47 Fun Facts About Unicorn

What is a unicorn's defining feature?

A unicorn's defining feature is a single spiral horn on its forehead; European art has shown it for a thousand years as a white horse- or goat-like beast with cloven hooves.

In medieval legend, who was the only person able to capture a unicorn?

Only a virgin maiden could tame the unicorn: it laid its head in her lap and slept, whereupon hunters seized it; medieval writers read the maiden as the Virgin Mary.

What was the medieval name for a unicorn's horn and the substance it was made of?

Alicorn was the name for both the unicorn's horn and its supposed substance; it was believed to purify poisoned water, and cups made of it were gifts for kings.

Which Danish physician determined in 1638 that alleged unicorn horns were really whale tusks?

Ole Worm, a professor of medicine at Copenhagen, showed in 1638 that 'unicorn horns' were the tusks of an Arctic whale; Sir Thomas Browne then demolished the belief in his 1646 Pseudodoxia Epidemica.

Which ancient Greek writer gave the earliest description of the unicorn, in a book about India?

Ctesias of Cnidus, in his Indica of about 400 BC, described wild asses with a horn a cubit and a half long, coloured white, red and black, whose flesh was bitter.

Which Roman writer described a one-horned beast with a stag's head, elephant's feet and boar's tail?

Pliny the Elder's Natural History (Book 8) describes the beast with a stag's head, elephant's feet, boar's tail, horse's body and a single black horn two cubits long.

Which traveller described 'unicorns' as ugly, mud-wallowing brutes 'scarcely smaller than elephants'?

Marco Polo, writing of Sumatra, said its 'unicorns' were 'not at all such as we describe them' and loved to wallow in mud and mire.

What is the Hebrew Bible word that the King James Version translated as 'unicorn'?

Re'em is the Hebrew word the King James Version rendered 'unicorn' nine times, from Numbers 23:22 to Isaiah 34:7, following the Greek Septuagint's 'one-horned' reading.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, what colour are newborn unicorn foals?

Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class learns that unicorn foals are born pure gold, turn silver at about two and become white only when fully grown.

Since 1707, the royal arms of the United Kingdom have been supported by a unicorn and what other animal?

The lion and the unicorn have supported the royal arms since James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603; in the Scottish version the crowned unicorn takes the dexter side.

In heraldry, the unicorn is usually shown wearing a collar with what attached?

The broken chain suggests it cannot truly be tamed; the beast is a horse with cloven hooves, a beard and a lion's tail.

Which Scottish king introduced the coin called the unicorn in 1484?

James III introduced the unicorn, a coin showing the beast supporting the royal shield, in about 1484; James IV and James V continued the issue.

The seven late-Gothic tapestries called The Hunt of the Unicorn hang in which museum?

John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought them in 1922 for about a million dollars and gave them to the Met.

Where were The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries rediscovered in the 1850s?

Looted from the La Rochefoucauld château at Verteuil during the French Revolution, the tapestries were rediscovered in a barn in the 1850s and returned to the family.

The six 'Lady and the Unicorn' tapestries in Paris depict what?

They hang in the Musée de Cluny; the sixth is captioned 'A mon seul desir'.

Recreations of The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries were woven for which Scottish royal residence?

Weavers recreated the seven Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries for Stirling Castle's Queen's Inner Hall between 2001 and 2014, recalling unicorn hangings listed in a 16th-century royal inventory.

Which Renaissance artist's notebooks make the unicorn a symbol of intemperance?

Leonardo da Vinci's bestiary notes file the unicorn under intemperance: unable to control itself, it 'forgets its ferocity and wildness' and lets hunters take it.

The Arctic whale's famous spiral tusk is actually what?

It grows 1.5 to 3 metres long, mainly in males, and may sense water salinity.

What is the scientific name of the tusked Arctic whale?

Monodon monoceros is the sole species in its genus; it lives in Arctic waters off Canada, Greenland and Russia, and was named by Linnaeus in 1758.

Elasmotherium, the extinct 'Siberian unicorn', was what kind of animal?

Elasmotherium was a giant rhinoceros of the Eurasian steppe, weighing around four tonnes and surviving until at least 39,000 years ago; no horn has ever been found.

What does the name Elasmotherium, the extinct 'Siberian unicorn', mean?

Elasmotherium means 'plated beast', from the Greek elasmos (plate) and therion (beast), named for the plate-like enamel folds of its molar teeth.

The qilin, sometimes called the Chinese unicorn, is said to appear at the arrival or death of what?

The qilin is said to appear with the arrival or passing of a sage or great ruler; legend has one heralding the birth of Confucius in the 6th century BC.

The karkadann of Persian and Arabic legend was originally based on which real animal?

Karkadann is the Persian and Arabic word for rhinoceros; the legend grew from the one-horned Indian rhinoceros, which al-Biruni described in the 11th century.

A unicorn-like creature is the most common image on which Bronze Age civilisation's seals?

The Indus Valley 'unicorn', a bull-like beast with one curved horn, appears on more Harappan steatite seals than any other motif, usually facing a mysterious two-tiered standard.

In business, a 'unicorn' is a private startup valued at more than how much?

A unicorn is a privately held startup valued at over $1 billion, a threshold so rare in 2013 that the mythical beast seemed apt; companies past $10 billion are called decacorns.

Which venture capitalist coined the business term 'unicorn' in 2013?

Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures coined the term in a November 2013 TechCrunch article, 'Welcome to the Unicorn Club', which counted 39 such US software companies.

Who wrote the 1968 novel The Last Unicorn?

Peter S. Beagle published The Last Unicorn in 1968; the novel has sold millions of copies and he also wrote the screenplay for its 1982 animated film.

In The Last Unicorn, what creature drove all the other unicorns into the sea?

The Red Bull, serving King Haggard, drove all the other unicorns into the sea; a butterfly tells the last unicorn that it 'ran close behind them'.

Which studio duo directed the 1982 animated film of The Last Unicorn?

Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass of Rankin/Bass directed it, with voices by Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Angela Lansbury and Christopher Lee, and songs by the band America.

What is the name of the bumbling magician who travels with the unicorn in The Last Unicorn?

Schmendrick, a magician whose spells rarely work, joins the unicorn after freeing her from Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival; he was voiced by Alan Arkin in the 1982 film.

In Ridley Scott's 1985 film Legend, what does the Lord of Darkness want from the unicorns?

Tim Curry played Darkness opposite Tom Cruise; the goblin Blix uses innocence as bait.

In Despicable Me 3, what animal is Agnes's supposed unicorn really?

Agnes's 'unicorn' is really a one-horned goat she finds in the woods of Freedonia; she names him Lucky and keeps him even after Gru breaks the news.

In the 2005 viral short Charlie the Unicorn, where do the two other unicorns take Charlie?

The blue and pink unicorns lure Charlie to Candy Mountain; inside, a song-and-dance number ends with Charlie knocked out and waking up minus a kidney.

Who created Charlie the Unicorn, originally as a birthday present for their mother?

Jason Steele of FilmCow animated Charlie the Unicorn in 2005 as a birthday present for his mother, uploaded it to Newgrounds, and it spread on YouTube.

Which toy company launched My Little Pony in 1982?

Hasbro launched My Little Pony in 1982, developing it from the larger 1981 My Pretty Pony figurine designed by Bonnie Zacherle.

In the Generation Five My Little Pony line, which character is a unicorn?

Izzy Moonbow, the energetic unicorn from Bridlewood, joins Sunny and Hitch (earth ponies) and the pegasus sisters Pipp and Zipp in the 2021 film A New Generation.

Which coffee chain sold a colour-changing 'Unicorn' blended drink for five days in April 2017?

Starbucks sold the pink-and-blue Unicorn Frappuccino, which changed colour and flavour when stirred, from 19 to 23 April 2017 in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Whose 6th-century unicorn description was based on bronze figures in the palace of Ethiopia's king?

Cosmas Indicopleustes, in his Christian Topography, described bronze unicorn figures he saw in the Ethiopian king's palace and wrote that the cornered beast leaps off a precipice onto its horn.

In Through the Looking-Glass, what does the Unicorn call Alice on first seeing her?

Lewis Carroll's Unicorn, meeting Alice, exclaims 'I always thought they were fabulous monsters!' and offers to believe in her if she believes in him.

Which royal family had a throne made from 'unicorn horn'?

The Danish kings' coronation throne at Rosenborg Castle, made in the 1660s for Frederick III, is built from 'unicorn horn' tusks; it was used at coronations until 1840.

Which My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic unicorn was crowned a princess in season three?

Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's student, earned her wings in the season three finale 'Magical Mystery Cure' (2013) and was crowned a princess of Equestria.

In Scotland, carved unicorns on the pillars of Mercat crosses signalled that a settlement was what?

Nobles such as the Earl of Kinnoull were specially permitted to add the unicorn to their arms as an augmentation of honour.

According to Shakespeare scholars, hunters caught unicorns by tricking them into charging into what?

The unicorn charged the hunter, who stepped behind a tree so its horn stuck fast in the trunk; Julius Caesar says 'unicorns may be betray'd with trees'.

Which extinct animal do scholars think the King James Bible's 'unicorn' really was?

The Hebrew word behind 'unicorn' named the aurochs, the giant wild ox of the ancient Near East, shown in profile with one visible horn in Mesopotamian art; the last aurochs died in 1627.

Which Scottish family's crest bears a unicorn head?

Clan Cunningham's crest is a unicorn's head couped, shown above the motto 'Over fork over'; the Cunninghams were Earls of Glencairn from 1488.

In which 1982 film does the policeman Gaff leave an origami unicorn for Deckard?

In Blade Runner, Gaff's origami unicorn hints that Deckard's unicorn dream is an implanted memory; the dream sequence appears in the 1992 Director's Cut.

Which ancient Greek writer listed the oryx and the 'Indian ass' as one-horned animals?

Aristotle, in his History of Animals, wrote that the Indian ass and the oryx each have a single horn; Strabo later claimed the Caucasus held one-horned horses.