HELP! My niece has a question!!!

[DeborahM]

I do not read or write Fantasy or SiFi, so I need your help in answering her question and would appreciate your replies! I explained to Christie Ann that I am on a writer's discussion board and there are a lot of writers, who would be glad to answer her question, so she's excited to see what you have to say.

Her grandmother told her that Unicorns were roped by man and lost their lives.

The question is: Is the Unicorn still alive somewhere? Are they actual animals or are they mythical?

Thanks! :D

[Zoombie]

Unicorns, to my knowalge, have never ever exsisted.

[Lyra Jean]

Unicorns are mythical.

But for the longest time my mom had me believe that unicorns are real and that there aren't anymore because Noah couldn't get them to come on the ark and so they died out. For some reason this made me sad but didn't upset me. Kind of like...oh okay that's where aren't anymore.

But they make for great stories. You could tell her that they live in the land of faerie. They are used in Fantasy writer rather than science fiction.

[Zoombie]

Your mom blanetently stole that from Gary Larson.

[Ordinary_Guy]

Your mom blanetently stole that from Gary Larson.
I think Larson had the lions eating the unicorns...

There's actually a good deal of history behind the beasts. There is some mention of them in the bible, though I'm under the impression that scholars assume they were referenced symbolically, not literally (though, of course, your mileage may vary).

There was some reference to them in Greek naturalism, though their descriptions seem a little iffy to me. In the scientific realm, there has been argument over it but to my knowledge, nothing that would ever correlate with the kind of creature you'll see plastered on the side of a lunch box.

For a quick and reasonable primer on unicorns, check out their wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn) entry.

[MMcC]

There were green alligators
and long necked geese;
Humpy backed camels
and some chimpanzees;
Cats and rats and elephants
but sure as yer born,
The loveliest of all was the unicorn.

Mythical, but immortalized in song!

[Zoombie]

I think Larson had the lions eating the unicorns...



Still funny.

[Saanen]

Unicorns are mythical creatures, BUT there is a way to "create" a unicorn from goats or cattle by causing their horns to fuse into one in the center of the forehead. The process is known as unicorning, and it's been practiced for centuries as a way to mark a future herd leader or just to create a novelty. It's done by removing the horn buds from a very young animal, trimming the buds in a particular way, and replanting them in the middle of the forehead.

I just thought I'd toss that out there to show your niece that the world is full of startling things that are almost as amazing as the made-up things, and in many cases more amazing. :)

Here's a link I found on the process, for anyone who's interested. http://www.sideshowworld.com/interview-OZ.html

[Popeyesays]

There are zoologists that point to a species of forest rhinoceros that was native to Asia minor, as well.

The unicorn myth is not so wide-spread as the dragon, but nearly so.

Regards,
Scott

[alleycat]

You people probably don't believe in Santa Claus either!

[larocca]

A unicorn can be willingly roped by a virgin. No one else can capture one. Granny Weatherwax fashioned a "noose" from a strand of her own hair and captured one that way. Nanny Ogg didn't stand a chance of capturing one. No way, no how.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

I do not read or write Fantasy or SiFi, so I need your help in answering her question and would appreciate your replies! I explained to Christie Ann that I am on a writer's discussion board and there are a lot of writers, who would be glad to answer her question, so she's excited to see what you have to say.

Her grandmother told her that Unicorns were roped by man and lost their lives.

The question is: Is the Unicorn still alive somewhere? Are they actual animals or are they mythical?

Thanks! :D


I just read your post, and am replying immediately so I'm not sure if this has already been said or not. If so, my apologies.

Unicorns as we see envision them today (a horse with cloven hooves and a single spiral horn protruding from their heads) are probably non-existent. However, some legendary animals (such as unicorns as well as dragons) have an element of reality to them. Some people believe unicorns were based upon the rhinocerous (sp?) or some animals that now are extinct.

Probably the original version of the unicorn, just like the original version of my favorite animal, the dragon, has become unknown to Western society, although people have ideas where they might have derived from.

But like most myths, what people today envision as a unicorn, dragon, or any other legendary animal, probably never existed as we envision them. They might have very well been real, but not in a form we post-modern Westerners would recognize.

I hope this helps. I hope you get the answers you're looking for.

:)

[alleycat]

A unicorn can be willingly roped by a virgin. No one else can capture one.
Well, I guess the unicorns are completely safe these days . . .

Certainly no one here can capture one.

;-)

[Death Wizard]

Well, I guess the unicorns are completely safe these days . . .

Certainly no one here can capture one.

;-)

The question is, is that good news or bad?

[Roger J Carlson]

I have heard that the unicorn came from the gemsbok (http://www.sa-venues.com/wildlife/wildlife_gemsbok.htm), an African antelope with very long, straight horns. When seen from the side, they can look like a single horn. Their bodies also look very horse-like.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

I have heard that the unicorn came from the gemsbok (http://www.sa-venues.com/wildlife/wildlife_gemsbok.htm), an African antelope with very long, straight horns. When seen from the side, they can look like a single horn. Their bodies also look very horse-like.


I'd heard about that possibility as well. But for the life of me I couldn't remember what the animal was called.

Makes sense, though.

[sadron]

They are mythical creatures. They are hard to see. They are somewhere, even though we cannot see them. :)

[Jay Byrne]

Pfft. Unicorns are ten a penny.

A Eunuch-Horn, now that's rare.

[sunandshadow]

narwhal horns have often been sold as unicorn horns

[auntybug]

I was looking into that too since they are a favorite of my daughters. I was trying to find a way to fit them into my next book. Wikipedia has some great stuff on them!

[small axe]

It's always surprised me though why "unicorns" are used to represent the ultimate in "mythological creatures" because (as suggested above) there isn't anything that unbelievable about a horse with a horn.

It's a horse, with a horn. Maybe something exists like it in the fossil record. Certainly dragons and dinosaurs are creatures of a common nightmare. Pre-humans and giants and dwarves, etc.

[badducky]

In "The Book of Imaginary Beings" I just read, this morning, I became quite convinced that the Chinese Unicorn is not fanciful at all, but quite real.

[Tallymark]

Remember that the unicorn in myth has undergone a lot of changes over the centuries. Today's image of a magical horse with a horn is fairly recent (sometimes refered to as the medieval unicorn); the original descriptions were slightly different--a one-horned animal with the feet of an ox (or elephant) and the tail of a lion (or boar). Sometimes the build was described as horselike, but sometimes as oxlike or deerlike.

The myth you're refering to was that the only way to catch a unicorn was to get a virgin woman to lure it. Unicorns were innately drawn to virgins, and the woman would wait under a tree until the unicorn came to her. When it did, it would peacefully rest its head in her lap, and she would bind it with a golden cord...and that's when the hidden hunters would come out. The unicorns' horn was valued for its fabled ability to neutralize poison.

Now, the magical horse-like unicorn we think of today (the one from the above myth) almost certainly doesn't exist. But, the mythical unicorn may have actually been based on a real animal. And even if it wasn't, there have been animals that somewhat fit the description.

The biggest contender is probably Elasmotherium, an extinct species of rhinocerous. It had a single, two-meter horn on its forehead, and it had longer legs than today's rhinos, which would have given it a galloping, more horse-like gait. This description is not all that far from the original, pre-medieval image of the unicorn, so even though all evidence says that it died out many thousands of years ago, some crypotzoologists believe that a small population may have survived longer, and become the start of the unicorn myth.

Of course, there's also always mutant goats and deer and whatnot.

[MattW]

Unicorns are real.

What do you think makes Big Macs so popular?

[Vanatru]

I do not read or write Fantasy or SiFi, so I need your help in answering her question and would appreciate your replies! I explained to Christie Ann that I am on a writer's discussion board and there are a lot of writers, who would be glad to answer her question, so she's excited to see what you have to say.

Her grandmother told her that Unicorns were roped by man and lost their lives.

The question is: Is the Unicorn still alive somewhere? Are they actual animals or are they mythical?

Thanks! :D

Pssst. Lady. Come here. :::lifts trunk lid::::

I hear your looking for a unicorn? I got you a unicorn. 10bucks. You won't find a better unicorn than this one. Check out that horn. Huh? Pretty sweet. And the horse hide. Genuine stuff. I can get more. You know, like if your friends want. 'Cause when they see your's, they're gonna be jealous.

:)

On a more serious note. Perhaps it's as Mr.Beagle implies in his book The Last Unicorn.

Taken from the wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Unicorn

Begin excerpt:

There are many illusions in the story. Almost everything at Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival is an illusion. Ironically, when the unicorn is on display at the carnival she is given an illusory horn so that carnival-goers can recognize her (most people can't see the unicorn's real horn because no one believes in unicorns anymore).

End excerpt:

I'm sure many people know the truth, after all, they know everything. They will surely deny this these. But that's just an illusion. ;)

[Storm Dream]

I don't know that unicorns as we know them are real, but since I like the idea of dragons, bigfoot, nessie, etc having existed at one point...who knows.

[Colin McHale]

Mythical? Extinct? Naaaah, Unicorns just evolved.

Whales are mammals that once lived on land. They walked about on hooves. They eventually evolved to live entirely in the sea. What does this have to do with Unicorns?

Well, Unicorns are probably mammals. They have hooves. And they no longer exist on land. The conclusion? Narwhals!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhale

I'm just playin' with ya. Though the stuff about whales evolving from hoofed land-dwelling mammals is entirely true (as long as you don't dispute evolution and fossil evidence).

[Zoombie]

And you know who disputes the fissil record? People who are dumb.

You heard me. Screw being political correct! If you look at the fossil record and don't see the connections, you are either dumb, blind or very well programmed.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

And you know who disputes the fissil record? People who are dumb.

You heard me. Screw being political correct! If you look at the fossil record and don't see the connections, you are either dumb, blind or very well programmed.


I would never dispute the fissil record. :rolleyes: Or the fossil record, for that matter. ;)

I think you'll find people don't normally dispute the fossil record. They might dispute how it got there, but the record itself holds so much hard evidence that it cannot in and of itself be disputed.

Now then. Back to unicorns.

A lot of people say quite bluntly, "Such and such animal never existed", as though they know what people saw thousands of years ago. I don't like such thinking, because, well, some species are still undiscovered. To say an animal did not survive until today, is in my opinion arrogant and conceited. Rather, a person should be saying, "Today's science finds little or no evidence of such an animal living today".

The point I'm making is, when people say, point blank, "Unicorns never existed", they're speaking something that generally, they cannot prove. Whether unicorns existed or no in the form they presently take in Western society, there is evidence, as shown by several posters in this thread, that such a creature might have had a basis in a real animal. So it probably doesn't look like a horse with a spiral horn protruding from its forehead. So what? The representation of the unicorn has changed so much throughout human history, that I think it probably bears little resemblance to what people meant, say, 3,000 years ago, when they spoke of such an animal.

[Vanatru]

I would never dispute the fissil record. :rolleyes: Or the fossil record, for that matter. ;)



Boy howdy, you'd better not. Otherwise I'll have to dig up the fussil records which pre-date the fissil and fossil ones.


The representation of the unicorn has changed so much throughout human history, that I think it probably bears little resemblance to what people meant, say, 3,000 years ago, when they spoke of such an animal.

Perhaps, as a magical creature, it may have the ability to alter its form or how people percieve it. Similar to what politicians do. Though, unicorns are good creatures.

[MattW]

Some current theories about the origin of cyclops and giant myths stem from discovery of mammoth bones and skulls by ancient Greeks. They supposedly found huge skeletons and attributed them to the heroes of old - who were known to be larger than men. They often reburied the bones.

And the way a mammoth cranium is built to attach the trunk, there is a large opening that could have been mistaken as an ocular opening.

[Lyra Jean]

Some current theories about the origin of cyclops and giant myths stem from discovery of mammoth bones and skulls by ancient Greeks. They supposedly found huge skeletons and attributed them to the heroes of old - who were known to be larger than men. They often reburied the bones.

And the way a mammoth cranium is built to attach the trunk, there is a large opening that could have been mistaken as an ocular opening.

I saw a program on NGC about a woman who studies the fossil record to prove where the greek myths come from. It was really interesting.