最早的踪迹:  

The first 'unicorn' might not even have been a horse. It likely originated from garbled accounts of real animals from travelers and traders on the Silk Road."

可能的原型:

The Indian Rhinoceros: "Massive, single-horned, and utterly terrifying.

Check Your "Purity Stats".

Don't Try to Sell Its Horn.

Offer Sparkles, Not Threats.

Hi, everyone and welcome to the studio. Today I would like to test a brand new segment. Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone.

First of all, what is our shared interest?

Wine?

Apart from that, we both like to listen to or read about…?

Folktales, lore.

Folklore, folktales. 我跟安澜都比较喜欢这种传说类的东西, 怪谈啊，什么都市传说呀.

So we want to test out a new segment that is all about this, lore around the world. We are going to call it, this is the testing title “Lore and More”.

Hahaha.

Don't laugh!

It’s cute.

中文我们会暂定叫【奇谈杂货铺】.

In this little segment, we're going to dive into the weird, the wild and the wonderful world of folklore and legends from every corner of the globe.

OK. Which one are we going to start off with?

We are going to talk about something pure, magical and sparkly.

Sparkly?

With a horn. Can you have a guess?

We're going to talk about unicorns.

Yeah.

But isn't that just a horse with a plunger on its head that poops rainbows?

I think you're either thinking about “My little pony” or the disneyfied version.

This is where you're wrong. The modern unicorn is really just a disneyfied  shadow of its true self.

The original unicorn wasn't at all about glitter and cupcakes. It was actually a symbol of ferocity, purity, and one of the most dangerous beasts you could ever hope or not hope to encounter.

That sounds rather terrifying.

Yeah. Unicorn was terrifying. They weren't cuddly creatures.  So let's travel back, shall we, for our first lore.

The first unicorn might not even have been a horse. You know, the origin, it could be originally the Indian rhinoceros or around that region. There was a specific type of massive, single horned rhino. 它的可能的原型是一种南亚的一个犀牛, 其实在其他地方的lore里面, 它也有犀牛的原身.

So rhinoceros.

Yeah.

So you're telling me that a unicorn is basically a dangerous rhino. That's pretty much ruined my childhood.

Did you really think it farts rainbows?

That's what I saw when I was a kid.  How did we go from a terrifying beast to a sparkly pony?

OK, now we'll fast-forward to the Middle Ages in Christendom, in Christianity. The unicorn was co-opted by the church.  It became a powerful symbol of Christ because it's pure untamable by sin. But, here's the catch, it could be captured, but only by a pure virgin.

A pure virgin.

You know, representing Virgin Mary. 圣母玛丽. 它是可以被一个virgin, 一个maiden capture.

OK. So I could imagine it's quite difficult to catch a unicorn?

Yeah. I mean, this is the virgin capture trope where it comes from. You could still see in the Medieval paintings and artworks, famously depicted in the tapestry showing hunters and a lady, a young lady luring the beast.

I know it sounds really awful, but…

Yeah, so this pure magical creature is lured by innocence, why?

Because they believed its horn known as alicorn, was believed to be a universal antidote to poison.

Okay.

It counters the poison. 它是一个解毒剂.

So kings and popes would pay a fortune for unicorn horns. Even nowadays you could still see exhibits the relics which people believed, used to believe that’s the unicorn horn. But obviously we now know there were no real unicorn. They were mostly narwhal.

You mean, like the whale.

The wahle tusks就独角鲸的角. They were seen as unicorn horn.

So, let me understand. A virgin gets this magical, pure creature to kill it, and then to get its horn to be sold as medicine to kings and popes.

It's pretty dark.

It is very dark! What about, where's the evil twin?

To the unicorn?

Yeah! Every good hero needs of it.

I'm so glad you asked. Folklore much like psychology loves a duality, sort of twins. Meet bicorn! So “uni” means one horn. Bicorn is the unicorn’s shadow self. While the unicorn was a horse with a single horn, bicorn is often depicted as a monstrous bull-like creature with two horns, 这个叫两角兽.

But the more interesting bit of the lore, it was the utter opposite of the corn. It represented impurity, deception and vice.

Because it had two horns.

Yeah, I mean, they are duality. Do you know what it used to feed on, the bicorn?

Other bicorns?

No, its diet was set to consist of devoted husbands.

Devoted husbands, so loyal husbands.

Yeah, good man.

Okay. Basically it's purity against sin, good and evil, two horns against one horn.

Yeah. The whole eating devoted husband part is like a warning about infidelity and the fragility of virtue.

The virtue gets eaten and it always be guarded.

So how did we go from that to…

To sparkly?

To nice, sparkly.

Yeah. And now I move on to the pop culture shift, the unicorn’s gentrification, so to speak, began in the Victorian era. But it was the 20th century that completed the whole make over in the 1980s, the whole psychedelic stationery and My Little Pony.

Send it off all the edges, removed the danger, drenched a unicorn in rainbows and glitter. That's the unicorn we know now.

It even became a symbol of LGBTQ pride parade,  because it somehow now is a symbol of uncomplicated happiness and individuality.

So, I can understand that. But why is it still used in the business world? Why in business magazines they talk about unicorns.

That business idea of unicorn就是独角兽企业that didn't come from my little pony.

Yeah.

Just so you know. That term was coined in 2013 by venture capitalist风投界的一位叫Aileen Lee. She used unicorn to describe a privately held startup company valued at over 1 billion US dollars to show how rare these type of companies are.

Okay.

Same as unicorn, you don't see them. Her reasoning was basically saying that it was elusive.

But nowadays, unicorn is not that uncommon.

Nowadays in startup world, they started expand this whole glossary. So apart from unicorn or in addition to that, now you have decacorn and hectocorn, 十角兽或者百角兽.

As you can imagine 10 times, 10 billion or 100 billion.

These two are easy to understand, but you also have something called mini corn, 小角兽. This is a startup valued at over 1 million dollars.

That's cute, minicorn.

I thought it was cute. Hopefully 酒馆 it's at least considered a minicorn now. And then you have soonicorn.

A soonicorn.

Can you guess what that means?

It's gonna be something obviously alike.

It's quite pushed, actually.

Soon to become a unicorn.

True. It's startup predicted to soon become a unicorn.

So basically, the myth just keep changing again and again. So you have Medieval unicorn that were rare and pure, commercial unicorn that are rare and magical and the Silicon Valley unicorn, which is rare and profitable. I guess.

Yeah. So, at the end, let's wrap up by talking about how to deal with  unicorns.

Okay.

So if it's an ancient unicorn, check your purity stats.

Yes. So the question to ask yourself, are you a pure hearted virgin. If the answer is no or maybe, then you're not. So probably best to let your more morally pure friend go first.

I see. And also don't try to sell its horn if it trusts you.

Exactly. One it’s probably fake, and two you’ll go to jail for wildlife trafficking, and three offer sparkles.

Sparkles and rainbow.

Exactly. So maybe instead of trying to cut its horn off with a virgin, just give it a slice of rainbow cake or cover it in glitter.

So the unicorn, our test episode in this new segment Lore and More我们今天试播的这一集【谈杂货铺】where we talked about the unicorn. A journey from a feared, real animal inspired monster to a sacred Christian symbol to a commercialized icon of modern pop culture. This is a perfect example of how folklore is never dead, is never static.

My take away is never trust a cute animal, until you really understand its back story. It might look cute with a glitter, but it might actually be a killer.

In disguise.

Exactly.

So that ends our first episode on Lore and More. Leave us a comment in the comments section, let us know what you think about this new segment and also put in request for what kind of lores you want us to talk about.

And also maybe carry some glitter. Just in case.

Just in case we're running into a unicorn today?

Pretty much.

Alright! Until next time!

Bye!

Bye!