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Unico The myth of the horned horse
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Unicorn essay

Mar 11, 2016

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Natalie Cheung

A whole book thingy on unicorns for an assignment for shcool!
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Page 1: Unicorn essay

Unicorn

The myth of the horned horse

Page 2: Unicorn essay

By Natalie Cheung ORIGINSThe myth of the unicorn has turned up in history over many parts of

In Eastern context-especially Chinese mythology- there has been mention of a Unicorn (Qilin or Kirin)), an animal of good omen and only appeared to humans at important times or a time of pure goodness. The Quilin appeared The ancient Greeks

deemed the unicorn not a mythological being but a creature of reality and existed in the ‘exotic’ place

The bible has references to the unicorn as well. The biblical unicorn has been mentioned primarily in ‘Job’. In Job 39:9–12, God shows Job one of the creatures that God himself has created

The medieval unicorn is perhaps the most well known. This unicorn was

Page 3: Unicorn essay

Elements of the unicornThough the unicorn has

been mentioned in many parts of different cultures, there are The theme that the

creature represents a form of purity, goodwill and fortune has been repeated from Chinese mythology to medieval myths. The theme of purity has been taken to an extent in medieval Perhaps the most

notable and distinguished part of the unicorn is its singular horn (the alicorn) located on its forehead. Medieval society believed that the horn was represented a very high level of purity and could even detect poison and cure disease.

Page 4: Unicorn essay

Changes to the myth of the unicorn

In society today, the unicorn is no longer believed by many as an animal that actually exits. The reality of unicorns has now been classified as ‘the myth of the unicorns’ with many questioning its existence as technology and science advances. Since society has now a diluted belief in unicorns, the belief that the unicorn’s horn will detect and render poison or purifies is now a point that

Medieval unicorn- La Licorne Aux Blasons Medieval Wall

Then

Now

Page 5: Unicorn essay

Though there are some things that haven’t changed even thought societies’ belief in unicorns now remains questionable. For example, the medieval unicorn with its white hide and its horn is the dominate image given today of unicorns though the more ‘girly’ image of the unicorn is of a pastel colour scheme. Another thing that hasn’t changed is the continuing fascination with unicorns, though the once strong belief is now weaker, there are times when unicorns

British coats of Arms

Other changes include popular culture of unicorns on the internet, for example Face book has thousands of pages relating to unicorns such as “"Are you going to school tomorrow?" "No, I'm riding my unicorn to Alaska”

Image from Facebook group “Rhinos are just fat unicorns. One day they'll reveal their majestic ways”

Youtube’s Charlie the Unicorn series

Page 6: Unicorn essay

So why has the myth of unicorns evolved so greatly? Firstly as science prevailed through time so did logic and people questioned the evidence and logic behind the existence of unicorns. The unicorn had no skeletal remains nor did it have any hard evidence of its existence so hence people. As the 20th century progressed the unicorn was on the brink of disbelief and was already becoming a creature of fairytale elements and fantasy. The unicorn was also romanticized in medieval tales with the maidens and the gentle nature of the Eastern unicorn. This characterization slowly turned the unicorn away from the fact books

From reality to fairytale- Why has the unicorn myth evolved?

Page 7: Unicorn essay

Changing Values & Attitudes

What we can gather about the sudden change of belief in unicorns is that society began to ‘test’ and gather evidence to determine the fiction from the truth around the 20th century or earlier.

Fake unicorn ‘skeleton’

The fact that medieval, ancient Eastern, Middle eastern and Greek (plus many more) cultures believed in unicorn existence greatly tells us that they weren’t influenced by scientific evidence as much but by what others saw (sightings) and wrote down.

The once strong belief in the existence of unicorns tells us that

Modern day interpretation of a

unicorn

This meant that the values of people altered from believing in elements that didn’t need evidence to having proof and evidence to

Page 8: Unicorn essay

Annotated Bibliography

Books:Fantasy Encyclopedia by Judy AllenPublished: Kingfisher Publication Ple. , 283-288 high Holborn, London Date Published: 2005

I found this source to be very brief but had good non-bias context that I used to further my research and understanding and Websites:

http://www.unicorncollector.com/legends.htmVisited: 16th of September and 20th of September 2011(date unknown, Author unknown but site owned by Dianne Stephens)

This resource was very useful as it had information from a wide range of time periods and there was enough context that I could http://www.allaboutunicorns.com/Visited: 16th of September and 20th of September 2011(date unknown, Author unknown)

This site provided me with a good range of information that wasn’t bias and introduced me more about my studied topic. The source

Page 9: Unicorn essay

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v2/n1/unicorns-in-bible

Visited: 16th of September (date unknown, Author unknown)

I found that this site provided me with a lot of information of unicorns in the bible which was very reliable and informative, though this site only talked about the unicorn in the bible and http://monsters.monstrous.com/unicorns.htm

Visited: 16th of September (date unknown, Author unknown)

This source had a variety of information though was quite brief but had an adequate reliability. Nonetheless it guided me through of what to research for.