Unicorn Folklore Storybook
By: Elena BAgwell
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The
Storybook Project that I am preparing to put together will center on a
mythological
creature, the Unicorn. The reason I chose this topic is because I
share a
special love with horses and all things remotely similar to horses,
such as the
Unicorn and Pegasus. I believe that the interest I have of
Unicorns is
something that I share with many other people. For whatever
reason it may
be I think most people are intrigued by Unicorns and are curious to
discover
more about them. Take for instance, I doubt that many people know
that
Unicorns have a certain religious attribute and are sometimes compared
to
Jesus. I am going to take this opportunity creating this
Storybook to
learn more about an animal that has always received special attention
from me,
and I hope at the same time I can provide information that some people
were
totally unaware of that might make them as enthusiastic about Unicorns
as I am.
At this point in the Storybook there is not a
great deal of information I know
about Unicorns, however, I am slowly learning new things each time I
research. As I began my research process the first thing I
noticed was
how much information there is out there on Unicorns. I came
across an
endless amount of websites that people had started based on their
passion for
Unicorns. There is so much that you can learn from these
sites. For
example, I learned that not all unicorns are white and that they may
appear in
a wide variety of colors. I have seen images of colored ones, and
black
ones that are known as “Firebringers.” However, white is the most
typical
color. Most of them have links for Unicorn stories, Unicorn
poetry,
general information about Unicorns, books on Unicorns, and Unicorn
images. From these websites I have learned that the Unicorn
appears in
many cultures around the world. There are ancient stories that
relate the
Unicorn to moments in the Bible, and more ancient stories about the
Ki-lin, or
Chinese Unicorn that appears in many Chinese folk tales. There
are also a
multitude of more recent stories invented by adults and children.
Some of
these stories have become popularized when they became scripts for
movies. One example of this is the movie The Last Unicorn.
This
animated movie was what first introduced me to Unicorns as a child and
it
quickly became one of my favorites. Through my research I am also
beginning to learn that the Unicorn stands as a symbol for many
different
things to many different cultures. Their wide popularity and the
diversity of powers and symbols that Unicorns are linked to is what I
most want
to convey in my Storybook. Fictitious or not, Unicorns have
endured the
test of time and have become a universal subject that has had an
enormous
impact on people. That is why I think they are important.
It is by completing this Storybook that I hope
to
discover Unicorns and learn as much about them as I can. I would
like to
learn the types of powers that are attributed to Unicorns and the many
symbols
they stand for. More than anything I would like to read many
stories that
stem from a diversity of cultures. That way I would be able to
see what
kind of impact these animals have had on people. I am most
interested in
learning about the different interpretations that people have had of
Unicorns. Specifically speaking, I would like to learn why
Unicorns have
a horn, where the name originated from, and what types of magical
powers they
have been attributed with.
I truly believe that many people will be
interested in
a Storybook topic such as this, at least I hope!! As I mentioned
above,
the Unicorn is a creature that has had the ability to speak across the
ages to
a diverse audience; young or old, male or female, Chinese or American,
Christian or not. I don’t think that living in 2004 is an
exception to
this, especially based on all the Unicorn websites that enthusiasts
have
created. Unicorns carry some of the qualities that many of us
desire:
purity, freedom, beauty, energy, playfulness, exoticness, etc… Also,
Unicorns
possess an ability to capture our attention and imagination, feeding
the
interest each one of us has in the mysterious, unusual, and
beautiful.
Essentially, they are beautiful, mythological creatures that deserve
the amount
of attention they have received.
Currently, I am planning to include stories
from a few
different cultures. Some of these will include: The Unicorn
Tapestries,
The Chinese Ki-lin, possibly an excerpt from the Ukrainian poem about
Noah’s
My Storybook is going to consist of a number
of
different strategies combined together. Those combined will be
the
Storybook as an event that turns into a purpose-of- life quest, and
ends with
the quest providing advice in the form of morals, spirituality, and
acceptance. It sounds complicated, but it all comes together to
form one
plot.
The central character of this plot is a
middle-aged, intelligent, well-rounded, artistic, beautiful woman named
Juliet that suffers an emotionally crippling divorce. She decides
to travel
the world when she realizes she can’t get her life back to
normal. She
uses this time to get away and escape her troubled life for a few
months.
As she travels around the world she comes across images of unicorns and
eventually decides to learn more about them. Ultimately, her
travels turn
into a quest that she thinks is to answer why she keeps seeing so many
unicorns.
In the end she discovers that the quest was a search for herself and
the person
she was/is that had been replaced by sadness and tragedy. The
Unicorn and
its stories served as a symbol for her and everything she had
overlooked, and
helped her to remember the beautiful person she had forgotten so long
ago.
Here is a list of possible websites I might
use to
gather research:
http://www.bartleby.com/104/118.html
http://www.firebringer.co.uk/
http://skepdic.com/unicorns.html
http://www.dworldonline.com/unicorn/
http://monsters.monstrous.com/unicorns.htm
http://home.swipnet.se/~w-59099/maskrosbarnen/Unicorn/Unicorn.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5177/
Unicorn
Stories:
Story
1: Unicorn Tapestries
Story 2: Chinese Ki-lin
Story 3: Unicorns in Christianity
Story 4: The Firebringer
Story 5: Rishyashringa
Story 6: The Story of the Fair Maiden
The Meaning of it All