3/11

3/11 The older unicorn material has more range than the soft, harmless version people sometimes picture. Medieval European traditions could connect the unicorn with purity and associate its horn with the power to counter poison. The Unicorn Tapestries preserve a much harsher side of that imagery: pursuit, capture, violence, and a creature defending itself. There is even a unicorn in the Grimms' The Valiant Little Tailor. It is dangerous enough that catching it becomes one of the king's demands. The tailor gets it to charge, steps behind a tree, and traps it when its horn lodges in the trunk. The story gives him a problem he can solve through timing and cleverness rather than superior strength. That is worth remembering when discussing a comic called Grimm Fairy Tales. The old material already had threatening unicorns as well as sacred ones. Modern writers have several traditions available to them before they invent anything new. These are separate stories and traditions, though. The unicorn in The Valiant Little Tailor is not Zenescope's last unicorn, and medieval beliefs about healing horns do not automatically become powers every fictional unicorn possesses. Each setting gets to establish its own rules.