Main Unicorn Discussion

You will be notified by PM when someone responds to your discussion

reptoherp crawlerking Since: Oct, 2017

crawlerking

Dec 8th 2017 at 11:59:31 PM •••

Isn't this trope about hooved creatures with one horn?

I have come to change the way herptiles are talked about.

1774689 Since: Jul, 2010

Jun 18th 2012 at 9:23:25 AM •••

musical examples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPsuOEH1fY covers the Flood and why unicorns only persist in myths and fantasy. The unicorns all drowned because they hid from getting herded in. Do you tropers think it would fit in?

Hide / Show Replies

bim Since: Jun, 2011

Oct 31st 2013 at 10:39:46 PM •••

There is also a Charles Addams cartoon somewhere of two unicorns standing on a hilltop in the rain, while in the distance Noah's Ark sails toward the horizon.

SomeSortOfTroper Since: Jan, 2001

Apr 11th 2010 at 8:53:50 AM •••

Old archived discussion from "Unicorns"

Working Title: Unicorns:

Filby: I am disappointed that the title of this page is not "Our Unicorns Are Hornier".

Red Wren: ...Darn you.

Hide / Show Replies

SomeSortOfTroper Since: Jan, 2001

Sep 19th 2012 at 8:06:04 AM •••

You're meant to comment down here.

Y'know, they did a loose survey of creature pages and found that the "our blank is blankier" ended up better described.

I do wish it was "Our Unicorns Are Hornier" now.

Pipcard Since: Aug, 2009

Feb 1st 2012 at 6:16:57 PM •••

"A Mythical Motif representing purity, rarity and wild beauty..."

Rarity. I get it.

Sculcuvant Since: Jul, 2010

Jul 9th 2010 at 1:56:21 PM •••

Is there a reason this isn't called either "Our unicorns are purer" or "Our unicorns are hornier?"

Hide / Show Replies

SomeSortOfTroper Since: Jan, 2001

Jul 9th 2010 at 2:02:41 PM •••

Because we don't have to reuse the same joke over and over again when it isn't applicable.

FarseerLolotea Since: Jan, 2001

Jul 18th 2010 at 11:36:47 PM •••

Well, it is an Our Monsters Are Different page. And actually, "Our Unicorns Are Purer" would be applicable. (As much so as "Our Elves Are Better" or "Our Ogres Are Hungrier," at any rate.)

SomeSortOfTroper Since: Jan, 2001

Jul 20th 2010 at 9:36:14 AM •••

Well the thing about that index is that it started for all of that format and then, because we didn't have a monsters list, became the monsters list.

Besides, this started off as a Mythical Motif and has examples for the sake of the motif only so let's just name it like a motif. It's more about the motif than about the monsters.

SomeSortOfTroper Since: Jan, 2001

Apr 11th 2010 at 9:55:31 AM •••

I moved Unicorns to Unicorn. I also made a change with the description. The old description was a lot more technical with what they looked like. That can be done with pictures. I wanted to focus more on how they existed as a motif and how the motif has changed over the years. I did this whole other right up but then tried to combine them. My version is on a YKTTW archive. I've saved a copy of the Unicorns version below.

Edited by SomeSortOfTroper Hide / Show Replies

SomeSortOfTroper Since: Jan, 2001

Apr 11th 2010 at 9:55:49 AM •••

Version from pluralism

Pliny the Elder was one of the earliest writers to study 'unicorns' and certainly one of the most influential: The unicorn (monocerotem) is the fiercest animal, and it is said that it is impossible to capture one alive. It has the body of a horse, the head of a stag, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, and a single black horn three feet long in the middle of its forehead. Its cry is a deep bellow.

There are speculations, that the unicorn myth, like the dragon and The Phoenix, spread far over the world - stems from witnesses of the extinct elasmotherium. Obviously, this unicorn is a far cry from the elegant deer-like beings shown on medieval tapestries.

Today's idea of a unicorn is nearer to the Medieval one: a narwhal's horn, a horse's head, a deer's body, a goat's beard and feet and a lion's tail. There also is the version of a horse with a horn and occasionally even wings. Like seeing dragons, the heroes seeing an unicorn means that verily, they're on an epic and very High Fantasy quest. As mythical beasts, unicorns are portrayed as awe-inspiring and elusive but, unlike most myths, rarely dangerous.

Older legends associate unicorns with the moon and tell that only a virgin can lure out or capture a unicorn. Nowadays, if the Virgin thing gets mentioned, it often gets disproved or explicitly subverted. Either way, when they're good, the most important unicorn-association is purity. Indeed, the connections with maidens is probably why the unicorn has become gentle in popular culture and myth for several centuries. The original implication that the unicorn was so fierce and wild only an innocent girl's purity could conquer it.

Portraying unicorns as aggressive is one of the more common fantasy subversions - or perhaps the writers of today still haven't forgotten Pliny's vicious unicorn.

In modern days, unicorns are often part of Tastes Like Diabetes and Sugar Bowl theme.

The ungulate-with-one-horn Unicorn is most familiar, but is certainly not the only unicorn in myth. Other variations include the Kirin, an Eastern variation that looks something like a cross between a typical unicorn and a dragon, the fierce, tiger-like Karkadan, and the very different Al Mi'raj, a vicious rabbit-like unicorn. They each have one horn, so technically...

YKTTW Archive


Type the word in the image. This goes away if you get known. If you can't read this one, hit reload for the page. The next one might be easier to see.

Discussion Main / Unicorn