I suppose unicorns don't need much of an introduction, but hey, that's my job at The Astral World so here goes. Some people are unsure whether the unicorn is a mythical creature or a real animal so let me stress this point - Unicorns do not exist! If they ever did there is absolutely nothing to support their existence besides old writings and ancient drawings. If I recall an occult book I read about 5 years ago, there might be a demon - good or bad - that resembles a unicorn that black magick practitioners can invoke but I might be wrong on that and you never know if that particular entity was made up by the author of that book anyway. So besides the possible occult connection - if any - unicorns do not exist.

Unicorns description

   Unicorns are left to the realm of fantasy - which I particularly enjoy. The are generally thought to have a horses body, a lion's tail and a spiralled horn which ends in a point. The original unicorn is said to have a billy-goat's beard and have cloven-hooves. An interesting fact about the cloven-hooves I found is that only cloven-hooved animals have horns which makes the unicorn all the more realistic. A little unrealistic is the belief that unicorns can fly, although, this should not be mistaken for the winged Pegasus.

Ancient drawings

   The concept of unicorns dates back to ancient times with findings of unicorn drawings in France and (unprovenly) Africa. I'm not sure about the years but we're talking pre-history times. You can see in the picture to the right actually has 2 horns but people started calling it "the unicorn" since it looks as though it could be one horn. Who knows... The first written account actually comes from the King James translation of the Bible. The original texts talk about an animal named the Re'em and the translators decided to change it to "Unicorn" since the unicorn is known as a strong, untameable creature - unless by a virgin. Somehow the Virgin Mary got mixed into other fictional stories over the years and pictures show her "taming" the unicorns.

The Greek believed Unicorns were real

   The unicorn is not featured in Greek Mythology but in Greek natural history. The early Greeks were sure of the existance of the unicorn and they placed it somewhere in India which was a far-off, strange land to them. In later years, cons began selling "unicorn products" such as horns, milk and meat. The unicorn became a symbol of strength and is featured on the royal arms of Scotland and the U.K., and is on the Insignia of the U.S. 6th Cavalry Regiment. Kings and other wealthy people used to drink from "unicorn horns" because of its potential cure of poisons.

Marco Polo's little mistake

   Where do the origins of the unicorn lie? There's a few possible candidates. The most common theory is that the original tales were nothing more than rhinoceros sightings. Whether it's the modern rhino or an extinct one such as the Wooly Rhinoceros nobody knows. Marco Polo is credited with the following, rather comical quote of his "unicorn" sighting:

scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant's. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead... They have a head like a wild boar's… 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.

Obviously, Marco Polo had seen a rhino, not a unicorn.

Unicorn identity theories

   Other theories include double horned ungulates (hooved animals) which may have been viewed from a side profile. This could look like a single horn. The narwhal is a type of Arctic whale that boasts a 3-foot long horn on its nose. Some stories tell of Vikings selling them as unicorn horns. Another rhino theory is that of the pre-historic beast known as the elasmotherium. Although, still a rhino, it had longer legs and could have more resembled a horse than a basic rhino. This particular species has been dubbed the "Giant Unicorn" and possible sightings were reported into historic times. Perhaps it wasn't extinct as early as believed.

What's the world come to?

   The last widely held theory deserves another paragraph to itself. Some believe the unicorn was nothing more than a goat. There have been hoaxes where bigshots such as P.T. Barnum have been exposed. Some people have actually played with the horn stubs of newborn calves and fused the 2 horns together or taken one out completely and performed a simple skin graph surgery to replace a single horn in the center of the head. There's even some crackpot out there that thinks he's a wizard who created "Lancelot - the Living Unicorn" some time back in the 80's. They don't say how they (him and his wife) did it but the thing has a living, growing horn on its head. They've apparently bred more after the first and they shave them to look fancy and sell them to circuses and stuff.
   That should clear up some questions on unicorns for some of you, or at least give you an interesting article to waste some time on. We'll just have to look forward to picturing them in our minds as we read our next fantasy novels - except for the pictures I'll throw on below. I'm going through some of the posters and paintings available at Art.com and putting some of the ones I like on here for you to browse through. The unicorn pictures are all links to slightly larger pictures so feel free to click away and enjoy yourself. I can get away with copyright issues this way.

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