A unicorn is a horse with a horn. Although in myth it was also traditionally said to have a beard, a lion’s tail, cloven hoofs and shimmering eyes. And the long spiralling horn growing from its forehead was believed to have magickal and medicinal properties.
In the Middle Ages it was thought to cure conditions such as epilepsy and neutralise poisons. For this reason, cups made from ‘unicorn horns’ were presented to kings in Europe as gifts. In reality, these cups were often made from the tusks of small arctic whales called narwhals by money-making opportunists.
It is also said that when Noah gathered two of every kind of animal to go into the Ark, he neglected to gather the unicorns, which is why they don’t exist today.
They were definitely once regarded as real animals. Unicorns were mentioned in Ancient Greek texts about natural history because Greek writers were convinced this incredible creature was real. The earliest description of something very unicorn-like comes from Ctesias, a Greek physician and historian who lived in the 5th century BC. He claimed that travellers to India had seen ‘wild asses, fleet of foot with a 26-inch horn.’
Some people believe the legend of the unicorn is based on an extinct species called Elasmotherium, a kind of giant rhinoceros which roamed the steppes of Europe and Asia until around 50,000 years ago. Although it didn’t look much like a horse, it did have a large single horn on its forehead.
One of the world’s earliest artistic depictions of a unicorn dates back to around 1500BC. It’s carved on a small stone seal that was found in present day Pakistan, belonging to a Bronze Age civilisation that lived around the Indus Valley.
In 1663, a German scientist named Otto Von Guericke claimed to have unearthed a fossilised unicorn from a cave in the Harze Mountains. The so-called ‘unicorn’ only had two legs, and the bones were later found to belong to a mammoth and a woolly rhinoceros, plus the horn of a narwhal.
More recently in 2012, a North Korean news agency claimed to have found the lair of one of the unicorns ridden by King Tongmyong, the founder of an ancient kingsdom that ruled Korea for 700 years. The site was apparently found near a temple in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, with the words ‘Unicorn Lair’ carved into a rock nearby.
In far Eastern tradition, the unicorn was depicted as a solitary animal that sprang from the centre of the earth and was honoured as a great spiritual guide in life. The unicorn was said to be so sensitive it could feel the weight of shadows cast by the light of the moon, and even rain and fire did its bidding. However, as long as humans were guilty of greed, anger and war, the unicorn would remain elusive. During unsettling times it would appear only when a great change for good was about to occur.
In vietnam, the unicorn is revered as a creature that possesses healing powers, and the country holds a yearly ‘unicorn dance’ where people celebrate the creature by donning masks and costumes.
The Germans have long been believers in unicorns. During the Middle Ages their churches and palaces were filled with images of the creature, which was known to them as Einhorn. In fact, the unicorn was so revered that a Christian mystical movement referred to the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, as Maria Unicornis – Mary of the Unicorn. The beautiful creature also featured heavily in Renaissance art in the 15th and 16th centuries, often pursued by noblemen in hunting scenes. These depictions symbolise the belief that magick was inherent in the natural world.
If you call on the unicorns for help, they are said to bring you your soul’s desires, those things that satisfy you right to your core. They are also extremely powerful healers, and even the most terrible wound may be healed by the touch of their horn. If you are at death’s door, you will need more than a touch – it’s believed that a drop of unicorn blood can bring you back from the brink. But of course, you’ll have to see a unicorn first.
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