Unicorns: Magical Icons or Violent Beasts? | Monstrum

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
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    Unicorns are all over the place in popular culture these days - movies, TV shows, toys, clothing and books for children and adults alike. But you might be interested to learn that the majestic, all-white horse with a spiralized horn on its forehead is just one version of the many varieties of unicorn that have appeared in folklore throughout history.
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    Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
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    Bibliography
    Ctesias. Ancient India as Described by Ktêsias the Knidian; Being a Translation of the Abridgement of His “Indika” by Photios, and of the Fragments of That Work Preserved in Other Writers. By J.W. McCrindle. With Introduction, Notes and Index. Thacker, Spink & co. etc., 1882.
    Damascene, John, et al. Barlaam and Ioasaph. Harvard University Press, 1967.
    Freeman, Margaret B., and Sipress, Linda. The Unicorn Tapestries. United States, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976.
    Hunt, David. “The Association of the Lady and the Unicorn, and the Hunting Mythology of the Caucasus.” Folklore (London), vol. 114, no. 1, 2003, pp. 75-90.
    Ikegami, Keiko. Barlaam and Josaphat. AMS Press, 1999.
    Le, Goff, Jacques. Heroes and Marvels of the Middle Ages, Reaktion Books, Limited, 2020.
    Orfanidis, Georgios. “Chased by a Unicorn,” Medievalista, 29 (1), 2021, pp. 183-209.
    Newman, Edward. "Arrival of a Sumatran Rhinoceros in the Zoological Gardens." The Zoologist, vol. SEVENTH, 1872, pp. 3057.
    Macqueen, Graeme. “Rejecting Enlightenment? The Medieval Christian Transformation of the Buddha-Legend in Jacobus de Voragine’s Barlaam and Josaphat.” Studies in Religion, vol. 30, no. 2, 2001, pp. 151-65.
    Moll, Herman. A system of geography: or, a new & accurate description of the earth in all its empires, kingdoms and states. Illustrated with history and topography, and maps of every country, fairly engraven on copper, according to the latest discoveries and corrections, by Herman Moll. To which are added alphabetical index's of the names, ancient as well as modern, of all the places mention'd in the work. And a general index of remarkable things. Printed for Timothy Childe at the White Hart at the west-end of St. Paul's Church-Yard, MDCCI. [1701].
    Potter, Polyxeni. “Unicorn Tapestries, Horned Animals, and Prion Disease.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 10, no. 6, 2004, pp. 1181-1182.
    Reading the Fantastic Imagination: The Avatars of a Literary Genre, edited by Dana Percec, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.
    Sax, Boria. Imaginary Animals: The Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human, Reaktion Books, Limited, 2013.
    Schaper, J.L.W. “The Unicorn in the Messianic Imagery of the Greek Bible.” Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 45, no. 1, 1994, pp. 117-136.
    "The Cockatrice and the Unicorn." Trades Chronicle, 18 Feb. 1854, p. 7.
    Veryard, Ellis. An account of divers choice remarks, AS Well Geographical, AS Historical, Political, Mathematical, Physical, And Moral; taken in a journey through the Low-Countries, France, Italy, and part of Spain; with the isles of Sicily and Malta. As also, a voyage to the Levant: A Description of Candia, Egypt, the Red Sea, the Desarts of Arabta, Mount-Horcb, and Mount-Sinai; the Coasts of Palestine, Syria, and Asia-Minor; the Hellespont, Propontis, and Constantinople; the Isles of the Carpathian, Egean, and Ionian Seas. Wherein, Their present State, Interest, Customs, Manners, and Religion; their Learning, and Learned Men; with the most celebrated Pieces of Seulpture, Painting, &c. are more Accurately set forth, than hath hitherto been done. With an Account of divers sorts of Shell-Like Bodies found at great distances from the Seas; with Remarks thercon, in way to discover their Original: And what else occurr'd most Remarkable in Thirteen Years Travels. Illustrated with divers figures. By E. Veryard, M.D. Printed, and sold by S. Smith and B. Walford, at the Prince's-Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard, MDCCI. [1701].
    Williams, W.B.J. The Reality, Mythology, and Fantasies of Unicorns, Dragonwell Publishing, 2021.

ความคิดเห็น • 631

  • @captainstroon1555
    @captainstroon1555 ปีที่แล้ว +707

    I'm convinced some ancient dude saw a rhino once and described it as a large pale horse with a single horn to his peers back home.

    • @misspinkpunkykat
      @misspinkpunkykat ปีที่แล้ว +70

      People didn't have cameras back then and not everyone could draw. A horse was the animal most people used as a point of reference to describe other animals.

    • @Richard_Nickerson
      @Richard_Nickerson ปีที่แล้ว +69

      Just like how the antelope with a snake for a head was 100% a giraffe

    • @Otokichi786
      @Otokichi786 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      I've read that Ibex were seen at the "one horn" angle.

    • @kingrahzar9351
      @kingrahzar9351 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      Either that or he saw a hairless elasmotherium **before** they died out

    • @gingermaniac5484
      @gingermaniac5484 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      I'm guessing phoenix was actually a parrot of some kind

  • @ReynaSingh
    @ReynaSingh ปีที่แล้ว +140

    Unicorns, fairies, seems like much of what gets marketed to children has an ominous historical presence

  • @kuroazrem5376
    @kuroazrem5376 ปีที่แล้ว +218

    If you've seen a rhinoceros, you've seen a unicorn. And let me tell you, they're terrifying.

    • @kyleellis1825
      @kyleellis1825 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Scientifically it's part of the name.

    • @Lily_of_the_Forest
      @Lily_of_the_Forest ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Wonder if an albino rhinoceros was the first inspiration

    • @Shythalia
      @Shythalia ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@@Lily_of_the_Forest Well, white (not albino) rhinos are a real rhino species.

    • @mistylover7398
      @mistylover7398 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      🦄🦏

    • @forickgrimaldus8301
      @forickgrimaldus8301 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      And also Giant Push overs once they get to trust you

  • @diplodorkus970
    @diplodorkus970 ปีที่แล้ว +409

    Love that we've now gotten TWO episodes about unicorns on this channel, such an interesting part of Eurasian mythologies

    • @dubuyajay9964
      @dubuyajay9964 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Link to other one plz?

    • @JohnThurner
      @JohnThurner ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@dubuyajay9964 th-cam.com/video/TqpkZMECnsc/w-d-xo.html

    • @artesiningart4961
      @artesiningart4961 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@jabowackies ...or maybe aswángs in general, with the manananggáls revisited as one of its five categories or subcategories and as the "self-segmenting viscera sucker" aswáng or simply "viscera sucker" aswáng, according to Maximo Ramos, and then do each of the other categories or subcategories of aswángs with their own individual videos in the future: the "vampire" aswáng, the "weredog" aswáng, the "witch" aswáng, and the "ghoul" aswáng.

    • @GryphonBrokewing
      @GryphonBrokewing ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @jabowackies This one's "Monstrum"; the other is "Fate & Fabled".

    • @GryphonBrokewing
      @GryphonBrokewing ปีที่แล้ว

      @@dubuyajay9964 th-cam.com/video/TqpkZMECnsc/w-d-xo.html

  • @friend_trilobot
    @friend_trilobot ปีที่แล้ว +226

    In the last Narnia book, The Last Battle, there is a male unicorn named Jewel who is fully sentient, talks like a courtly noble, is a friend of the king, is gentle around friends, but is also an adept and violent warrior who kills someone with his horn fairly early on in the story. The inclusion of a steed for Peter in the movie of Lion Witch Wardrobe though visually intense had the potential to confuse or muddle all those ideas, even if it didnt technically go against the Lore

    • @danyellerobinson5940
      @danyellerobinson5940 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      Indigenous people teach us that we are all part of the same social/spiritual universe. A unicorn can be magician or monster accordingly -- a mirror.

    • @friend_trilobot
      @friend_trilobot ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@danyellerobinson5940 that's interesting, but I don't understand the connection to my comment...?

    • @danyellerobinson5940
      @danyellerobinson5940 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@friend_trilobot It is the role of the warrior - to serve and protect. Lewis' stories are filled with splatterings of Indigenous wisdom.

    • @kingrahzar9351
      @kingrahzar9351 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Would've loved to meet him. Sounds like a nice guy!

    • @Mockingbird_Taloa
      @Mockingbird_Taloa ปีที่แล้ว

      I may be misremembering this entirely, but I'm pretty sure that in the book Peter is said to ride into battle on a unicorn, there just isn't any further elaboration.

  • @CapriUni
    @CapriUni ปีที่แล้ว +233

    I was introduced to The Unicorn Tapestries, up close and personal, when I was about 6 years old, when my parents took me on a trip to the museum (One thing you don't mention here is that the scenes depicted are *life sized* -- quite impressive to tiny me). And ever since then, I've seen the rainbow-and-sparkle version of unicorns a vast insult. (And the hunters have it coming).

    • @marlonmoncrieffe0728
      @marlonmoncrieffe0728 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      🗽 Ah, are you from New York City too?!
      The Unicorn Tapestries are housed at the Met Cloisters.

  • @limethewitch.-.727
    @limethewitch.-.727 ปีที่แล้ว +149

    Man, be nice if one day y'all cover more equid related folklore creatures like the pegasus and man eating mares of Diomedes. Equids in fiction have made me understood that equids can be unique and gorgeous like a elegant and intelliigent pegasus while terrifying and intimidating with their complicated and broad large appearance like the untamable and vicious man eating mares of Diomedes.

    • @Beryllahawk
      @Beryllahawk ปีที่แล้ว +15

      And if Fate and Fabled could cover the many and varied Horse Goddesses that would also be incredibly cool!

  • @charade539
    @charade539 ปีที่แล้ว +84

    I hate that it is legitimately hard to find anything unicorn related nowadays that isn't pink and cutesy. I've always loved the wild, fierce beast, and now that they're popular, I'm being left out.

    • @TheEquus92
      @TheEquus92 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      That’s why I love Peter S Beagle’s The Last Unicorn. Nothing pink or cutesy about that story

    • @sarahallegra6239
      @sarahallegra6239 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      @@TheEquus92OMG, that’s one of my favorite books/movies, and by far my favorite depiction of unicorns! And OP, I totally agree, I love unicorns, but I wish they weren’t ALL cute and glittery and rainbow. I can take some of that, but that’s not a “real” unicorn to me.

    • @jeffreygao3956
      @jeffreygao3956 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      The Owl House might be more to your taste; Those unicorns are just violently obsessed with eating crab apples.

  • @bastloki
    @bastloki ปีที่แล้ว +43

    The whole 'white horned ass with a red head/neck' is a pretty spot on description of a scimitar horned oryx, actually. The Egyptians and late Romans semi-domesticated them, and it's not uncommon to find one with only one horn left bc those things are pretty fragile :)

  • @BLACKIE16491
    @BLACKIE16491 ปีที่แล้ว +309

    If Unicorns were real (like Rhinos) there would be people who'd assume they were gentle and try em in the wild

    • @TupocalypseShakur
      @TupocalypseShakur ปีที่แล้ว +27

      You mean like with hippos

    • @BLACKIE16491
      @BLACKIE16491 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@TupocalypseShakur Them too

    • @reddhafallen7289
      @reddhafallen7289 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Have you considered Unicorns being real just not on Earth?

    • @BLACKIE16491
      @BLACKIE16491 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@reddhafallen7289 yis

    • @zionleach3001
      @zionleach3001 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Then get shived by something with a rainbow horn. Now most urban fantasy saying how normally cute fantasy creatures are actually deadly were right.

  • @i3osco717
    @i3osco717 ปีที่แล้ว +77

    Thank you for another fascinating episode. I hope that you will one day do one about the Scandinavian “Myling”. Its origins will send chills down the spine all the while giving us a whisper of insight into the hardship women faced back in the day (And still do in some places) For those who don't have sleep on the schedule I recommend diving into the literature. Also related is “Ängla makerskor” (Eng: Angel makers)

    • @restezlameme
      @restezlameme ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I looked up the Myling lore. It is both fascinating and heart wrenching.

  • @lilbasenji1
    @lilbasenji1 ปีที่แล้ว +43

    Yay!!! Nothing like a new monstrum video to brighten up my day. I was looking forward to the video on unicorns. Thank you so much Dr. Z and staff for this education video.

  • @sandradermark8463
    @sandradermark8463 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Narwhals were those marine unicorns. The unicorn horn is a narwhal tusk. And oooh, Legend, Stardust, and the Last Unicorn - those beautiful films!!! I have a unicorn plushie called Lilac for her colour in my bed right now...

  • @user-zp4ge3yp2o
    @user-zp4ge3yp2o ปีที่แล้ว +35

    There's a feral unicorn in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel 'Lords & Ladies', it's a savage pet of the elves who are malicious beings.

    • @ruthbennett7563
      @ruthbennett7563 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      GNU Sir Terry ❤

    • @averycheesypotato
      @averycheesypotato ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Malicious beings, but also small, fuzzy & very hard to stay mad at once the magic wears off.
      GNU Pratchett

  • @skyden24195
    @skyden24195 ปีที่แล้ว +45

    In the 1980s, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus promoted to be in possession of a real, living unicorn. My grandma took me and my younger brother & sister to see that circus when it came to Los Angeles at one point. The "unicorn" that was paraded around the big-top at the end of the show seemed to actually be a one-horned goat. (The single horn was center lined on top of the animal's head.)

    • @Lucius1958
      @Lucius1958 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I remember the 'Living Unicorns': they were created by a couple named 'Otter' & 'Morning Glory' Zell, by grafting the horn buds of goats (Incidentally, I recollect that 'Otter' [under another alias] more recently tried to set up a Hogwarts-style 'wizards' school' somewhere)...

    • @skyden24195
      @skyden24195 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@Lucius1958 lol. yeah I heard about that at one point; the horn grafting thing, not the Hogwarts thing, but the Hogwarts thing probably shouldn't be a surprise thing,

    • @janel.8921
      @janel.8921 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Older versions of unicorns were more goat like. I remember the Circus unicorn too.

    • @skyden24195
      @skyden24195 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@janel.8921 older versions being goat-like makes sense to be depicted as I'm sure a few goats were born (unintentionally) with only one horn.

    • @guy8646
      @guy8646 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Lol I saw that goat unicorn in the 80s at the circus, too.
      They should have somehow tied a fake horn onto a beautiful white horse instead.

  • @patricksimmons8117
    @patricksimmons8117 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    The idea of a white unicorn with a blood stained head for stabbing things is so metal

  • @JennieKermode
    @JennieKermode ปีที่แล้ว +14

    Here in Scotland, the unicorn is our national animal. It's traditionally depicted in chains and often people assume that English people did this to it, but in fact it was chained long before the Act of Union or even the Union of the Crowns, simply because it was too wild and dangerous to be tamed.

    • @92JazzQueen
      @92JazzQueen 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Just like scotland

  • @Beryllahawk
    @Beryllahawk ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Absolutely my favorite "monster" - as Piers Anthony put it, the Unicorn is horse-PLUS! I have my particular favorite takes on the creature in literature and film of course - for instance, Mercedes Lackey has two entirely different treatments of the beast in two different series. In her 500 Kingdoms books, unicorns can be male OR female, but they are almost always incredibly SILLY, becoming downright goofy when in the presence of a virgin (assuming said virgin is of the appropriate gender). They can be ferocious in battle and are very much the defenders of virgins, and they're intensely magical - but they have all the smarts of a lap dog. However! In the Elvenbane books that Lackey wrote with Andre Norton, the Alicorn is hands-down a vicious beast that will gut you on sight! Bred up in an attempt to give elven knights better mounts, the creatures could NOT be tamed, and they're both carnivorous and territorial, making them incredibly dangerous to their own creators. (And, in a later book, a virgin girl does tame two Alicorns, for a very short period of time.)
    Then there's Piers Anthony's "Split Infinity" and the novels that follow it. Unicorns there are ASTONISHING creatures, coming in every conceivable color combination EXCEPT normal horse colors; every one of them is fully intelligent, they can shapechange into two forms other than their equine one (forms that THEY choose, no less), and they all have musical instruments within their horns - or rather the horns are magically capable of producing the sound of ANY instrument. (Yes even percussion) They can dance, they have their own Olympics, and they are a pivotal force in the world-shaking events that take place. Anthony's adoration of horses in general really shines through in the way he characterizes these four-legged characters, one of whom is a protagonist in a later book in that series.
    But, of course, Beagle's Last Unicorn is my all time favorite. She is glorious, innocent and yet not foolish, wise and strangely cruel at times ("Never run from anything immortal.") For most of the book she simply can't understand regret - it is a trait reserved for mortals, and for beings less perfect than a Unicorn. The ways that Beagle explored and constructed what the concept of Unicorn meant just did SO much for my own imagination and the ways that I've adored these creatures.

  • @HeraclesN-fp1bw
    @HeraclesN-fp1bw ปีที่แล้ว +32

    - There is also a Unicorn in the nursery rhyme called “The Lion & the Unicorn” which would later be used by Lewis Carroll who placed as characters in his novel “Through the Looking-Glass”
    - Also there was an anime called Heaven's Design Team which shows several reasons a horse with a single horn just can’t exist

    • @BlueRoseFaery
      @BlueRoseFaery ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Lol, I've never seen anyone else mention Heaven's design team, it's such a weird funny show, with decent biology lessons. Glad other people have seen it.

    • @HeraclesN-fp1bw
      @HeraclesN-fp1bw ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@BlueRoseFaery Yeah it was a underrated show that had fun facts about biology which people can learn in very episode

    • @evilovesperry
      @evilovesperry ปีที่แล้ว

      Rhinos do exist though ...

  • @BlackReshiram
    @BlackReshiram ปีที่แล้ว +20

    YES!!! finally someone who talks about this! I actually have a worldbuilding for a story in progress that has violent and terrifying unicorns because im so tired of people not knowing about it

  • @whycantiremainanonymous8091
    @whycantiremainanonymous8091 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    By the way, as late as 1871, in Lewis Carrol's _Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there,_ the unicorn is still explicitly referred to as a monster.

  • @sukulmati
    @sukulmati ปีที่แล้ว +22

    That slow motion stab and associated sound effect at the opening was a gift.

  • @zeropoint2594
    @zeropoint2594 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    the funny thing about the scottish use of the unicorn in it´s crest is that the unicorn was thought to hunt and eat Lions and well England had a lion so...

  • @ShandorDavies
    @ShandorDavies ปีที่แล้ว +42

    I'm sure I read a story about a unicorn when I was much younger, where a knight manages to trick a unicorn into charging into a tree where he is able to safely behead it when it gets stuck.
    Sadly I remember little else about the story but that's been my formative thoughts on unicorns and I can't really think of when they suddenly became so rainbow-centric.

    • @BlueRoseFaery
      @BlueRoseFaery ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I have a pop-up book of unicorns & it has that anecdote in it, it mentions a virgin luring it first but if you don't have any virgins on hand, getting it stuck in a tree is the other method of hunting one. It's supposed to be like an encyclopedia on unicorns so it's not a specific story, just talking about various lore. Maybe it's just from legends, maybe it was made up later, I don't know for sure, but the pop-up book was mine in the early 90s & wasn't new, it was made in the late 70s-mid 80s, it's in a box somewhere probably in my attic so I'm not sure. So idk the source or a specific story that includes it, but as a piece of unicorn lore it's been around for a while.

    • @Lily_of_the_Forest
      @Lily_of_the_Forest ปีที่แล้ว

      That king is evil!

  • @sapphirII
    @sapphirII ปีที่แล้ว +13

    In the first episode of a season of The Legends of Tomorrow, where creatures escapes from Hell through time, there's the unicorn. It seeks virgins to eat their hearts and can shower goo on people, which causes them to hallucinate.

  • @mistingwolf
    @mistingwolf ปีที่แล้ว +17

    The first book of _The Unicorn Chronicles_ called _Into the Land of the Unicorns_ was my first adventure read that included a unicorn named Lightfoot. I don't remember very much other than the plot twist and a she-dragon named Firethroat, who I thought was pretty cool. I should probably give it a new read; I know the book is lying around somewhere...

    • @sugaxshyxtype
      @sugaxshyxtype 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I love that series. Bruce Coville is one of my favorite writers.

  • @eliasschaffels538
    @eliasschaffels538 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    My favorite unicorn depiction is from the witcher books. Telepathic and able to travel between worlds they are in a constant war with the elves in their home world.
    Its wild, but it works

  • @kada2741
    @kada2741 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    The last unicorn...great movie

  • @dyslexictreki7087
    @dyslexictreki7087 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Within the queer community the Unicorn represents the notion that our rarity makes us precocious not freaks. Though we are more than happy to get tongue and cheek about it, being a unicorn for us means we have value. Something society as a whole has tried to say we didn't have.

  • @strandedinseattle9931
    @strandedinseattle9931 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    If you like reading and you like unicorns, definitely read The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. It is an all ages book, and it is wonderful. The children's animated movie enchanted me as a child, and the book filled in all the gaps for my adult brain. 100% recommend.
    Trivia: It was published in 1964 and had become his wife's favorite story by him. She used to beg he write a sequel, and it was when she was upon her death bed that he wrote one for her. That book, The Way Home, was published and released just five days ago (April 2023).

    • @fiberpoet6250
      @fiberpoet6250 ปีที่แล้ว

      It’s bittersweet that he waited till she was dying to write the sequel

  • @TheAnimalKingdom-tq3sz
    @TheAnimalKingdom-tq3sz ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Unicorns then: Violent Equines that can be tamed by virgins and use horns as defense
    Unicorns now: *M Y L I T T L E P O N Y*

  • @natmorse-noland9133
    @natmorse-noland9133 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    Was not expecting you to mention the use of "unicorn" as polyamorous slang, lol! I appreciate your thoroughness, as always.

    • @ZedaZ80
      @ZedaZ80 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Me: "There's no way they are going to mention that though."
      Monstrum:
      There's definitely some missing nuance though 😅

  • @allonzehe9135
    @allonzehe9135 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Of all the Orns, the Unique Orn is the best.

  • @eileenappleby8899
    @eileenappleby8899 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Thank you for the videos, they are very entertaining and educational, although often frightening. Have you considered discussing the symbolic creatures associated with alchemy and alchemical potions? Unicorns and Dragons are some of them. Thanks again!

  • @wyvern723
    @wyvern723 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    I was obsessed with unicorns as a child... I checked out every book I could find as a little kid and begged my parents to read them to me...
    So I was fully aware of the origin of the mythical creature. My daughter never had to be told what the horn was for. ;)
    The Last Unicorn was both mine and my husband's favorite movie.

  • @Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache
    @Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache ปีที่แล้ว +7

    "When I was five, I imagined that there was such a thing as a unicorn. And this was before I had even heard of one, or seen one. I just drew a picture, of a horse, that could fly over rainbows, and a had a huge spike in its head. I was five! Five-years-old. Couldn't even talk yet."

    • @maxpowers9129
      @maxpowers9129 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I suspect you are probably not remembering properly. Most kids are talking way before they are 5. You likely heard about a unicorn and just forgot about it. Early childhood memories are unreliable.
      I remember having a dream about the classic alien that looks like this 👽 before ever seeing such an image. However after that dream I saw their image all over TV just a few days later. I had probably just seen the image of an alien on TV, and had forgotten it.

  • @gwyndolinds-en8yt
    @gwyndolinds-en8yt ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I swear, somewhere in the 1000 years of the Middle Ages, someone must have drew anthropomorphic unicorns

  • @Nonsequitoria2010
    @Nonsequitoria2010 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I knew it! In my world-building lore, dragons are very similar to angels and unicorns are very similar to demons. The dragons are the actual children of stars, who are living beings; but the unicorns are the children of moons, born from the reflected light from the nearest stars. My original thinking in high school was that it would be so EDGY and QUIRKY to swap their expected religious roles, but I keep learning new information that backs up my own lore all the time.

  • @nyrdybyrd1702
    @nyrdybyrd1702 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Dr. Z doesn't mention the Fate and Fabled unicorn episode (debuted about a month ago) until the very end so I just spent the past thirteen minutes fairly convinced I was a time traveler. 😅

  • @renecorrea892
    @renecorrea892 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I would like all these chapters to be in the future seasons of Monstrum.
    *Sea Serpents
    *Leviathan
    *The Headless Horseman ✅
    *Phantom Vehicles
    *Boogeyman
    *Ghosts
    *Possessed Dolls
    *Shadow People
    *Undead
    *Goblins
    *Bigfoot
    *Man-Eating Plants ✅
    *Creepy Clowns
    *Killer Robots
    *Swamp Monsters
    *The Mummy ✅️
    *Scarecrows
    *The Invisible Man
    *Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
    *Merfolk
    *Demons
    *Skeletons
    *Stingy Jack (Jack of The Lantern)
    *Gnomes
    *Sea Monsters that attacked Submarines
    *Alien Abductions ✅
    *Ogres
    *Ghouls
    *Lich
    *Cyborgs
    *Witches
    *Kaiju
    *Cthulhu ✅
    *The Rake
    *Revenants
    *Vampires
    *Dagon
    *Ogopogo
    *Colossal Claude
    *Spectral Carriages
    *Kappa
    *Flatwoods Monster
    *The Flying Dutchman
    *El Charro Negro
    *La Santa Compaña
    *Davy Jones & the Undead Pirates

  • @bardic_grin
    @bardic_grin ปีที่แล้ว +4

    When I hear sea unicorn I immediately think of the narwhal!

  • @giboit.
    @giboit. ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Great video. You should also make one talking about the Kelpie, the mythical water shapeshifting horse

  • @cobrachicken07
    @cobrachicken07 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I bet your (excellent) artist had a blast illustrating this episode! Great work Monstrum team!

  • @misspinkpunkykat
    @misspinkpunkykat ปีที่แล้ว +2

    There was aguy in the 70s and 80s who would surgically alter the horns of goats and claim they were unicorns

    • @Lucius1958
      @Lucius1958 ปีที่แล้ว

      'Otter' Zell: he sold a couple of them to Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.

  • @RaidoDemonSimp
    @RaidoDemonSimp ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I love unicorns there so cool and I think their both beastly and magical ❤ so monstrum you havent change my veiw at all only enhanced my love for this creature

  • @Vox-Multis
    @Vox-Multis ปีที่แล้ว +4

    It always makes me a little sad when I see a unicorn depicted as just a horse with a horn - as opposed to older depictions, when they were their own, original animals that just happened to bear a passing resemblance to a horse.

  • @whitewing2
    @whitewing2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I can't help not to say this
    The Unicorn...
    is "The beast of Possibility"

    • @thepsychopotato
      @thepsychopotato ปีที่แล้ว

      Berserk NT-D activated makes the Unicorn really violent.

  • @adrianmorrison4678
    @adrianmorrison4678 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Talking about unicorns today makes me feel even more desperate and ready to see you do a video about the bad reputation in bats and how it evolved over the decades. I'm also ready to see you do a video on dinosaur monsters in movies through evolution and the impact it got from Jurassic Park. Lastly I wish you could break down the impact king kong had throughout the near century span of his existence.

    • @Kehy_ThisNameWasAlreadyTaken
      @Kehy_ThisNameWasAlreadyTaken ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Jaws, both the novel and the films has had a massive negative impact on oceanic ecosystems worldwide, and cause a hell of a lot more fear and panic around sharks than there should have ever been

  • @kharza6145
    @kharza6145 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Great video, It would be really cool if you made a video exploring the prominence of fox monsters in Asian mythologies like the Huli jing and the kitsune

  • @gollum1ring
    @gollum1ring ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I'll just sit here and wait to hear the phrase, "slut shaming murder ponies" at some point in this video.

  • @blahlbinoa
    @blahlbinoa ปีที่แล้ว +4

    In Dungeons and Dragons: Unicorns are said to be sent by the good of Law and Good to a champion of the gods (usually a Paladin) in a time of great need to show faith within the individual and that they are chosen by the gods (that's 5e, not sure about other editions)
    In the Everquest MMO: There is a Unicorn in the Lesser Faydark forest that has a Unicorn that walks around the area and attacks Evil Aligned Characters

    • @Beryllahawk
      @Beryllahawk ปีที่แล้ว

      in the now-venerable AD&D version they're wild magical beasts, hunted by the foolish and the brave, and they are VERY intolerant of humanoids because of it...

  • @oliviasvahn4090
    @oliviasvahn4090 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    When I was little I read a book once on unicorns (I don’t remember the title) in which a girl is wounded and a unicorn cures her by putting its horn against her heart. But the father of the girl sees it and thinks the creature is killing her daughter so he attacks it. The unicorn defend itself and they battle, killing each other. At that point the girl wakes up and sees her father, dead by the horn of the unicorn and she swears revenge on all unicorns and since a piece of the unicorn horn snapped and got stuck into her heart now she is immortal! I actually never ended the story, but that bit stuck with me, so I actually look at unicorn with careful respect 😅 And I still have nightmares about that scene 😬

    • @messypeaches
      @messypeaches ปีที่แล้ว +1

      The unicorn Chronicles

  • @MoonBratStudio
    @MoonBratStudio ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Is it just me... or did some of those people deserve to be torn up by a unicorn? 🤷‍♀ Haha! Thanks for the great video, Dr.Z! (What girl doesn't still have a soft spot for unicorns? Haha)

  • @wingedcreature126
    @wingedcreature126 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    TWILIGHT SPARKLE IS AN ALICORN!!! (as of the end of s3, the mlp movie, and throughout the series s4-s9)

  • @andeeharry
    @andeeharry ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Unicorns are just like any other being....majestic, beauiful and rough. They are not bad or dangerous, they are just a wild animal that has a weapon that can defend itself in the face of danger,

  • @Steveofthejungle8
    @Steveofthejungle8 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    A unicorn in modern slang can be:
    Me: Shohei Ohtani
    Emily: the perfect polyamorous partner
    Well that works too 😂

  • @karenritter2574
    @karenritter2574 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    The last unicorn I s a good movie. They also were helpful is the D&D cartoon and the original Thundercats.

  • @Koda89
    @Koda89 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Suddenly this completely recontextualizes the unicorns in the anime series Chaika the Coffin Princess. This entire time I thought those unicorns was a badass variant on unicorns, but turns out they were actually accurate to the historical folklore versions.

  • @valacarno
    @valacarno ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Cheers to all the unicorns, darlings! 🦄🌈

  • @andersonic
    @andersonic ปีที่แล้ว +1

    "We've adopted this idea to apply the name 'unicorn' to elusive and highly sought after prizes..." Will Dr. Z say it? Will she? "...or polyamorous companion." SHE SAID IT! An oddly specific polyamorous conventionally attractive bisexual woman with no boyfriend or emotional needs.

  • @VTimmoni
    @VTimmoni ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I am actively trying to make one of my player characters afraid of unicorns in a TTRPG I am running. It's 100% the player's fault.

  • @liamjohnston2000
    @liamjohnston2000 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I'm surprised the unicorn from Legends of Tomorrow wasn't mentioned. It had both the vicious desire to stab people and was attracted to virgins.

  • @howdy4504
    @howdy4504 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    the two aren't mutually exclusive. I prefer my magical icons also be violent beasts

  • @Mikeztarp
    @Mikeztarp ปีที่แล้ว +3

    1:24 I very clearly see two lines that do not intersect. Either they're two horns, or more likely since they're so thin whereas the legs are represented fully, two projectiles (spears, arrows... I don't know what people used back then).

  • @acoupleofschoes
    @acoupleofschoes ปีที่แล้ว +1

    If you want a thoroughly disgusting unicorn story, Equoid by Charles Stross won the Hugo for Best Novella in 2014.

  • @sapphirII
    @sapphirII ปีที่แล้ว +4

    In a Magic the Gathering book, The Wildered Quest, one of the twin's friend is a healer with an unicorn mount. Well, the unicorn impale something at one points and it shocks them. The knight accompanying them remarks that it is a creature of the Wilds and not because it looks benevolent that is harmless.

  • @rub-al-khali4265
    @rub-al-khali4265 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Love this episode. Great fictional creature. I wish you would have explained ( if any) why the Unicorn in modern times seems to be associated with the LGBTQ+ community?

    • @pbsstoried
      @pbsstoried  ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Good question! Dr. McT covered that over on Fate & Fabled. Check out that ‘sister’ episode.-*Dr.Z*

  • @liquidformat
    @liquidformat ปีที่แล้ว +3

    love that she slipped in the polymerous partner there at the end🤣

  • @johnopalko5223
    @johnopalko5223 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I saw a "unicorn" once at a Renaissance Faire, wow, must be 45 years ago now. It was a goat with a single horn in the middle of its head. I imagine the owner had done a lot of inbreeding of his stock to move the horns closer and closer together until they merged. I always wondered what other genetic horrors were lurking in that poor thing's DNA.

    • @Lucius1958
      @Lucius1958 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Possibly one of the Zells' creations? It wasn't breeding, though, but surgery: they grafted the horn buds to the center of the skull.

    • @johnopalko5223
      @johnopalko5223 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Lucius1958 I guess that's not quite as bad, but still...
      It being surgical makes much more sense, though. I had heard of people burning horn buds off but it never occurred to me to transplant them. I guess that's why Zell was issued a patent.

  • @Shatterverse
    @Shatterverse ปีที่แล้ว +4

    While MLP can burn, the modern word for a flying unicorn is 'alicorn' - probably based on that horn name. Personally I think 'Pegacorn' would be funnier.

    • @Beryllahawk
      @Beryllahawk ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I still call them Pegacorns >.>

    • @jeffreywells1832
      @jeffreywells1832 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Alicorn is, of course, the word for either the horn itself or the material it is made from. The use of "alicorn" as a reference for a winged unicorn is recent, emerging from the work of fantasy author Piers Anthony (who IIRC mistakenly believed it to be the already in-use commonly accepted term, inadvertently popularizing this memetic drift).

    • @Beryllahawk
      @Beryllahawk ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@jeffreywells1832 Was it Piers Anthony? In which series, if i might ask? I have no illusions that I've read even half his works, Xanth is MASSIVE -

    • @jeffreywells1832
      @jeffreywells1832 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@Beryllahawk Not Xanth. Incarnations of Immortality, I think.

    • @Beryllahawk
      @Beryllahawk ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jeffreywells1832 Ah! Time for a re-read then, I don't recall that at all - but it's been a good long while, haha! Thank you!

  • @kendrickcurriculum
    @kendrickcurriculum ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I love this channel and even use it in my classroom 😊 This once, you have missed a modern fictional unicorn that is vicious! I grew up reading about this one, so I have always seen them as fictionally dangerous thanks to Piers Anthony's Double Exposure trilogy. It is SO worth a read, and it's disappointing this iconic sci-fi and fantasy writer is often overlooked. #piersanthony #splitinfinity #dangerousunicorn

  • @danyellerobinson5940
    @danyellerobinson5940 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Both. Like all beings, it is about balance.

  • @kenster8270
    @kenster8270 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    1:23 Wait... I am seeing two horns here. Not one. But two.
    Could that be just a mere deer painted onto that cave wall?
    Or is it one of those extra super rare double-horned unicorns? 🤔🥸🦄

  • @zoushaomenohu
    @zoushaomenohu ปีที่แล้ว +1

    "Stay where you are, poor beast! This is no world for you. Stay in your forest and keep your trees green, and your friends protected. And good luck to you, for you are the last!" - The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle.

  • @connorthompson8376
    @connorthompson8376 24 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    You should totally check out the space opera series “Acorna: The Unicorn Girl,” as well as “The Dragon Riders of Pern” by Anne McCaffery.

  • @saeklin
    @saeklin ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I love the idea of real sea creature bones and fossils feeding myths of terrestrial cryptids. And especially when the real creature is so much stranger than the cryptid itself, like with narwhals and unicorns.

  • @T.BG822
    @T.BG822 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    There's some even darker associations and behaviours attributed to early unicorns, but I fully understand not including them. Great video, and good to see a decent primer for the beast out there.

    • @sailormoonfan224
      @sailormoonfan224 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Okay, now I'm curious. How bad does it get?

    • @T.BG822
      @T.BG822 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@sailormoonfan224 I mean, bad. The association with virgins didn't always have them laying down in the poor girl's lap: they'd 'check' in physical ways, eat her flesh, etc. They were a midpoint between old-school angels and demons, a 'divine and natural force of wrath and reckoning'. As with most 'monsters', what we currently think of is an amalgam of a few different tracks of belief and conceptualization - some older Slavic variations had associations with the holiness of silver and the soullessness of the dead, and some russian ones fed on corpses (some freshly made). Unicorns of Northern African tradition trended toward being fearful creatures, but shared associations with fertility, poison, and strange physical abilities with others of their regions - but there were also tales of single-horned, cloven-hooved horses that breathed poison that melted the skin of children.
      Like I said though: the video's a good primer, especially for European interpretations.

  • @jackmcglion8337
    @jackmcglion8337 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Great video. Could you do an episode on the incubus and the succubus

    • @maxpowers9129
      @maxpowers9129 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I'd like to see more about sleep paralysis and the images associated within different cultures. In cultures that believe in the succubus that is what will usually be described. In cultures that believe in aliens, that is what they will usually describe.
      Understanding how the human experience can serve as proof to reinforce mythology is an interesting topic to me, but isn't one addressed often.
      If you were told that succubi were real and you woke up unable to move and thought you saw a succubus on top of you, then it's going to seem like very reliable evidence to you.

    • @jackmcglion8337
      @jackmcglion8337 ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@maxpowers9129 interesting.

  • @sash4all
    @sash4all ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Horses were first domesticated in West asia, that's near the Ukraine, which was also the place were the Elasmotherium was at home and it's also the area with one of the oldest civilazations, around Black see, which is reaching back until more than 30.000 years BC, the time the elasmotherium maybe was still living. It's also the place where wikings were at home, which spread stories about unicorns and fake unicorn horns to europe. Coincidense?! I don't think so... 😉

  • @enriqueramirez0615
    @enriqueramirez0615 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Just last week they made the Unicorns bigger, and then they gave them more horns, and then they made them chubbier. I mean, really, they just made a bunch of Weird Fluffy Rhinoceros.

  • @Fede_99
    @Fede_99 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    1:27 Sorry but that is definitely not a cave art of Elasmotherium, it doesn't even remotely look like a horn. Looks a lot more like some kind of bovid. Also it depends what you mean by saying "European" since Elasmotherium only lived in few very eastern states of Europe like Ukraine and Romania.
    Also in 2021 there was a new study suggesting it didn't have a giant horn but rather a much shorter wider horn. The study also includes a photo of a real cave art that could be attributed to Elasmotherium, why not showing that instead?

  • @zionleach3001
    @zionleach3001 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Guess DC Legend's of Tomorrow and Cabin in the woods was onto something. Torchwood and Monster Hunter; Vendetta were right. We love making dangerous creatures cute.

  • @Pattmore
    @Pattmore ปีที่แล้ว +1

    In the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
    Unicorns do indeed symbol pure and good are known to live deep in the forbidden forest.
    Unicorns are one of the most important creatures in the wizarding world as most alternate know that’s it’s hair are fen a wand core
    But what I find most interesting is that when someone kills a unicorn and drinks their blood their cursed for life.
    Like professor quirrl (lord Voldemort) when he needed unicorn blood to stay alive..

  • @StoffelDilligas
    @StoffelDilligas ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I'm surprised a crossbreed Unicorn and Pegasus hasn't appeared in some crappy Hollywood mooooovie involving wizards and boarding schools

  • @Jeromy1986
    @Jeromy1986 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    "Polyamorous companion" specifically a woman willing to be the sprt-of sex object in an otherwise monogamous pairing. "Unicorn hunting" as they say is often frowned-upon, but it has been pointed out that as long as everyone is fully aware of all terms and in agreement then it's okay.

  • @ScumBunny
    @ScumBunny ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I did a quick search and it looks like the word "re'em" appears in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 33:17 where the phrase specifically refers the re'em's "horns" rather than "horn", implying it's not referring to a single horned animal: "בְּכוֹר שׁוֹרוֹ הָדָר לוֹ וְקַרְנֵי רְאֵם קַרְנָיו בָּהֶם עַמִּים יְנַגַּח יַחְדָּו אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ וְהֵם רִבְבוֹת אֶפְרַיִם וְהֵם אַלְפֵי מְנַשֶּׁה." translated as "His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.” Incidentally in modern Hebrew "re'em" means oryx.

  • @robertfaucher3750
    @robertfaucher3750 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    You forgot about Rapidash! They are unicorns as well!

  • @meganshaw1949
    @meganshaw1949 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    A flying unicorn is actually called an Alicorn. And according to some lore an Alicorn’s power level is usually much greater than that of the unicorn. In order to match the power-level of an Alicorn there has to be no less than ten unicorns together who have the exact same level of power.

  • @naylabrisambinrizalmoe
    @naylabrisambinrizalmoe ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Hey Mostrum, Can You Talk About Popobawa The Tanzanian Folklore Please 🙏

  • @robertjohnson5227
    @robertjohnson5227 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Unicorns are terriffic 21st century artwork as well.
    I have drawn them for around 30 years now

  • @jankay8569
    @jankay8569 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Wow i cant believe you guys havent covered unicorns until now. 😂

  • @Crispy_Bee
    @Crispy_Bee ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The unicorn seems like it used to be a goat and then was sloooowly changed into a more horsey goat because horses were seen as more "elegant" or "noble". But still the goatee was kept. So it was probably just a goat with a deformed horn... oh well.

  • @christianchauhan23
    @christianchauhan23 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I just 🤍 #UNICORN🦄, they are unique & magical & ❤🤍💙 all your videos mam👍

  • @alex9190
    @alex9190 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    the last unicorn movie scared me SO MUCH as a kid. i don't know what it is about it but the whole thing is unsettling

  • @Green4CloveR
    @Green4CloveR ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Technically, the picture shown referencing Lisa Frank is Pegasus, not a unicorn.

  • @ariadgaia5932
    @ariadgaia5932 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I remember reading a fantasy novel once where the unicorns were black carnivores with needle-like teeth.... Can't remember the title.... All I remember is that the main character jumped off a roof only to fall thru a portal to a fantasy world where these unicorns lived. If someone knows the book, please remind me of the title! I'd like to read it again.

  • @kingrahzar9351
    @kingrahzar9351 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Long ago In what is now (unfortunately) Iraq, there were tales of a giant unicorn with 3 legs, the stature of a sauropod, six eyes, a horn on its head, and multiple... erm... "private parts where the sun don't shine". It was said to stir polluted water with it's tripod legs until it was suitable for drinking. Even though it was not native to Iraq i can't help but think that the real life extinct rhino the paraceratherium was the inspiration behind the legend. For it was tall, grey, hairless, looked like a giant horse, and had thick tree trunk like legs (even though it had **none** of the features the persians describe the tripod unicorn as having).
    In Africa, there are reports of single-horned, gray, hairless, scaly, lizard-like rhino-ish beast called emela-ntouka or ngoubou. In swahili it means "elephant killer" cuz that's what it does all day. The description brings to mind the single horned dinosaur and extinct mammal the styracosaurus and the elasmotherium. Even though no fossils of ceratopsians or extinct rhinos (so far to my knowledge) have ever been found in Africa. The emela-ntouka and the elasmotherium probably (or indirectly) inspired J.K. Rowling to create to the single horned mythical creature the erumpent. A rhino-like beast that spews a lava-like substance out its single horn socket causing victims to... "spontaneously explode". Not sure if the reek from the star wars episode 2 counts as a unicorn though.

  • @marchdoesvlogs9823
    @marchdoesvlogs9823 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Bronies and Ponies unite This is d video for you (I'm Brony so deal with it cos I like Rarity.)

  • @BestOfTsars
    @BestOfTsars ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Just watched unicorn wars. A adult animated film where teddy bears go to wars against unicorns

  • @jongles352
    @jongles352 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Easily one of my favorite youtube channels, not a miss yet.
    I wanna learn about goblins, is it a general term like trolls? When did it get tied to antisemitism and how have depictions tried to move away from that recently?