‘Then said Útgarda-Loki: 'Young lads here are wont to do this (which is thought of small consequence): lift my cat up from the earth; but I should not have been able to speak of such a thing to Ása-Thor if I had not seen that thou hast far less in thee than I had thought.' Thereupon there leaped forth on the hall-floor a grey cat, and a very big one; and Thor went to it and took it with his hand down under the middle of the belly and lifted up. But the cat bent into an arch just as Thor stretched up his hands; and when Thor reached up as high as he could at the very utmost, then the cat lifted up one foot, and Thor got this game no further advanced. Then said Útgarda-Loki: 'This game went even as I had foreseen; the cat is very great, whereas Thor is low and little beside the huge men who are here with us.' (1220-1230, Prosaic Edda by Snorri Sturlusson).
The excerpt above has been taken from the so called Younger Edda or Prosaic Edda (Snorra Edda), an epic concerning the Nordic mythology. It is also - at least according to the legend - the first written mention of the amazing and mysterious cats, called huldrekatte (witch's cats), strong and robust dwellers of Scandinavian forests – the Norwegian Forest Cats.
Their origin is as mysterious as themselves, none of the numerous theories has been confirmed yet. It is possible that the breed evolved by itself, without any human assistance, solely due to the harsh climate and difficult living conditions. The survival of the fittest: only those that adapted best to the cold, snow and piercing wind could manage to stay alive. Thus, the characteristic features of the Norwegian Forest Cats: semi long coat, muscular body, ‘snow paws’ covered with long tufts of fur protecting the feet from the cold, special arrangement of hook-like claws that enables wegies to climb down the trees head first (in manner of a squirrel) could be the result of natural development. Another theory states that Norwegian Forest Cats descend from the longhaired cats brought firm Byzantium by the Vikings, who travelled with cats in order to protect the precious grain from rats and mice. Consequently, those cats are supposed to have reached America with the Vikings, thus giving birth to another breed: the Maine Coon. Yet those theories are just suppositions, the only relatively undisputable fact is the lack of any relationship between NFO and wildcat. The differences in phenotype are so big so as to practically exclude any kinship.
Wegies are big, muscular cats, powerful rather than elegant, yet agile and shapely. Males weigh 6 to 10 kilo, females are remarkably smaller with their 4 to 5 kg. Wegies have strong, long bodies and paws with big, rounded feet – the hind legs are longer than front legs.
The apparent discrepancy does not make them clumsy, on the contrary – it gives them great jumping ability and is one of the traits that prove their wonderful adaptation to their living conditions. It can be seen also in other features, most of all in their coat. The coat consists of two layer: woolly, thick undercoat protecting from the cold and long, harsh to the touch, glossy and slightly oily guard hair that, well, guard the animal from moisture and water. The guard hair grow mainly on the back, sides and the tail, while the undercoat forms the profuse frill, ruff and knickerbockers on the hind legs. The length and thickness of the coat depend on the season: in winter the coat protects the cat from the cold and moisture, while in summer it is remarkably shorter, often its only remains is the long, bushy tail (long enough to reach the shoulder blades). The coat cannot be too silky or delicate as it would tangle easily and the cat would not be able to take care of it by itself. The quality of coat makes the everyday brushing unnecessary, except for the spring shedding, when one has to comb away the excess fur and prevent the cat from swallowing it (and clogging the digestive track in consequence). Paws, which suffer easily from the cold, are protected by dense tufts of long hair growing between the toes. The ears boast of a similar protection: they are covered by a warm curtain of long hair. The ears themselves are large, open at the base, while the tufts at the pointy ear tips greatly add to the wild expression. The head seen en face has the shape of a equilateral triangle, where the distance between the ears equals the distance between the ear and the chin. The forehead is slightly rounded, turning smoothly into the famous straight profile without a break (stop). The picture will not be complete without the strong chin and the eyes – slightly oblique, almond shaped, mysterious, expressive, wild, unique... Those amazing eyes can be any colour: green, golden, orange or blue, regardless of the coat colour. 
Wegies can be black, blue, red, cream, tortie, both solid or with tabby patterns, silver or not, with white or without; though with the exception of colourpoint, chocolate, lilac, cinnamon or fawn. In 2004 the FIFe GA accepted two new colour varieties for NFO, namely amber and light amber, assuming those colours result from a natural mutation and have not been introduced via outcrossing to other breed (which is prohibited in case of so called natural breeds). Another accepted, though quite rare, colour variety is a 'snow wegie', completely white cat, blue-, golden-, green or odd-eyed. Unfortunately, the gene responsible for so called dominant epistatic white may cause also deafness. Interestingly, the pale blue eye colour, characteristic for the white cats, may occur also in cats of other colours, yet is usually connected to the high amount of white.
The coat of Norwegian forest cats is judged for texture and length, not for colour, therefore the amount and location of white patches is of no significance during judging.
[Fragments of the breed monograph, published in the „Kot” journal, no. 1/2005]
