What do unicorns really mean?
Unicorns are everywhere, from journals to stuffed animals to TV shows—and as a lifelong unicorn-lover, I’m happy to see their rise to popularity. But the unicorns popular today look different than the ones from my childhood and previous eras of history. National Unicorn Day comes but once a year, but this year it reawakened in me a curiosity about the history of unicorns and what they truly mean.
I read a few books on unicorns, from their origin as rumors of a one-horned beast in distant lands to their iteration as the horned white horse with healing powers. One sentence in one of these histories intrigued me: the statement that unicorns became a symbol for Jesus Christ in the Middle Ages. Since there is often a perceived split between Christianity and fantasy/mythology, I had to know more. So I contacted an expert on literature who did a special study on symbols of Christ—particularly the unicorn.
In this series, Dr. Jane Beal will share her fascinating research about the deep meaning and history of the unicorn and its forgotten ties to Christianity.
About Jane Beal, PhD
First, let me back up and explain how I know this incredible woman. During my English Creative Writing studies at Colorado Christian University, Dr. Beal oversaw my thesis project: writing a fantasy novel and researching how to traditionally publish it. (That novel is the one I finished rewriting last fall under the new title Bronze and Blood.) She herself is an accomplished writer with many publications in the scholarly and poetic realms. Her poetry has been set to music, she writes creative non-fiction, and explores magical realism. Currently, she is an English professor and department chair at University of La Verne. You can find out more about her work at janebeal.wordpress.com.
She also has an incredible research background—but don’t take my word for it! Here it is in her own words:
Q: Tell us a bit about your educational background and your research experience.
A: I graduated from high school when I was 16 years old from Vallejo Senior High School in Vallejo, which is a city in the San Francisco Bay area. I got my B.A. and my M.A. in English Literature from Sonoma State University and my PhD in English Literature with an emphasis in Medieval Literature from the University of California Davis. I also had a designated emphasis in Classical Mythology, and I did a lot of work in Early Modern Literature as well. I subsequently got a certificate in midwifery from Mercy Action College of Midwifery, and so I’m bi-vocational as a professor of English Literature and as a midwife, and I’m actually currently working on a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction because I’m a life-long learner. So, as part of my education, I was required to learn how to do a lot of different kinds of research, and I primarily research Medieval Literature, which involves me in manuscript research in libraries around the world in England and in America also, and I also do a lot of database research on literary works that I analyze in my publications. As a midwife, I have done a lot of research on conditions that affect the developing baby and mothers during the childbearing year, and I actually have published on some of those, mostly in a trade publication called Midwifery Today, a professional trade publication. I’m also interested in the history of midwifery. I, as a professor, have done a lot of teaching of students of how to do research in their fields, so problem-solution papers have been one of my staples in my instruction, particularly in the course I teach on writing in the health professions. So, there’s a snapshot.
What this series will cover
While I had a very specific question in mind for this interview—“Why is the unicorn a symbol for Christ?”—the wealth of information Dr. Beal shared with me requires not just a blog post but a series. She’ll touch on:
- Where does the word “unicorn” come from?
- Is it appropriate for Christians to talk about and involve unicorns?
- How did the unicorn become associated with Jesus, and what does that mean?
- How has Christianity shaped English literature and the unicorns we see today?
- What other mythological creatures are forgotten symbols for Christ?
Join me next time for all this and more! If you love unicorns, fantasy, history, linguistics, or Christianity, you are in for a treat with this series!
The True Meaning of the Unicorn Series
1. Introduction: About Dr. Jane Beal
2. What does the Unicorn Mean?
3. How did the Unicorn Change Over Time?
4. What do Other Mythological Creatures Mean?