Tradition / Region: Dutch Mythology
Alternative names: Kat op de Sweng, Swengkat van Slochteren
Category: Cat
The Myth
The Swengkat appeared as a large cat sitting silently on the sweng, the crossbeam above the threshing floor inside a barn. It watched the workers with unusual intelligence, staring as though it understood every word they spoke.
According to a folktale from Slochteren, several men were threshing grain with flails, walking back and forth across the barn floor. Throughout their work, a large cat remained perched on the wooden beam above them. One of the workers remarked that the cat seemed to be listening to everything they said, while another admitted that the animal’s unwavering stare made him uneasy.
When the men passed beneath the beam for the third time, the uneasy worker decided to strike the cat. He swung the wooden head of his flail at the animal, causing it to cry out and flee.
At that exact same moment, elsewhere in the farmhouse, the farmer’s wife was found lying in the front room with a broken leg. The incident was understood as proof that the cat had actually been the woman in the form of a witch, and that the injury inflicted upon the animal had appeared on her real body after she resumed her human shape.
Sources
Ter Laan, K. Groninger volksleven. I. Verhalende folklore. Groningen: J.B. Wolters, 1959. 1st ed.