which granted him sorcerous powers: through it, Tevildo had caught many unfortunate cats under a spell – that his master had taught him – and made them his minions, twisting the peaceful animals “with an evil power beyond their nature” and enhancing their size. As a vassal of Morgoth, Tevildo was also lord over a great castle that lay on a rocky hill-top; the stones that made up the abode of the Prince of Cats were also held together by the golden collar’s magic. Tevildo and his cat thanes were tasked by their master with hunting fresh flesh and preparing his great feasts.

Tevildo’s catfolk shared a deep enmity with the hounds that dwelled in the woods nearby, but none so greater than that between the Prince of Cats and Huan, the so-called “Captain of the Dogs” and the “chief foe of Tevildo”. In days past, Huan had once caught Tevildo, but the mighty feline had evaded him and repaid the hound’s attempt with a gash of his paw. Ever since, the Prince of Cats yearned for the chance to be rid of the mighty hound once and for all. The events of The Tale of Tinúviel would see the two adversaries reunited.

During the Quest for the Silmaril, the hero Beren was captured by Morgoth and sent “to be made a thrall of Tevildo Prince of Cats” and serve in the latter’s kitchens. Determined to save her imprisoned beloved, the Elf maiden Lúthien Tinúviel enlists the aid of Huan and makes her way to Tevildo’s castle, preparing a trap for Morgoth’s servant. Tinúviel claimed before Tevildo that Huan lay wounded in the woods nearby. So great was the mighty cat’s wish that the news were true that he fell for the Elf maiden’s ruse: escorted by two of his minions, Tevildo issued out of his castle to hunt down Huan, planning to ambush his nemesis from all sides. But no sooner had the cats approached, that the hound rose up and attacked them. Having dispatched the two bodyguards, Huan engaged Tevildo himself in battle.

Overpowered, the Prince of Cats fled up a tree, but the Captain of the Dogs would not let him come down, Having no wish to “feel again [Huan’s] teeth”, Tevildo agreed to barter with his old enemy: in exchange for his life, Morgoth’s thane was “forced to cast down his golden collar” – a great dishonor for the Prince of Cats- and begrudgingly revealed the spell through which the castle was held together and the cats had been enslaved. And with the collar in hand and the magic words told to her by Tevildo, Lúthien Tinúviel lifted the enchantments: Tevildo’s castle crumbled and both the catfolk and the captive Beren were freed. As for the fate of Tevildo himself: Huan held up his part of the bargain and spared Tevildo, leaving Morgoth’s servant distraught and bitter:

“At the time however whereof the tale tells it was Tevildo’s chief desire to recapture Beren and Tinúviel and to slay Huan, that he might regain the spell and magic that he had lost, for he was in great fear of Melko, and he dared not seek his master’s aid and reveal his defeat and the betrayal of his spell.”

But the Prince of Cats never got the chance to avenge his humiliation upon the two lovers and the Captain of the Dogs, and when word finally reached his master of the events, the latter cursed and banished him.

The Legacy of Tevildo and his catfolk

Of course, Tevildo’s literary life was short and he was no longer featured in the subsquents drafts nor the published version of Beren and Lúthien. Instead, as Tolkien’s son Christopher pointed out, the Prince of Cats was replaced by another more sinister villain, who is arguably “the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen”:

“In The Lay of Leithian Thû emerges as the fearful Necromancer, Lord of Wolves, who dwelt in Tol Sirion, the island in the river Sirion with an Elvish watchtower, which came to be Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves. He is, or will be, Sauron. Tevildo and his realm of cats have disappeared.” 

Some of Tevildo’s charateristics were also adopted by the new character of Draugluin, “greatest of the werewolves of Thû (Sauron)” and the “sire” (i.e. progenitor) of their kind. Similar to the way “Tevildo was an evil fay in beastlike shape”, Tolkien explains that Draugluin and his spawn are “fell beasts inhabited by dreadful spirits that [Sauron] had imprisoned in their bodies”. And just like Tevildo, Draugluin is also portrayed as a companion, although in this case not of Morgoth himself but of his chief lieutenant, Sauron.

As a fun fact, the fan podcast known as The Silmarillion Film Project (abbreviated SilmFilm) contemplated how Tevildo could potentially be re-fit into a Peter Jackson adaptation of Beren and Lúthien, “re-imagined as a demonic servant of Sauron”.

Nonetheless, the role of cats as the unfortunate minions of a wicked being was not fully erased from J.R.R. Tolkien’s legenedarium and they are featured as such in story of Queen Berúthiel. In The Lord of the Rings, during the journey through Moria, Aragorn makes a brief allusion to the tale when he says of Gandalf:

“He is surer of finding the way home in a blind night that the cats of Queen Berúthiel.”

The tale exists only as a sketch, “a very ‘primitive’ outline, in one part illegible”, that Christopher Tolkien later transcribed in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. Therefore, we know very little of Berúthiel’s early life, save that she was a noblewoman of Black Númenórean heritage. Presumably she hailed from the costal city of Umbar, once the chief stronghold of “the King’s Men, who were afterwards called the Black Númenóreans, corrupted by Sauron”. Somehow, possibly as a political alliance of sorts, Berúthiel was wedded to Tarannon Falastur, the 12th King of Gondor, and moved to the city of Osgiliath and “lived in the King’s House”. Their marriage was a loveless one and Tarannon was “the first childless king” in the entire history of the South-realm. From a certain point of view, Berúthiel could be seen at this point as a victim, forced to wed a man she had no feelings for and then forced to live within reach of “the sounds and smells of the sea” that she deeply hated. But in light of the details to follow, one can see that the queen was equal times both victim and a nefarious being. Her cruel tastes were first implied when Tolkien mentions how Berúthiel decorated the royal gardens of Osgiliath with “tormented sculptures”. And the way she used her cats, coupled with the way she treated them, further adds credence to this conclusion:

“She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things ‘that men wish most to keep hidden,’ setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass.”

Eventually Tarannon banished Berúthiel from Gondor; the exact reasons for this are unknown, since the part of the manuscript before her exile is precisely the illegible text mentioned by Christopher. Her name was erased from the royal records, “the Book of Kings”, but “the cats of Queen Berúthiel never passed wholly out of men’s speech”. The last we hear of her she had been set on a ship alone with her cats, drifting back towards the realm whence she came:

“The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.”

Interestingly, The Lord of the Rings: The White Council – an ambitious video game project by Electronict Arts that was to be based on both Peter Jackson’s film continuity and Tolkien’s source material – would have featured Queen Berúthiel and her minions, as confirmed by the concept art. The cats, labeled “Fell Cats” by the game’s design team, were apparently thought of as descendants of Tevildo’s catfolk. Unfortunately, the project was delayed indefinitely and will likely never see the light of day.

As a fun fact and sidenote: I named my own black-furred cat Tevildo! While she certainly lacks the vile traits of her namesake, she certainly gives off a royal vibe. She is my little Princess of Cats! And it is arguable that she sees the other cats at the countryside house as her subjects 😅.

Sources

You can find my original article here.

• Beren and Lúthien
• The Lord of the Rings
• Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

Artistic credits

• Alan Lee
• rohavon
• Ted Nasmith
• MatejCadil
• Steamey
• Paula DiSante
• Electronic Arts