#WingedWordsWindsday: 01/19/2022 -- The Unicorn!

 

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 12: January 19, 2022

 

 

Unicorns!

 

“The Unicorn”

By Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

 

The saintly hermit, midway through his prayers

stopped suddenly, and raised his eyes to witness

the unbelievable: for there before him stood

the legendary creature, startling white, that

had approached, soundlessly, pleading with his eyes.

 

The legs, so delicately shaped, balanced a

body wrought of finest ivory.

And as he moved, his coat shone like reflected moonlight.

 

High on his forehead rose the magic horn, the sign

of his uniqueness: a tower held upright

by his alert, yet gentle, timid gait.

 

The mouth of softest tints of rose and grey, when

opened slightly, revealed his gleaming teeth, whiter than snow.

The nostrils quivered faintly:

he sought to quench his thirst, to rest and find repose.

 

His eyes looked far beyond the saint's enclosure,

reflecting vistas and events long vanished,

and closed the circle of this ancient mystic legend.

 

“An Introduction to Unicornology”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

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

                Recent decades 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 phoenixes, 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.”

 

Painting of an Elasmotherium (ca. 1920) by Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) – a prehistoric Siberian rhinoceros that might have given rise to the unicorn legend among early human tribes. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

                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 Mediterranean historians and naturalists like Ctesias of Cnidus, Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and Claudius Aelian, 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 might 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.

 

Ctesias of Cnidus (fl. ca. 400 BCE): Indica

Summary from Photius: Myriobiblon 72

                In India there are wild asses [i.e., unicorns] as large as horses, or even larger. Their body is white, their head dark red, their eyes bluish, and they have a horn in their forehead about a cubit in length. The lower part of the horn, for about two palms distance from the forehead, is quite white, the middle is black, the upper part, which terminates in a point, is a very flaming red. Those who drink out of cups made from it are proof against convulsions, epilepsy, and even poison, provided that before or after having taken it they drink some wine or water or other liquid out of these cups. The domestic and wild asses of other countries and all other solid-hoofed animals have neither huckle-bones nor gall-bladder, whereas the Indian asses have both. Their huckle-bone is the most beautiful that I have seen, like that of the ox in size and appearance; it is as heavy as lead and of the color of cinnabar all through. These animals are very strong and swift; neither the horse nor any other animal can overtake them. At first they run slowly, but the longer they run their pace increases wonderfully, and becomes faster and faster. There is only one way of catching them. When they take their young to feed, if they are surrounded by a large number of horsemen, being unwilling to abandon their foals, they show fight, butt with their horns, kick, bite, and kill many men and horses. They are at last taken, after they have been pierced with arrows and spears; for it is impossible to capture them alive. Their flesh is too bitter to eat, and they are only hunted for the sake of the horns and huckle-bones.

 

                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 Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (1968) – This delightful and profound fantasy novel was adapted into a classic animated film in 1982 with a memorable soundtrack performed by “America.” Follow the ad-ventures of the last unicorn Amalthea and her human friends as they go on a quest to find out why all the other unicorns have vanished from the land – and watch as they wind up discovering their own true selves in the process.

•              Unicorns by Nancy Hathaway (1980) – Here is a splendid multicultural collection of unicorn tales from across the centuries and around the world.  Numerous color illustrations depict the manifold types of unicorns within a global context – from medieval Europe to East Asia and beyond. An original story about the constellation Monoceros (the celestial unicorn, located next to Orion on the sky’s dome) appears at the end of the book.

•              The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard (1930) – This book guides the reader on a historical journey through “unicornology” from antiquity to the twentieth century and is well illustrated with reproductions of classic artworks.  The author celebrates the unicorn as a timeless symbol with many meanings and chronicles the scientific debate over its existence with sympathy and good humor.

 

Here is a star map showing the celestial Unicorn by Sidney Hall (Urania’s Mirror, 1825, plate 31). The constellations pictured include Monoceros, Canis Minor, and (the now obsolete) Atelier Typographique. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Com-mons)

  

Resources for Further Exploration: Unicornology

·         The Medieval Bestiary: Unicorn à http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast140.htm

·         Adrienne Mayor @ Stanford University à https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Mayor.html

·         Unicorns à https://www.crystalinks.com/unicorns.html

·         The History of the Unicorn à https://www.unicorn-dream.co.uk/unicorn2.html

·         “The Unicorn” by the Irish Rovers (Music Video) à https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG_RA_IKO6g