A little of history : from the myth ...

True character of the Scandinavian mythology, the skogkatt (or " forest cat ") is repeatedly mentioned in the Scandinavian legends. So even Thor himself would have been incapable to lift one of these cats so much he was heavy. We find also two of these fairy tales cats beside the goddess Freyja (goddess of the earth, the love and the fertility), cats of the size of a lion according to the legend and pulling its tank. One is called "maternal love" and the second "tenderness".

Certain tales for children also take up this cat under the shape of a cat nymph with a bushy tail.

... to the reality

Really, the introduction of the ancestors of the current Norwegian cat in the Scandinavian peninsula would be due to the Vikings. It is during one of their numerous journeys which these would have returned in their boats some cats of East to limit the proliferation of rats and mouse and so protect their stocks of food. Once disembarked at the arrival, these cats would have adapted themselves, during time, to the rigorous climate to become the actual Norwegian cat.

It is only in the 1930's that Scandinavian breeders were interested in this cat and worked to protect its originality.

The standart :

The first standard was defined in 1972 by the Norwegian breeders, how his name of cat of the Norwegian forests. It is in 1977 when the FIFé ( Fédération Internationale Féline ) adopts the race and confers him its first official standard. From then on, and as to compensate a little his late arrival in the feline shows, the craze of the public for this cat with a sure aesthetics doesn't stop growing.

Indeed, not satisfied to seduce the eye, this cat is endowed with a character particularly soft and affectionate which makes him very close to the man but also the other animals. Adapting himself with ease to the life in apartment, he so becomes the ideal companion of the family, from the smallest to the biggest.