Unicorn: Difference between revisions

''"No, but I wonder if any man before us ever thought his time a good time for unicorns."''|''[[The Last Unicorn (novel)|The Last Unicorn]]''}}

''The loveliest of all was the unicorn.''|The Irish Rovers, ''The Unicorn Song''}}

A [[Mythical Motifs|mythical creature]] representing purity, rarity and wild beauty, the '''Unicorn''' has appeared in heraldry and fairy tales for centuries. Its origins come not as a mythical creature but as a beast of [[Our Monsters Are Different|natural history]] recorded by ancient Greek historians, or as they are commonly known: [[Blatant Lies|liars]].

Today's conception of a unicorn is nearer to the Medieval one: A narwhal's horn, a horse's head, a deer's body, a goat's beard and feet and a lion's tail. There also is the version of a horse with a horn ([[Winged Unicorn|and occasionally even wings]]) tofor make toa look like a flyinghorned [[Pegasus]]).

As the common fare of little girls' fantasies, thetheir origin in histories becomes quite ironic. Even in stories where [[All Myths Are True]] and obvious and are coming round for tea later, the Unicorn will still keep a mythical status, staying rare and secretive. Further irony is added by the fact that it started off as an incredibly wild and violent beast that was completely untameableuntamable before evolving into one of the softest and child-friendly motifs.

The switch is linked to one of the most common paired motifs -- the Virgin and the Unicorn. Only a virgin-maiden would be able to attract the Unicorn to her. According to [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|Terry Jones]], though not conventional scholarship, in his researching of medieval folklore he found that the pairing was originally just an old [[Stealth Pun]] {{spoiler|you send a mythical creature to find a mythical creature.}} Broadly, the story always goes on the lines of the maiden was duped into attracting and soothing her unicorn friend until the hunters who convinced her to do so could attack and kill the unicorn for its horn. Sometimes the maiden is just followed, [[Virginity Makes You Stupid|sometimes knowingly involved and tricked.]] The implication is that the unicorn was so fierce and wild [[Good Hurts Evil|only an innocent girl's purity could conquer it]].

== Anime &and Manga ==

** In ''[[Discworld/Guards! Guards!|Guards Guards]]'', a group of professional monster hunters are conversing about their previous successes. One talks about the difficulty of capturing unicorns and the need to use virgins, followed by an old joke:

* One other way to catch a unicorn is known, through ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130401141142/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/bravetailor/ The Brave Little Tailor]'': stand between the unicorn and a good stolid tree. When it goes to stab you through, jump aside. With its horn stuck deep in the tree, it won't be able to kill you.

* An episode of [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'']] had unicorns being used as mounts. No indication was given as to whether or not they were sapient.

* In the video for [[Ke$ha]]'s "Blow", unicorns are [[Petting Zoo People|bipedal, wear clothes]] bleed rainbows when shot and, since they're hanging with Ke$ha apparently have no hangupshang-ups about the state of one's virginity.

* Also apparently with no hangupshang-ups about virginity is the [[Cool Horse|incredibly badass-looking black unicorn]] ridden by [[Voltaire (musician)|Voltaire]] on the cover of the album "Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children" (and yes, that's the full title).

** His reaction to the resident [[Miss Yo -Yo Knickers]] and the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Maidenly Vampire]] is hilarious.

*** It should be noted that the Sparklelord was the Radical Land's [[The Lord of the Rings|Sauron]] equivalent.

* [[Horny Vikings|Viking]] [[Intrepid Merchant|traders]], used to sell NarwhaleNarwhal tusks and call them unicorn-horns. As NarwhalesNarwhals could easily be presented as magic beasts themselves, one wonders why they bothered with calling them unicorns.

* Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus raised a stir in the 1980s by displaying "unicorns" in its shows ... in reality, white angora goats whose horn buds had been surgically repositioned in infancy. The animals' creator, a scholar and artist deeply involved in paganism and mythology, actually holds a patent on the procedure. She's also the co-founder of the real-life Church of All Worlds, a neopagan group that uses some of the concepts introduced in Robert Heinlein's ''[[Stranger in Aa Strange Land]]''.