The legend of the unicorn

The legend of the unicorn

This is an English story.

This story tells us how Rhiannon had to look for truffles for the king because he had taken her parents to the castle.

One afternoon she was walking around the forest looking for truffles and saw a little white horse with a small lump. It was a unicorn! The unicorn helped her to find the truffles because he recognized where they were by their smell. When Rhiannon got out of the forest with the basket full of truffles some men asked her “How did you find the truffles?” and she answered “My little white horse friend helped me”. The next afternoon they saw and tried to catch him, because they wanted to pay less tax to Sir Brangwyn, but they couldn’t. 

Sir Brangwyn heard about the white horse and sent his knights to look for him but it was impossible to find him. Sir Brangwyn was so angry and hungry because he wanted those truffles so much that he decided to catch the little horse on his own. He used Rhiannon to distract the unicorn with her songs, but she was not able to sing because she felt horrible. When the unicorn appeared, Sir Brangwyn jumped from the bushes and ran to capture the unicorn but suddenly his parents appeared and killed him with their lumps.

Now that Sir Brangwyn is dead, his son is the king of the village. He is a very kind man and refuses to accept the taxes, so everybody lived happily forever.

I would recommend you this story if you like suspense.

I 

Unicorns

The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. The unicorn was depicted in ancient seals of the Indus Valley Civilization and was mentioned by the ancient Greeks in accounts of natural history by various writers, including Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny the Younger, and Aelian. The Bible also describes an animal, the re'em, which some translations have erroneously rendered with the word unicorn.

In European folklore, the unicorn is often depicted as a white horse-like or goat-like animal with a long horn and cloven hooves (sometimes a goat's beard). In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was commonly described as an extremely wild woodland creature, a symbol of purity and grace, which could only be captured by a virgin. In the encyclopedias its horn was said to have the power to render poisoned water potable and to heal sickness. In medieval and Renaissance times, the tusk of the narwhal was sometimes sold as unicorn horn.

In heraldry the unicorn is best known as the symbol of Scotland. The unicorn was chosen because it was seen as a proud and haughty beast which would rather die than be captured, just as Scots would fight to remain sovereign and unconquered. Two unicorns supported the royal arms of the King of Scots, and since the 1707 union of England and Scotland, the royal arms of the United Kingdom have been supported by a unicorn along with an English lion. Two versions of the royal arms exist: that used in Scotland gives more emphasis to the Scottish elements, placing the unicorn on the left and giving it a crown, whereas the version used in England and elsewhere gives the English elements more prominence.

Golden coins known as the unicorn and half-unicorn, both with a unicorn on the obverse, were used in Scotland in the 15th and 16th century. In the same realm, carved unicorns were often used as finials on the pillars of Mercat crosses, and denoted that the settlement was a royal burgh. Certain noblemen such as the Earl of Kinnoull were given special permission to use the unicorn in their arms, as an augmentation of honour. The crest for Clan Cunningham bears a unicorn head.