Читать книгу Unicornucopia: The Little Book of Unicorns - Caitlin Doyle - Страница 8

Introduction

From Confucius and Marco Polo to My Little Pony and Internet memes, humans have been enchanted by unicorns throughout history and across cultures. Just consider the hashtag #unicorn, with 7 million posts and counting! Today we believe unicorns are mythical creatures that never truly existed – but try telling that to Lancelot the Unicorn, who made his debut at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1984, or to the brave unicorns who gave up their horns for the Throne Chair of Denmark in 1662, or to the unicorns left behind playing in the rain as Noah boarded his ark, or to the ‘sea unicorns’, aka narwhals, or to Bambi the unicorn-deer, born in Florence, Italy, as recently as 2008 …

You see? For however hard we try to disprove their existence, the unicorns of legend stand even stronger, several thousand years old, drawing us back into their magic once more. In our quest to discover more about the unicorn, we have learned about the world around us, from the world view of ancient Japanese cultures to the mating rituals of the narwhal, and from prehistoric animal skeletons to Shakespearean allegory. So whether or not unicorns have existed, do exist, or might one day exist, the myth is more powerful than the reality. With its legendary gentle, noble nature, the unicorn has taught us to love, to believe, and to seek magic in the everyday. And with a little unicorn magic, sunshine can find its way through the clouds, kindness trumps cruelty, and we all finally have an excuse to eat rainbow cake.