Unicorn: Fact And Fantasy

The usual image of the unicorn coalesces in our minds as a white horse with a horn. In Europe the image of a small goat-like horse with cloven hooves, a beard, a lion’s tail, and one horn dominates the fairy tales of this particular beast. However, throughout the many years and different cultures the unicorn changed greatly.

Long ago, several years before the Greeks thought of building their cities, the unicorn already made an appearance in China. Called the ki-lin (pronounced chee-lin) the Chinese unicorn appeared as a creature with the body of a deer, the head of a wolf, the hooves of a horse, and a horn several feet long. Always a mythical creature to the Chinese, it wore a coat of the five sacred Chinese colors, red, yellow, blue, white, and black. Its coming foretold great things, such as the birth of famous people. As the chosen animal of Buddha, the Chinese teacher, it symbolized great peace and serenity. Never would it step upon a blade of grass or eat meat. Its horn possessed a fleshy tip so the unicorn

In 235-170 B.C a Roman writer known as Aelian exhibited a great degree of imagination. He claimed two unicorns existed. One resembled Cestias’s unicorn, but the second possessed attributes unique to Aelian. His second unicorn lived in the Indian Mountains. Possessing one black horn and reddish hair, it sped over the plain. Its mane shook as it ran, and its elephant feet pounded the ground as its tiny goat tail waved behind it.

However, medieval people actually, in a way, did see their unicorns. The two one horned rhino species, the white and the black, or African, rhinos inspired Marco Polo’s unicorn. Also the oryx, an African antelope, sports exceptionally long and straight horns. Seen in profile the two horns looked like one. Julius Caesar probably spotted a reindeer with one horn broken off. Last but not least the narwhal probably inspired most of the unicorn tales. This one tusked sea mammal supplied all the horns that people saw. This one tiny animal possibly single handedly spawned the myth of the unicorn by providing physical proof, the tusks, that unicorns truly existed. Until seafaring got better the only source of tusks came from what washed up on shore. Narwhal poaching started when safer and more reliable boats were built. Finally people owned proof that unicorns existed.

Some topics in this essay:
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