In modern fairy tales and other stories, the mythical beast called a unicorn is a white horse with a long spiralled horn on its head. In older stories however, this creature has a short, colored horn and the body of a goat, sometimes even with a beard. Often the unicorn might the tail of a lion, goat or boar.
The unicorn is sometimes confused or combined with the Monoceros, which some sources treat as the same or separate creatures. Unicorns are said to hold the truth, and are linked to purity and innocence. Unicorns are incredibly strong, and enemies of the elephant. They fight with the elephant by stabbing their horn in the elephant’s belly.The unicorn is feirce, strong and swift, and no hunter can catch it alone. A girl, who lulls the unicorn into sleep, must tame the beast and then the hunter can kill it. A unicorn’s horn is highly valued.
It can be used to detect poison, and can purify liquid. Powdered unicorn horn is also useful. Unicorn horn was worth 10 times it weight in gold in the 1500’s.
Unicorn horns were used in medicine in the medieval times. They were said to cure diseases, boost immune system, and make you feel strong, fierce and powerful. They used to mix powdered unicorn horn in with their food before a battle, or wear a horn on their helmet. Narwhals and rhinos were often confused with unicorns, and narwhal horns were used and called unicorn horns a lot. In fact, some royals even had a throne made out of narwhal horns, which was bad news for their population.
Unicorns today are extremely in trend, and we have reached the peak of the craze. There is everything from unicorn makeup tutorials to unicorn pool floats to unicorn toast, to unicorn snot, which is actually body glitter and even unicorn lattes at coffee shops now. People are obsessed with unicorns, and these creatures have come a long way since the medieval times. Studies show that the google search ‘unicorn’ has reached a major peak recently. Products marketed as anything related to unicorns, especially beauty products, are selling out.
