What a unicorn is, we don't know for sure. On the title page of Bartholin's book, the unicorn is depicted as a horse with a horn on its head. The unicorn depicted in Gesner's book looks more like a goat, but with a horse's head and neck. Both animals are similar in that they have a spit-like horn sticking out in the middle of their forehead - so regular in shape that it seems to have been carved out of ivory by an artisan. This horn is very long and heavy.
Various authors have differently defined the length of the unicorn's horn. Ctesias wrote that the length of the horn is two arshins (about one and a half meters), Elij is one and a half arshins, Plinny is two arshins. Albert Magnus determined the length of the horn
ten feet (about three meters). Arabic writer Abu Damiri argued that the unicorn's horn is so heavy that the animal cannot raise its head.
As we shall see later, the nonexistent horn of a nonexistent animal was nevertheless a reality. It was of great value and was kept in the royal treasuries. According to Valerius Cord, the treasury of the Temple of St. Mark in Venice contained a one and a half meters long unicorn horn with a base diameter of five to six inches. This horn was twisted, grooved, and gradually narrowed towards the end.
The unicorn's horn was worth more than gold. What was its value?
“The horn of the unicorn is very, very useful. Op neutralizes poisons in the human body. It's the same with drinking water! It is enough to lower the horn into the water poisoned with any poison, and the water immediately becomes drinkable again. Therefore, in the old days, princes and other rich people made goblets from horns or always put a piece of horn in a goblet. Even today, some medical scientists recommend that their patients add horn to their food."
Thus, the unicorn's horn had a miraculous property - it neutralized poisons. Therefore, the unicorn was held in high esteem. At least the legends speak about it. Before getting drunk, a horn was dipped into the water and, even if the water was poisoned, it could be drunk without fear.
Without knowing the customs of the Middle Ages, we cannot understand the turbulent career of the unicorn horn. In the XV-XVI centuries, a number of fast-acting poisons were known. These poisons killed a person with lightning speed - or somewhat more slowly.
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There were plenty of poisoners at that time. It can be said without great exaggeration that anyone could have dealt with anyone without much difficulty, and almost always there was complete confidence that the poisoner would remain undetected and unpunished. Poison was a convenient and reliable means for eliminating unwanted people, and it is resorted to very often, especially in Venice, Italian cities and in France.
One of the most common ways to protect against poison was to get a piece of horn and dip it in wine before drinking. As the legends say, the unicorn's horn completely neutralized poisons. Of course, it would have been better to make goblets out of the horn, but this was available to very few, because the horn was fabulously expensive. Besides, it would be a shame to spoil the beautiful twisted long horn.
The horn of the unicorn was used not only to neutralize poisons. Almost all diseases were treated with it and remained the most popular medicine for centuries.
Prices for the horn were constantly rising Pope Julius III bargained for a long time over the horn, for which they asked for 9000 thalers. It seemed too expensive for Dad, and the deal did not take place. When the Pope fell seriously ill, he paid 12,000 thalers to the Levantine merchant, but he received not a whole horn for this money, but only a small piece.
Queen Elizabeth I of England had a horn among the Windsor treasures, which was estimated at ten thousand pounds. Pope Clementius VII had a horn, which he bought for 17,000 ducats. This horn, which made up a fortune, became a royal wedding gift. When the Pope's niece, Catherine. Medici, married Henry II, son of the French King Francis I, the Pope ordered a gold frame for the horn and presented it as a gift to the newlyweds.
The Medici family possessed several horns. Lorenzo the Magnificent (head of the Medici family) ate with a fork with a horn handle, trimmed with gold. The treasury of King Edward I also had several horns. In 1303, much of the treasure was stolen from Westminster Abbey. The king was at war at that time. Upon receiving news of the theft, he left the battlefield, hastily returned home and personally led the search for the stolen treasures. Most of them were found. The most valuable treasure - a unicorn's horn - was found under the bed of one of the thieves. For his reckless prowess, the criminal paid with his life.
A whole book could be written about the horns, which were the property of various crowned persons. We will, however, limit ourselves here to just a few of the more famous unicorn horns.
The Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible had a three and a half feet long horn, which he bought for 700 thalers from an outsburgh merchant.
After the death of the tsar, this treasure passed to his feeble-minded son Fedor. In 1585 Fyodor was crowned king with a unicorn horn in his hands. The largest number of horns belonged, perhaps, to Edward IV, but the Spanish king Philip II also boasted of his collection. It was said that once the Turkish sultan gave Philip II a dozen horns. Many did not believe in this story at that time. They said that such expensive gifts were simply unthinkable. It is possible that either the story with the Sultan's gift was not true, or the horns presented to the king were fake.
After all, a real horn was paid in gold - ten to twenty times the weight of the horn.
For a whole horn or even a piece of it, wealthy people were ready to give anything.
Karl the Bold had a spoon made of horn. A piece of horn was suspended from a chain from a goblet. Every time the king drank, he first dipped the horn into the wine. The inquisitor Torquemada, famous for his cruelty, did not sit at the dinner table without a piece of horn.
This inquisitor, who so easily sent thousands of people into the world of another, with great vigilance guarded his own life, not wanting to leave this mortal world prematurely.
Karl of Burgundy also greatly appreciated the horn, whose description of the meal was compiled by Olivier de la Marche: “When His Highness sat down at the table, the horn was solemnly brought in. Before the prince began to eat, napkins were removed from the dishes and the food was touched from all sides with a horn. Then the cupbearers appeared with two silver bowls - in one water, in the other wine, and a piece of horn was suspended from each of them on a chain.
Later, more and more doctors began to lose faith in the miraculous power of the horn. Already the doctor of the French king Charles IX (son of Catherine de Medici) knew that as a precautionary measure, all manipulations with the horn are completely useless, but, do not wish to incur the highest anger, he kept his opinion to himself, and the king continued to dip the horn in drink. … This custom at the French court was consigned to oblivion only after the Great French Revolution of 17th9.
For a very long time, the unicorn horn has certainly been included in all pharmacy lists of necessary medicines.
First of all, it was considered a reliable remedy against the plague. In 1665, during the Great Plague of London, the horn became a big shortage, which was not missed by all sorts of charlatans who sold all kinds of substitutes under the guise of horns. Most often, pork bones were given out for the horn. In the list of medicines compiled by the English Royal Society of Physicians in 1741, the horn still appears, but in the list from 1746 it is no longer mentioned!
The belief in the healing properties of the horn was preserved longer in the East, but it was narrower, but it was so expensive and over time it became cheaper and cheaper, and soon it became possible to purchase a whole large horn at a very reasonable price.
Unicorn Horn - Narwhal Tooth
Readers may have already guessed which horn we are writing about, we are talking, of course, about the narwhal's tooth (monodon). An amazing tooth. It sometimes reaches three meters in length and has a very regular shape, as if it were carved out of ivory.
The narwhal's tooth is very similar to the horn of a unicorn - that fabulous one-horned animal (horse or goat), which you can read about in the unicorn article.
In the 17th century, some naturalists already guessed that some animal with a horn on its head lived in the sea. Needless to say, a narwhal's tooth does not grow from the forehead. In truth, this is a huge something that looks like a tooth. If only because the narwhal has one such tooth - on the left side. Males sometimes develop a small canine on the right, but in most cases this right canine falls out at an early age. The remaining large left canine protrudes not from the mouth opening, but is located above it, and it seems that the tooth is growing from the forehead of the animal.
Narwhal is known as a whale. It reaches six meters in length. This harmless animal reaches six meters and does not benefit much from the formidable-looking "bayonet", in any case, he does not use it as a weapon.
Narwhal is a sea animal and it is strange that it was not known to the Venetians, Italians, French, English and Scots whose ships sailed all the seas. How could it be that the experienced sailors of these peoples did not meet with the narwhal?
This can probably explain the heme, that the narwhal is a northern, cold-loving animal and lives in cold polar waters. At one time, these animals were relatively numerous and off the coast of Iceland, for example, were quite common.
Icelandic fishermen have long known and hunted the narwhal.
At the time, fishing for narwhal was one of the most profitable businesses in the world. Already one single tusk of the narwhal was of great value, and a ship that went fishing could return with fabulous wealth. In other countries (except Scandinavia) they knew nothing about this fishery. Icelandic, Danish and Norwegian fishermen, apparently, knew how to keep a secret so well that it remained unsolved for many centuries. And the unicorn remained a four-legged land animal. True, there were rumors about the sea unicorn, but it just so happened that this animal also turned into a fabulous, mythical creature. The legends about the unicorn are so colorful with fantasy, there is so much fog and confusion in them that it is simply impossible to understand them.