The King of the Cats

[1] The earliest known example is found in Beware the Cat, written by William Baldwin in 1553,[nb 1] though it is related to the first-century story of "The Death of Pan".

[6] An early mention of Tybert/Tibert (the king of cats) can be found in William Caxton's 1481 print of the fable This is the table of the historye of reynart the foxe.

Frances Jenkins Olcott's 1942 anthology Good Stories For Great Holidays included a version of Charlotte S. Burne's "The King of the Cats" adapted by Ernest Rhys.

[16] In John Crowley's 1987 novel The Solitudes, "The King of the Cats" is explicitly related to "the Death of Pan" as recorded by Plutarch and interpreted by Augustine of Hippo as a shift in World Ages.

The novel tells of the death of Tom Tildrum and the crowning of his successor, Jack Tigerstripes, who is told by a feline oracle on his coronation day that he is destined to be captured by a human and to end his life in exile.

[18] The title track of American rock band Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' 2003 EP Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead was inspired by a County Cork version of "The King of the Cats", with the title referring to the cats' names in the story, and mention in the song of the story's setting, the graveyard at Inchigeelagh.

The story is referenced in the videogame Ni No Kuni where the kingdom of Ding Dong Dell is ruled by an anthropomorphic cat named King Tom Tildrum XIV.