Part 1 of this writing on the unicorn is posted in the category Carolyn’s Writings.
Folklore and legend provide numerous unicorn myths. In China, the K’I-lin was a gentle harbinger of good fortune and a symbol of longevity. The tip of his horn was fleshy, symbolic of goodness and indicative of a peaceful character having no use for its horn. In Arabia, the Karkadarn was a fierce fighter. Thus, with the unicorn, fantasy and reality achieve a well-balanced union. The unicorn, though small, was so extremely fierce that no hunter could capture him without being devious and using unfair methods. Hunters who knew the unicorn’s weakness and method of capture were successful in its capture. They’d lead a virgin maid to the unicorn’s place of residence and leave her alone in the forest, where the unicorn will spy her and jump into her lap and embrace her, enabling his capture. He will then be exhibited in the palace of a king. The Japanese believed the unicorn could distinguish between right and wrong. When KAU YOU exercised criminal jurisdiction, he handed over those whose crime was doubtful to the KAI TSU. It’s said this small animal gored the guilty and spared the innocent. Another legend claimed that drinking a potion made with dust filed off the unicorn horn, or drinking liquid from a cup carved from its horn, would immunize a person from the effects of poisons---even after the poison had been ingested. The potion or cup would also protect great men ringed with hoops of gold from illness, convulsions or the Holy disease of epilepsy. Between the 12th and 15th centuries it was believed the serpent would cast poison into water before animals gathered to quench their thirst. The animals, aware of the serpent’s presence, waited for the unicorn to go into the lake and make a sign of the cross with his horn, rendering the power of the poisons harmless and enabling them to drink safely. Unicorns have a strange habit: they love to pierce elephants with their horns. Since they never succeed in shaking them off, they accumulate multiple elephants. When they’ve gathered one to four elephants on their horn, they are immobilized and fall prey to the roc. The unicorn’s size is so incredible that Noah couldn’t find room for it on the Ark. It had to swim the entire duration of the flood, only occasionally resting the tip of its horn on the Ark, according to the Talmud. Variations of the unicorn legend may be interpreted as allegories of Christianity’s whole divine plan for the redemption of sinful mankind. Christians adopted it as a symbol of Christ during Tertullian’s time. The unicorn horn is frequently used in Scripture to denote power, glory and salvation. Christ, the power of God, is sometimes called the unicorn based on the creature’s single horn. The unicorn horn has also signified the words of the Savior: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). Its exceeding fierceness represents Christ’s invincibility, and is symbolic of the fact that neither Principalities nor Powers nor Thrones…not even the most subtle devil, nor Hell…could hold him against his will. The animal’s small size suggests the humility of Christ in his incarnation: Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:29). When the unicorn surrenders his fierceness and becomes tame by means of a virgin, it shows that Christ, by the will of the Father, apparently surrendered his divine nature and became a human by means of the Virgin Mary. The method of capturing the unicorn, leaving a virgin maiden in the forest alone and having the unicorn jump in her lap and then taken to the palace of the king, has been interpreted as an allegory of the way Jesus Christ, the spiritual unicorn, descended into the womb of the Virgin Mary, and through her took on human flesh. Jesus was then captured and condemned to die on the cross. Still another interpretation likens the unicorn hunter to Jesus’ enemies. The unicorn’s capture and shameful death is likened to condemnation and death on the cross, like Christ was. The unicorn’s exhibition in the king’s palace is akin to the resurrection, where Christ rose and went heavenward to the palace of he heavenly king. The question still remains: IS THE UNICORN A MYTH OR A REALITY? A character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest responded: Now I will believe that there are unicorns (Act 3 Scene 3). But I, like Ulysses Aldrovandus of the 17th century (who reviewed all the current literature on unicorns in his day) say: “Some are doubtful whether the unicorn exists; some deny its existence, and others affirm it.
“For my own part, I shall merely report their opinions faithfully, leaving each of my readers his own freedom of judgment.” Th2 two parts of this writing on the unicorn will be posted in the category Carolyn’s Writings. | 
