Unicorn

From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.

For information on the furry artist Unicorn, see Unicorn (artist).

Maelstrom, a fictional unicorn character in Extinctioners

The unicorn is a legendary creature that looks basically like a horse, but is slenderer and has a single, usually spiral, horn growing out of its forehead. This horn, often called the alicorn is said to have miraculous healing abilities, including the ability to neutralize poisons and other toxins. Unicorns in the media are often also given the ability to teleport limited distances.

1 Depictions
2 Kirin
3 Fiction
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Depictions

My Little Pony unicorn, Windy, from 1983.

Though the popular image of the unicorn is that of a white horse with a horn, the traditional unicorn has a billy-goat beard, a lion's tail, and cloven hoofs, which distinguish them from horses. Interestingly, these modifications make the horned ungulate more realistic, since only cloven-hoofed animals have horns. Some unicorns have been depicted otherwise, including giving them zebra-like stripes or other unusual fur patterns and colors. There are unicorn My Little Pony characters, with pastel or brightly-colored bodies and hair as well as symbols.

[edit] Kirin

The qilin, a creature in Chinese mythology, is sometimes called "the Chinese unicorn", but it is not directly related to the classical Western unicorn, having the body of a deer, the head of a lion, green scales and a long forth-curved horn. Currently, the word "kirin", in Japan, written with the same kanji (Chinese ideograms), is used to designate the giraffe as well as the mythical creature. Strangely, the Japanese mythological creature is usually portrayed as more closely resembling the Western Unicorn than the Chinese qilin, even though it is based on the Chinese myth.