Did you know it’s National Unicorn Day? Whether you did or didn’t here are some more facts about the mythical creature.
1. The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.
2. The unicorn was used on the Scottish royal coat of arms by William the Lion in the 12th century.
3. The King James version of the Old Testament contains nine references to unicorns.
4. Ancient Greeks wrote about unicorns, not as part of their mythology but in accounts of natural history.
5. Beginning in 1985, the Ringling Bros. circus began advertising a “living unicorn” as an attraction. His name was Lancelot, and he was actually a goat whose horns had naturally fused together into a single unicorn-like horn.
6. The British royal coat of arms of a lion and a unicorn symbolised the joining of the English lion with the Scottish unicorn in 1707.
7. People used to buy “unicorn horns”. Queen Elizabeth I spent the modern equivalent of over £4million on one of these horns to use as a scepter. In truth, it was actually a narwhal tooth, which are typically between three and four feet long. That would make for one big unicorn.
8. Unicorn horns are called alicorns.
9. In 1980, a patent application was filed in the USA for a surgical procedure for growing unicorns.
10. According to legend, the unicorn is the strongest of all animals and can defeat an elephant but is humbled by a virgin maiden.