5th October: Unicorn Questing Season Begins

Unicorn Questing Season begins. If you want to go questing unicorns, you first need to get a permit from Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Since 1971, the university has issued permits to unicorn questers. They advise bringing along a flask of Cognac and some pinking shears. Don't ask me why. Here are ten facts about unicorns which may or may not help you find one.

1. You may be saying right now that this is silly and unicorns don't really exist, so how can you go questing one? Ask the ancient Greeks. They wrote about unicorns in the 5th century. The Greek historian Ctesias described unicorns as having a White body, Purple head, Blue eyes, and a multicoloured horn—Red at the tip, Black in the middle, and white at the base. It's notable that these descriptions appeared in historical accounts and not myths.
2. Unicorns are depicted in the Lascaux cave paintings which date back even farther, to around 15,000 BCE. So people said, until on closer inspection, the unicorn was found to have two horns drawn very close together. The Indus Valley Civilization depicted unicorns on the seals of high-ranking people - although scholars maintain they are actually bulls in profile.
3. They are even mentioned in the Bible. Not once, not twice, but nine times. But only in the King James Version. In the Bible, unicorns are strong, similar to calves and bulls but do not till the earth. Scholars think the original Hebrew word, re’em, referred to a type of extinct wild ox which had one horn. When the original Hebrew text was being translated into Greek, they didn't know what the animal was and didn't have a word for it, so they used the word closest to it in their language, which was monokeros, meaning one-horned. Later, when the Bible was being translated from Greek to Latin by St Jerome, he had no equivalent word either, and translated it as unicornis, meaning one-horned in Latin, which in the English translation, became unicorn.
4. Marco Polo reports seeing unicorns on his travels, but wasn't overly impressed by them. He wrote, “They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe unicorns.” That's because they weren't unicorns at all. They were rhinoceroses.
5. So a unicorn is an ox, a Rhinoceros, an antelope? Or a mutant deer? In 2008, a roe deer with one antler in the middle of its head was found in Italy. Perhaps a similar mutation gave rise to the concept. Or even an antelope which had lost one of its horns in a fight.
6. So if we assume there are such things as unicorns, what are we looking for on this unicorn quest? An animal like a Horse or a Goat with one horn in the middle of its head. They can be any colour - white, black, gold or Brown, with blue or purple eyes. They can be found in deep forests where they live in family groups with an ancient unicorn hundreds of years old at the head of the family. There will usually be a mating pair and some young ones. Sometimes families meet up with each other and travel together for a few weeks. They don't need to eat but absorb nourishment from the Sun, through their horns.
7. Unicorns are said to have any number of magical powers. They are strong enough to kill an Elephant; they can divine the truth, and woe betide you if you lie to one, because it will run you through the heart with its horn. The horns can also be used to detect and neutralise poisons as well as being a cure for any number of ailments when ground into powder. Anyone who touches a pure white unicorn will find happiness and joy for his entire life. They can't fly, though, unless it is the offspring of a unicorn and a Pegasus. Although since they are associated with miracles and magic, flying unicorns can't be ruled out.
8. As well as magic and miracles unicorns symbolise Chastity, purity, the Moon and the feminine. It's also said that a unicorn can never be tamed, and will die before letting anyone capture it. Hence in heraldry a unicorn wearing a broken collar and chain represents a people who have been captured but have freed themselves and will never be enslaved again. It appears on the coat of arms of Scotland, representing the fact that the Scottish people are proud and would fight to the death to remain free. Bad news for questers, but there's a legend which states that a unicorn will be so attracted to a naked virgin sitting under a tree that it will willingly lie down in her lap and can then be captured.
9. A unicorn's horn is made from a substance called alicorn.
10. Even in fairly recent history, you'd be forgiven for believing there are such things. The throne of Denmark is allegedly made from unicorn horns, and as recently as 1741, it was possible to buy powdered unicorn horn in pharmacies in London. The most likely explanation for this is that the throne and the dodgy medicines were made from narwhal horns. Since unicorn horns were said to be worth ten times their weight in gold, finding something in the natural world that could be passed off as one was extremely lucrative.

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