Dedicated to a Healthy Legacy

Welcome to  the Folkvangr Cattery of Northern Virginia Norwegian Forest cat page. 

We are a dual tica/cfa registered breeder located near Culpeper in Northern Virginia.  We started working with Norwegians because of how difficult it is to find a well bred NFC in the U.S.  Our goal is to positively contribute to both maintaining and improving the breed.  

The breed is actually very scarce in the U.S. and in fact at one point it nearly became extinct and was listed on the endangered program after WWII.  The breed has begun to recover thanks to efforts made by the Norwegian Forest Cat Club but they are still not nearly as common as other breeds! 

We do travel with these babies all over and currently have kittens as far away as Washington State and California.  

The kittens will come with a spay/neuter  agreement, and have a health and genetic guarantee, they are guaranteed negative for FELV/FIV and HCM.  Registered Norwegian Forest Cats (NFC) range between $2k and up.  There are very few breeders in the US making them a rare and difficult breed to find and the high cost to import. Please be aware of this prior to  sending an enquiry on price.

The Norwegian Forest cat (Norwegian: Wegie, Norsk, skogkatt or Norsk skaukatt) is a breed of domestic cat originating in Northern Europe. This natural breed is adapted to a very cold climate, with a top coat of glossy, long, water-shedding hair and a woolly undercoat for insulation.  

In Norse mythology, Folkvangr is a meadow ruled over by the goddess Freyja. Her hall, Sessrumnir, is located within the realm and where she dwells with her cats.  She received them as a gift from Thor when they were kittens.  

Norwegian myths describe large, long-haired fairy cats who live in the mountains and could climb sheer rock faces that other cats could not manage.  It is believed the skogkatt were based off of the large, furry Norwegian Forest cats, as skogkatt literally translates to “forest cat”. 

Old Norse (North Germanic) mythology describes these cats as being so big that not even the Gods could lift them. One famous legend depicts Thor, the strongest of all the Gods, losing in a show of strength to sea serpent Jormungandr who was disguised as a Nowegian Forest cat. 

The skogkatt (or forest cat) was adored by Freya, the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. The goddess is often depicted riding a chariot drawn by several humongous cats or with cats laying all around her. Farmers believed that if Freya passed through their fields or if they left milk out for her cats, they would have a bountiful harvest. Because Freya was also the goddess of love, people thought girls who loved cats had a greater chance of having a happy, successful marriage.

In the 1950s, King Olaf V of Norway named the Norwegian Forest cat the country’s national cat.