TIL: The National Animal of Scotland is... The Unicorn!
Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you but if you happen to live in Scotland you might already know that yes, in fact, the national animal is the Unicorn.
After I ran across this fun fact, I decided to do some research to determine if it actually was true. Which it is!
The Unicorn was adopted as Scotland's national animal by King Robert III in the late 1300's. Then curiosity got the best of me, and I asked the question most of you are thinking right now.
Turns out, they have some compelling reasons
Although never actually seeing one, most people during the medieval times believed that unicorns existed. Actually, for the most part of human existence everyone believed in unicorns and it was also common to hear tales of people running into the mythical beast. Apparently, you could also buy a unicorn horn from the merchants or find it as an ingredient in medication. Even the famous Aristotle wrote about unicorns. So the Unicorn was a big deal.
You would have to imagine that you really believe these things exist, and not the cute and cuddly ones either. The ancient unicorn was powerful and ferocious to its enemies. But instead of using its power to dominate it would provide protection for other animals. So not only does the Unicorn represent power, it also represents chivalry; making it the ultimate animal!
But that’s not the whole reason the Scott's adopted this uni-horn beast
According to ancient tradition and folklore, the Unicorn had 2 natural enemies: The elephant and the Lion.
The elephant isn't a big deal. But the Lion... Well, that is England’s national animal, a nation in which Scotland had growing tensions with during that time. The animosity between the two kingdoms was a huge motivating factor in adopting the Unicorn, only a short 100 years after England adopted the lion.
These tensions finally broke out in war during the 14th century, and after nearly 200 years of fighting, the two kingdoms unified, Combining the Lion and Unicorn on coat-of-arms for each nation, which is currently still in use.
So for today, I learned that the Unicorn is Scotland’s national animal. If you’re interested in a deeper explanation, check out these articles:
http://www.richmondscots.org/ssrUnicorn.php?ssrMenu=1
Thank you for reading and feel free to comment.
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Very interesting. Thank you for this post.
Seems like you just made an interesting post yourself... lol, you get the same payout for a general response. Where did I go wrong ;)
well than who is to say with absolute certainty that they did not exist....it is only a different breed of horse.
there are different breeds of human.
@everittdmickey pointed out that unicorns did exist, look at his comment picture. Those are it. Not the typical one with a horse body tho...
excellent news!
What an interesting post! Thank you for sharing! :)
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/29/living/real-unicorn-remains/
That is one ugly unicorn. kind of looks like a rhino and a bear combination ;)
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Its ok, I'm fine with this payout.
But I would also be OK with it being more ;)