Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. Today’s blog post is about Unicorns and how they relate to Maidenhood! When we first hear the word Unicorn, most of us think of the ultimate innocence of youth, which is largely related to the nature of Maidenhood.
The Unicorn is a very interesting mythical creature, as there is a connection to Christianity, as well as going on to be used as a symbol of Royalty, appearing on the Scottish flag. Now, this is not uncommon to have Faery Beings, Faery Creatures, and other mythical creatures being connected with Christianity early on because of the desire to convert the largest amount of people to Christianity (hence all the Faery Queens being shown as Saints and the story of Faeries being Fallen Angels or the Hidden Children of Eve). That being said, Unicorns also have the interesting nature of a connection to Royalty and appearing on the Scottish flag. In fact, the only other mythical creature I can think of that also fits this trope is the Dragon, which appears on the Welsh flag!
Now that I have gone over the basics of how Unicorns have been viewed, I want to more deeply discuss the connection between Unicorns and the youthful Maidens. We have many famous medieval stories of Unicorns being chased and hunted, which is what likely inspired the story of The Last Unicorn. There are even multiple famous medieval tapestries featuring Unicorns in this way. It should be noted that it is in the medieval period that Unicorns were linked with Christianity, specifically, often seen as being emblematic of Christ himself. The link to Christ could very well be why we associate Unicorns with innocence and purity so much, especially with sexual purity! That is why I wanted to begin the exploration of Unicorns and Maidens here. I want to state here that it is very interesting that Unicorns, famed for their phallic horns, are so associated with virginity, but then again, we can think of this as the horn being something that can protect the young Maiden from being violated.
The stories of Unicorns appearing to youthful and innocent Maidens have been passed down in folklore throughout history. We see this in films, like Legend, where the Unicorn is attracted to the female lead, Lily. This is an example of not only Unicorns being attracted to Maidens, but also to how desired the magick of Unicorns is. This is based directly on the power of healing that has been attributed to Unicorns historically, with Nobles and Royals famously taking healing tonics which they believed were made from Unicorn horn! This was actually quite common for a time, something that we see over and over again, with paranoid Royals seeking out Unicorn horns as antidotes to poisons. Of course, this nature of healing, especially of poisons, is something that would be of great value to the Royals, who often did have people out there who would want to poison them in order to usurp their power!
To finish off this post, I want to discuss how Unicorns and their magick and connection to Maidens are still seen today. Unicorns are still shown as part of positive magick, the height of white magick, in the way we portray them in modern media. There is a famous episode of Charmed where the Elders sent the Charmed Ones a Unicorn when they knew that magic would be going out. This Unicorn was a source of positive magic, with the horn being one of the few sources of magic the Charmed Ones had access to in order to fight demons and aid Piper as she went into labor, thus connecting Unicorns to purity and childhood! Not to mention how often we see Unicorns in products for young girls. There are countless Unicorn stuffed animals, Unicorn-printed clothing for children, and other childhood toys with Unicorns. I see this as the modern evolution of associating Unicorns with Maidenhood, only now we are more commonly associating them with younger children!
I hope you have enjoyed this look at Unicorns and their special type of enchantment. What is your favorite aspect of Unicorn folklore? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is The Maiden and the Unicorn by Domenichino. I found the art on https://www.wga.hu/html_m/d/domenich/3/farnese.html.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries
Further Reading/Watching
- https://www.history.com/articles/unicorn-horns-royal-protection-poison-antidote
- https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-prints/Unbekannt/739087/The-Mystical-Chase-of-the-Unicorn,-Which-Has-Taken-Refuge-in-the-Lap-of-the-Virgin.html
- https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/11/18/the-secret-of-the-unicorn-tapestries/
- https://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/blog/what-are-the-unicorn-tapestries/
- The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
- The Last Unicorn (1982)
- Legend (1985)