Kathryn Hinds - Unicorns

An illustration from a 1491 German book shows a maiden taming a unicorn.

INTRODUCTION

In the CREATURES OF FANTASY series we celebrate the deeds of dragons, unicorns, and their kin. These fabulous beasts have inhabited the imagination and arts since the beginnings of human history, immortalized in paintings and sculptures, mythology and literature, movies and video games. Todays blockbuster fantasy novels and filmsThe Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Eragon, and othershave brought new popularity to the denizens of folklore, myth, and legend. It seems that these creatures of the imagination have always been with us and, in one way or another, always will be.

Belief in the fantastic, in wonders, appears to be a lasting part of the human experience. Even if we no longer believe that dragons and unicorns actually exist, we still like to think about what the world might be like if they did. We dream and daydream about them. We make up stories. And as we share those dreams, read and tell those stories, we not only stir our imaginations, but also explore some of the deepest hopes and fears of humanity. The power of the dragon, the purity of the unicorn, the mystery of the sphinx, the allure of the mermaidthese and more are all part of our human heritage, the legends of our ancestors still alive for us today.

The unicorn, a symbol of the purified soul, seen in an illustration for the 1937 edition of W. B. Yeatss book The Vision.

MAGICAL HORSES

There were horses... white horses rushing by, with white, shining riders... there was a horse without a rider, and someone caught me up and put me upon him, and we rode away, with the wind, like the wind....
Then I saw the horses we were on had changed to unicorns.

~W. B. YEATS AND LADY GREGORY, THE UNICORN FROM THE STARS, 1908

U NICORNS. WHEN YOU HEAR THE WORD, the first thing you think of is probably a glorious white horse whose forehead sprouts an elegant, spiraling horn of gold, silver, or ivory. This is the magnificent animal we usually see and read about in movies and fantasy novels. It is a shining creature of magic, mystery, and romance. The vision or dream of such a unicorn lifts and empowers the spirit, as a character says in The Unicorn from the Stars, a play by the Irish writers William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory: I saw the unicorns.... I knew something was going to happen or to be said... something that would make my whole life strong and beautiful like the rushing of the unicorns. Unicorns like these are among the many fabulous horses that have long featured in stories all over the world.

WINGED STALLIONS

The first-century Roman author Pliny the Elder reported that East Africa was home to many monstrosities[including] winged horses armed with horns, called Pegasi. For most ancient Greeks and Romans, though, there was only one Pegasus. This famous winged (but hornless) stallion was the child of the sea god Poseidon and the snake-haired monster Medusa. When the hero Perseus cut off Medusas head, Pegasus was born from her blood and leaped immediately into the air. As [Pegasus] glided above the clouds and beneath the stars, the sky was its earth, wrote the Roman poet Ovid.

After a number of adventures, Pegasus became the steed of Zeus, the king of the gods. A few other Greek deities also had winged horses. Most famously, ancient artists depicted these marvelous creatures pulling the chariots of the sun god Helios and the moon goddess Selene. Flying horses have appeared in the traditions of other cultures, too. For example, in Thailand there was the winged stallion Tipaka, who belonged to a legendary king named Sison. The most beautiful of all horses, Tipaka was not only able to fly through the heavens, but was also fantastically fast. In fact, all King Sison had to do was tell Tipaka where he wanted to go, and they were there almost before the king was done speaking.