Are Unicorns Real?

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The short answer is: why not?

Things you will undoubtedly discover with awe and amazement in this article:

  • Unicorns have always been evasive and hard for science to study
  • All the great civilizations have recognized real life unicorns
  • Unicorns were the object of a fruitful commerce for centuries during the Middle Ages
  • Unicorns most likely evolved making detection more difficult
  • Unicorns are still as real today as they ever were, and will be forever

You may be wondering are Unicorns real? This has been the subject of endless controversy for millenniums in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. There is so much literature, so many official records, accounts of live sightings, and other forms of accounts concerning unicorns, in so many different parts of the world, that we cannot list them all. We will therefore examine some of these here, and let you make up your own mind.

Unicorns are Real, but We Just Can’t See Them?

The first and foremost thing to consider with unicorns is their “magical” powers. It has been widely documented that unicorns have the faculty to render themselves, and other forest creatures, invisible to human eyes in the forest they protect. Unicorns are only visible to men if they so desire.

Since science is not yet able to explain the extraordinary abilities of real life unicorns, and how they are able to render themselves and other creatures invisible to man (which makes scientific study of unicorns extremely difficult, science having a hard time studying things it doesn’t have the means to detect yet).  We can only hope that scientific progress in years to come will allow it to detect and study this amazing animal, furthering our knowledge. In the meantime we can rely on a huge quantity of literature and accounts, real unicorn sightings, and pictures of real unicorns that exist.

Real Unicorn Sightings are Universally Acknowledged

This literature, accounts of real unicorn sightings, and records of every kind, stretch from the earliest records of humanity to today in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. There are even paintings of unicorns in the Lascaux grotto, which are amongst the oldest human paintings even found.

Real life unicorns have been recorded and officially acknowledged by the great early civilizations of the world, from China to Greece and ancient Crete, through Mesopotamia and the Indian Peninsula in which they sometimes have a foremost importance. In most of these civilizations (not all) unicorns aren’t even associated with a particular mythology since they’re not associated with the creation of the world. Real life unicorns just occupy the same space as other non-mythological creatures featured prominently in those civilizations such as lions, eagles, snakes, etc.  The sheer quantity and quality of unicorn records found throughout prominent cultures throughout the world, and over such a long period of time, make them hard to dismiss.

Unicorn Commerce in the Middle Ages

Have you ever been in a forest that was eerily void of animals? Chances are you were in forest protected by unicorns. There may have been hunters or otherwise ill-intentioned humans in other parts of the forest at that time. Unicorns protect forest creatures from ill-intentioned humans by making them invisible.

Unicorns are strongly attracted by virginity (which is one of the reasons why they have become symbols of purity and grace in western culture). The only way to trick a unicorn into revealing itself seems to be by using a virgin as a lure. This has been used as a way to trick real life unicorns into revealing themselves by unicorn hunters in the middle ages. The middle ages are a time when unicorns where hunted for their horns which are said, amongst other things, to have the faculty to purify water and rid it of any poisonous substance it may contain.

There is a very large quantity of literature, accounts, and real unicorn sighting that testifies to the reality of real life unicorn hunting in the middle ages. Unicorn horn commerce was a very real trade, that lasted for centuries, and which is attested to by numerous accounting documents of the time that record the sale of unicorn horns, and often for very large sums of money.

Modern skeptics are quick to dismiss those accounts, and the trade as the doings of gullible people that did not know better in an age of ignorance. But money then was like money now, especially when we are talking about very large sums of money. Those that could afford those items were not the poor and largely uneducated masses. They were the rich and powerful lords or merchants which were educated and had access to all the knowledge that was still being kept alive and furthered (mostly in monasteries) at the time. They most likely would have consulted as to the authenticity and reality of the object of the business endeavors they were engaging in. And this lasted for centuries.

The Extinction of Real Unicorns

Why did real life unicorns, which must have sensed the ill intentions of the hunters entering the forest, fall for it and reveal themselves to the virgin lures anyway? The exact hunting techniques remain a mystery. Hunters of the time were very secretive about their techniques, and their secrets died with them. It is only known that virgins were used as lures. However there are two likely explanations:

The first explanation is that the virgins used at the time had exceptional “purity” to them. A purity that may be unattainable in our modern worlds where no one is ever completely shielded from the sea of information, and misinformation, we are surrounded with. There is also the fact that our food and water is always tainted by manmade pollutions, which may taint our purity as far as unicorns are concerned. It is well established that the nature of the purity that real life unicorns are attracted to is first and foremost purity of the soul, if not of spiritual or sexual nature. Unicorn scholars still debate whether pollution from ingesting tainted food may or may not have an effect on purity as perceived by unicorns, and if this is established or not in the sources at our disposal. Some sources seem to mention food items not to be ingested by unicorn hunters in the months preceding a unicorn hunt, yet without further details.

The second explanation is that some real life unicorn’s attraction to virginity may have been strong enough to inebriate them to the point of “neglecting” the hunters and fatally revealing themselves. All those unicorns would have been captured and killed, whereas unicorns that would not have lost their mind to their attraction for virginity would never have been captured or killed. In other words, the very high hunting pressure in the middle ages has most likely bred the most vulnerable individuals out of the unicorn species. This would explain why unicorn hunting stopped by lack of successful hunts at the end of the middle ages, and why real unicorn sightings are rare today.

Unicorns Forever

Unicorn sightings are so rare today, some wonder if real life unicorns have gone extinct. It is difficult to form a definitive opinion on the question. Considering the time frames we’re looking at, and that unicorns were likely around in the Middle Ages, the following explanation may safely be disregarded even if it’s quite entertaining:

 

There still are reported real unicorn sightings today, but very few. The internet is rich with more or less reliable accounts of unicorn sightings, although most videos of such sightings seem to be faked. People today are very hesitant to share a unicorn sighting for fear of being ridiculed and generally not taken seriously. This is not limited to unicorns and is prevalent in our skeptical orientated modern cultures. A recent real life unicorn finding has come from North Korean state archeologists who have reportedly found a unicorn deer near their capital in 2012, although we don’t know if these findings have been independently verified.

One point on which there is no controversy is that unicorns are real in our minds, our visions, our hearts, our symbols, and our cultures even if we may not be aware of it. Literature, paintings, sculptures, and the arts in general have inspired and enchanted us time and time again as vehicles of all the meanings and power unicorns carry. Since interacting with a real life unicorn is a very rare occurrence, that is where their influence and power blossoms and why unicorns are awesome!