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U'nicorn
According to the legends of the Middle Ages, the unicorn could
be caught only by placing a virgin in his haunts; upon seeing the
virgin, the creature would lose its fierceness and lie quiet at her
feet. This is said to be an allegory of Jesus Christ, who willingly
became man and entered the Virgin's womb, when He was taken by the
hunters of blood. The one horn symbolises the great Gospel
doctrine-that Christ is one with God. (Guillaume, Clere de
Normandie Trouvére.)
The unicorn has the legs of a buck, the tail of a lion, the head and
body of a horse, and a single horn in the middle of its forehead. The
horn is white at the base, black in the middle, and red at the tip. The
body of the unicorn is white, the head red, and eyes blue. The oldest
author that describes it is Ctesias (B.C. 400); Aristotle calls it the
Wild Ass; Pliny, the Indian Ass; Lobo also describes it in his History of Abyssinia.
Unicorn. James I. substituted a unicorn, one of the supporters of the
royal arms of Scotland, for the red dragon of Wales, introduced by
Henry VII. Ariosto refers to the arms of Scotland thus:
Yon lion placed two unicorns between
That rampant with a silver sword is seen.
Is for the king of Scotland's banner known.
Hoole, iii.
Unicorn.
According to a belief once popular, the unicorn by dipping its horn
into a liquid could detect whether or not it contained poison. In the
designs for gold and silver plate made for the Emperor Rudolph II. by
Ottavio Strada is a cup on which a unicorn stands as if to essay the
liquid.
Driving unicorn. Two wheelers and one leader. The leader is the one horn, (Latin, unum cornu, one horn.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on U'nicorn from Infoplease:
- U'nicorn - U'nicorn According to the legends of the Middle Ages, the unicorn could be caught only by ...
- Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: U - Definitions, origins, and illustrative excerpts for words, phases, and literary allusions starting with "U"
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