Literary and other references about unicorns collected from various sources. I'm always on the lookout for more quotations about unicorns, so if you find any references not already included here, feel free to send them to me and I'll add them to these pages.

Have been amazed by the far-ranging variety of sources which make reference to this mythical and mystical being. Although there is no verifiable evidence that unicorns have ever existed, they've managed to find an unshakeable place in human art, thoughts and writings throughout the ages.

There are in India certain wild asses which are so large as horses, and larger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot and a half in length. The dust filed from this horn is administered in a potion as a protection against deadly drugs. The base of this horn, for some two hands'-breadth above the brow, is pure white, the upper part is sharp and of a vivid crimson, and the remainder or middle portion, is black. The animal is exceedingly swift and powerful, so that no creature, neither the horse nor any other, can overtake it.

Like a lion, without fear of the howling pack,
Like a gust of wind, ne'er trapped in a snare,
Like a lotus blossom, ne'er sprinkled by water;
Let me, like a unicorn, in solitude roam.

In the midnight forest the dark oak trees are still under the stars. The pale wildflowers in the clearing have furled their petals for the night. Suddenly, he appears, a milk-white creature with the proud form of a horse. You may not notice his cloven hoofs or curling beard, but you see the curved neck, the silver mane, the graceful tail. Then he moves his head, and the moonlight runs like sea water along the pearly spiral of his horn. There is no sound, but at the next heart-beat the clearing is once again empty of all but the night.

--- Georgess McHargue, The Beasts of Never (1968)

Should the last of the gentle unicorns also perish, they will continue to haunt our dreams and those of our children, who will not forgive us for letting such beauty disappear from the earth.

--- Paul and Karin Johnsgard, Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History

The unicorn holds many secrets:  the secrets of jungles and moonlight, the secrets which lie hidden at the roots of trees and conceal themselves in coral labyrinths beneath the ocean. I look deep into its amber eyes and see my own reflection, but altered in line and light, as if in a dream.

...I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betray'd with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils and men with flatterers;...

--- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Toward noon we spotted an animal gazing down at us from a sterile mountain peak of red and black rocks... Our guide stated that the animal must certainly be a unicorn, and he pointed out to us the single horn which jutted from its forehead. With great caution we gazed back at this most noble creature, regretting it was no closer for us to examine still more minutely.

In the Province of Argaus, has been seen the Unicorn, that Beast so much talk'd of, and so little known.
 

--- Samuel Johnson (Translator); A Voyage to Abyssinia, Father Lobo (1735)

 --- William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1612)

Water flowers curve back their nighttime petals, owls spread dream wings in the starlight, flamingos arch their gentle necks and dip their heads to meet silver reflections in the stream. The moon is spill out of the sky in waterfalls of light; a mist of scented jasmine hangs heavy in the air. This is the night garden of the unicorn. Here he pastures among drowsy ferns and humming insects, caressed by spider web dreams, brushed by the wings of midnight butterflies.

--- Josephine Bradley, A Small Book of Unicorns

GREAT account and much profit is made of Unicorns horn, at least of that which beareth the name thereof; wherein notwithstanding, many I perceive suspect an Imposture, and some conceive there is no such Animal extant. Herein therefore to draw up our determinations; beside the severall places of Scripture mentioning this Animal (which some may well contend to be only meant of the Rhinoceros) we are so far from denying there is any Unicorn at all, that we affirm there are many kinds thereof. In the number of Quadrupedes, we will concede no less then five; that is, the Indian Ox, the Indian Ass, the Rhinoceros, the Oryx, and that which is more eminently termed Monoceros, or Unicornis. Some in the list of fishes; as that described by Olaus, Albertus and others: and some Unicorns we will allow even among Insects; as those four kinds of nasicornous Beetles described by Muffetus.

Secondly, Although we concede there be many Unicorns, yet are we still to seek; for whereunto to affix this Horn in question...

 --- H L. Mencken, American essayist

They say that it is impossible to capture this animal alive.

 --- Pliny the Elder, philosopher (1st Century)

 --- Edward Topell,  Historie of Four-Footed Beasties (17th Century)

In the heart of the forest a unicorn is born. The trees hold gentle branches around it, the forest pools guard its secret; only the stars can see. Among the silent spaces of the trees it grows protected, nurtured . . .

The Unycorn is so stronge that he is not taken with myghte of hunter. But men that wryte of kynde of thinges meane that a mayde is sette there he shall come: And she openyth her lappe and the Unycorn layeth thereon his heed, and levyth all his fyerinesse & slepyth in that wyse. . .

The hunter stood beside me
     Who blew the mighty horn;
I saw that he was hunting
     The gentle unicorn—
But the unicorn is noble,
     He knows his gentle birth
He knows that God has chosen him
     Above all beasts on earth.

The unicorn is noble;
     He keeps him safe and high
Upon a narrow path and steep
     Climbing to the sky;
And there no man can take him
     He scorns the hunter's dart
And only a virgin's magic power
     Shall tame his haughty heart.

What would be now the state of us

But for his Unicorn,

And what would be the fate of us,

Poor sinners, lost, forlorn?

Oh, may He lead us on and up,

Unworthy though we be,

Into His Father's kingdom,

To dwell eternally!

--- Thibaut IV, Count of Champagne (1201-1253)

 --- From an ancient missal at Neuhaussen, Germany

Hunters can catch the unicorn only by placing a young virgin in his haunts. No sooner does he see the damsel than he runs towards her, and lies down at her feet, and so suffers himself to be captured by the hunters.

---- Wolfram Von Eschenbach (c. 1170-c. 1220), Parzifal (early 13th Century)

And always, at the rising of the sun,

About the wilds they hunt with spear and horn,

On spleenful unicorn.

Men lead a virgin maiden to the place where he most resorts and they leave her in the forest alone. As soon as the unicorn sees her, he springs into her lap and embraces her.

--- Physiologus (9th Century)

The maiden is sent to seek out the unicorn. Smooth and sudden as a flight of birds she enters the maze of dappled shadow and he comes to her, gentle as a rose, caught in her hair, woven into the web of her mind multiplying softly within her.

--- Josephine Bradley, In Pursuit of the Unicorn (1980)