October Tales: Part 1

Hello everyone –

Have you ever sat down to write a research paper and found that you had too much material to fit within the assigned page limit? That’s how I feel about the month of October with regard to Quotemail: I have too much good material on hand to let it go to waste! So from now through Halloween, Quotemail will be distributed on a weekly basis! :)

Our first “October Tale” involves the most popular fantastic beast of all time – the unicorn!

“The Unicorn: A Timeless Enigma”

By Rob Chappell, M.A., Assistant to the Honors Dean

Adapted & Condensed from Cursus Honorum VI: 8 (March 2006)

            Recent years have witnessed a dramatic upsurge of interest in cryptozoology (the study of “hidden animals” or fantastic beasts), as seen in a plethora of books, movies, video games, and clothing featuring basilisks, gryphons, dragons, etc. A perennial favorite among these legendary animals is the unicorn, a creature that has captivated the human imagination since prehistoric times. Possibly based on mistaken sightings of wild oxen, or perhaps on ancestral traditions of an extinct one-horned creature (see the illustration below), the unicorn remains a perennial favorite despite continued scientific skepticism about its existence in the “real world.”

            Traditionally, the unicorn has been depicted by authors and artists as an untamable herbivorous creature. It is like a snow-white horse in appearance, and its distinguishing feature is a single horn protruding from the top of its head. Many alleged “unicorn sightings” were reported by ancient writers like Aristotle, Aelian, and Pliny the Elder, and their accounts greatly influenced medieval and modern depictions of the unicorn. It was reported, for example, that the unicorn was a solitary creature of the wilderness that would fight to defend its “territory” from intruders – usually by charging its enemy (e.g., a dragon) and goring it to death with its powerful horn. Whatever unicorns may have been in fact or fiction, they were much sought after because their horns were highly prized by alchemists and apothecaries for their alleged curative properties.

            So did unicorns really exist as they were depicted by the ancients? Their existence in Nature (past or present) cannot yet be proved or disproved in an absolute sense. Until then, here are some books on “unicornology” for those who would like to learn more about these marvelous denizens of our imagination.

·        The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard (1930)

·        The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (1968)

·        Unicorns by Nancy Hathaway (1980)

Painting of an Elasmotherium by Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) – a prehistoric rhinoceros that might have given rise to the unicorn legend among early human tribes. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Until next time –

Rob :)