Unicorn

Unicorn Beaded Tapestry

Unicorns. Not quite as exciting as dragons, but interesting in their own right. I like the idea that they were hunted--actually, I like unicorns a lot, except for their association with silly little girls and innocent virgins. Not that there's anything wrong with virgins, just that it seems to be a rather odd proclivity for a mythological creature to have.

I guess I don't care for their beards, either.

But the myths about them healing, and their purity, those are interesting. So many creatures of myth have to do with death, dying and killing things, but here's a creature that's said to purify wells, and visits only to the innocent, it's a really nice contrast.  Of course, unicorns aren't entirely without death, since they were traditionally hunted (well, "traditionally" since it's hard to hunt something that doesn't exist...), and all their parts used for magic, but that's not really the point. And they didn't generally kill things themselves.

I also like the idea that con-men would sell narwhal horns as unicorn ones. And, of course, my favorite fact is that when the Northern Europeans first saw the rhinoceros they thought, 'Ah, the unicorn at last.'  Because y'know, fragile pretty horse = giant horn-nosed monstrous creature. Makes perfect sense.

But the whole rainbows, happiness, and fit-only-for-seven-year-old-girls modern unicorn, that I don't like. I'm not entirely sure why--and I'll take a unicorn puzzle over a Thomas Kinkade puzzle any day (but still a dragon over a unicorn)--but it might be because I like to resist the popular trends. Everyone like unicorns? FINE. I will like cockatrices. They have feathers.