History

International Unicorn Day

By on • ( 96 Comments )

Today, April 9th, is International Unicorn Day. So, Happy Unicorn Day! Naturally this is one of my favorite holidays, because the whole-wide world is celebrating the magnificent, one-horned beast that is chased every day on my blog.

I believe unicorns are real, and they are everywhere. But that’s because I define a unicorn as anything that is unique, whether it be a unique thought, experience, life situation, or anything else. And there’s lots of uniqueness in our world. Every new day is different, with something novel and intriguing introducing itself to our lives.

The classic unicorn of mythology is also unique. It’s depicted as having a single, long, twisty horn, body of a horse, a lion’s mane and tail, and cloven hooves. That would be a unique sight to see.

This classic unicorn was thought by medieval Europeans to actually exist. They believed that their natural habitat was in India, which they fancied as a far-off land full of mystery and magic.

But they must have also imagined that these creatures sometimes strayed from India to Europe, because stories were spread about unicorn hunts, and theories abounded about the best way to capture a unicorn.

And these unicorns of yore were reputed to be nearly impossible to catch. Hunters reported that if one was chased to the edge of a precipice, it would leap off the declivity and land on its horn. The horn would absorb the shock of the fall, and so it would survive and escape.

Some claimed there was only one way to catch these wild, untamable creatures. They had a weakness for virgins. As soon as a unicorn laid eyes upon a virgin, it would lose all its fear and ferocity, gently approach the maiden, and lay its head submissively upon her lap. There it would fall asleep and be easily captured by its pursuers.

The Maiden and the Unicorn is a fresco painted by Domenichino around the year 1602. It can be found on the southeast wall of the Palazzo Farnese, in Rome.

To religious scholars, unicorns symbolized the Passion of Christ, and the virgin was the mother, Mary. And this is how unicorns found a curious, unique role to play, in the iconology of ancient Christianity.

Shakespeare told us of another way to capture a unicorn. In his play, Timon of Athens, the hunter would stand in front of a tree and goad it into charging him. At the last second he would step aside, and the unicorn’s horn would become embedded deep in the wood of the tree. The lesson from this was, “wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury.”

Unicorn horns were called alicorn, and were considered to be medicinal. They were thought to cure many diseases, and to neutralize poison. Hence, many a chalice was carved from the horn of unicorns. Although sometimes these horns were revealed to be frauds, derived from narwhals. I wonder how many poor bastards died from cavalierly slurping poison from a narwhal chalice?

Marco Polo wrote about encounters with unicorns, while traipsing through India. He described them as having “the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead . . . They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions.”

Poor Marco. What he actually saw were rhinoceros. But they were unique to his experience, so for him they really were unicorns.

Durer’s Rhinoceros is a woodcut executed by the German painter Albrecht Durer, in 1515, more than 200 years after Marco Polo’s rhinoceros-like description of a unicorn. This image is based on a written description and sketch by an unknown artist, of an Indian rhinoceros. It contains many anatomical inaccuracies, but did a good job of capturing the imagination of curious Europeans.

The unicorn is a symbol of Scotland, whereas the lion is a symbol of Scotland’s ancient enemy, England. These two rivals united in 1707, helping to form the United Kingdom. Since that time, the British have had two official coats of arms. The Royal Arms in England is depicted as a crowned lion on the left, and an uncrowned unicorn on the right, whereas the Royal Arms in Scotland is depicted as a crowned unicorn on the left, and crowned lion on the right. I guess the rivalry isn’t completely extinct.

Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (English version).

Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (Scottish version).

These days, unicorns are often depicted through the eyes of a little girl’s fantasy. They tend to be pink in color, with wings, farting rainbows, and surrounded by a cloud of stardust. If you want to make a little girl happy for about ten seconds, just buy her a stuffed, pink unicorn.

And if you want to make yourself happy, start chasing unicorns. Open your mind, welcome new experiences, and seek unique. If you do, you’ll discover an ever changing world, that never ceases to amuse and challenge, or inspire both fear and imagination. It’s a landscape of ups and downs, with polychromatic hues far more varied than the primary colors of the rainbow, and scored with trails, roads, and superhighways, leading toward an infinite universe of adventure.

We may celebrate unicorns today, but any day is a good day for chasing them. Unicorns are fun. So let’s get on with the chase, and I’ll see you on the hunting trail.

Categories: History

96 replies »

  2. Wow! What a perfect day for chasing unicorns! Or rhinoceri! You’re so lucky, Tippy. What a boost for your blog. Thank you for the interesting tutorial on unicorns. There is so much I didn’t know about them. I wonder if there is such a thing as “National Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day”? That’s where the “42” in JustJoan42 comes from because 42 ( like my blog??) is the answer to life, the universe and everything. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Thanks. 🦄
      I don’t know, if there’s a “National Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day.” But if not, maybe you can start one. I’d suggest the 42nd day of the year, which is February 11th.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. Happy International Unicorn Day, Tippy! I think the reason unicorns are never seen is because they’re so good at social distancing, which of course is made so much easier for them by the fact that there are currently so few virgins.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  5. What a fun read, and another history lesson! I hope you have treated your Unicorn to some good treats today, being that its National Unicorn Day! 🙂
    Keep chasing them, yes, one just never knows what kind of Unicorn they will find!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. I wonder how many poor virgins have been killed by rhinoceroses over the years being used as bait for catching them.

    I hope you find some more unique things to entertain and amuse you over the course of the next year.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • I’m glad to hear you’re beginning to enjoy the chase. There’s nothing more fun than chasing unicorns, in my view. I hope you find those pink rainbow farters you’re looking for. 🦄

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  11. And now I feel like I better understand your moniker. The unique… perhaps the uniquely beautiful, too? A good thing to chase, each day, every day. I chase that in my shitty writing (during the normal days, I’m a corporate dick and everything is about money and how best to not be a complete douche). Chase chase chase. Little tendrils off the keyboard, like steam off a coffee. If you inhale enough steam off a hot coffee, you can get a buzz, did you know that? Anyway, I love the chase of whatever unique thing I can make, and whatever unique thing I can find in the hearts of great people who do dwell in this world – so many of them. They’re everywhere. There’s more of us (sorry, I’m quoting the last Star Wars movie, which I believe to be a form of art that is now lost – the art of not giving a fuck about really pushing the limits out there, I mean who thinks space operas are really a good thing?).

    My daughters assure me that alicorns are actually what you call flying unicorns. They use that word all the time. Unicorns in art… I instantly thought of the Tom Cruise movie Legend. If you haven’t seen it, worth a watch. Really paints out the virgin and the unicorn, and Tom Cruise fighting the demon. Would that we all fought so well against the demons…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • The uniquely beautiful can be just as fascinating as the uniquely ugly. Chase it all. I imagine working for a corporation can make it challenging to find unicorns, but they’re there. Generally they’re dressed in a pile of bullshit, but beneath that bullshit there’s usually something unique, if you wipe it off and clean it up good.
      I haven’t watched many Star Wars movies, so you can get away with quoting them all the time, and it would sound unique to me. I do agree that never giving a fuck about pushing the limits is a good thing. Nay, it’s a great thing. It’s what life is all about. Anything less is slow or quick death.
      I’ve never heard that flying unicorns are called alicorns, but it sounds good to me.
      Maybe one day I’ll catch that Cruise movie.

      Like

      Reply

Go ahead, blurt it out:

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.