Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Unicorns

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
    Posts
    128
    Qilin, the Chinese Unicorn?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_unicorn

  2. #2
    use the white unicorn fist too often, and you will have serious Chi loss
    Chan Tai San Book at https://www.createspace.com/4891253

    Quote Originally Posted by taai gihk yahn View Post
    well, like LKFMDC - he's a genuine Kung Fu Hero™
    Quote Originally Posted by Taixuquan99 View Post
    As much as I get annoyed when it gets derailed by the array of strange angry people that hover around him like moths, his good posts are some of my favorites.
    Quote Originally Posted by Kellen Bassette View Post
    I think he goes into a cave to meditate and recharge his chi...and bite the heads off of bats, of course....

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    48,028

    ttt 4 2012

    Lair of King Tongmyong's Unicorn Reconfirmed in DPRK
    Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) -- Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668).

    The lair is located 200 meters from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City. A rectangular rock carved with words "Unicorn Lair" stands in front of the lair. The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392).

    Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA:

    "Korea's history books deal with the unicorn, considered to be ridden by King Tongmyong, and its lair.

    The Sogyong (Pyongyang) chapter of the old book 'Koryo History' (geographical book), said: Ulmil Pavilion is on the top of Mt. Kumsu, with Yongmyong Temple, one of Pyongyang's eight scenic spots, beneath it. The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn.

    The old book 'Sinjungdonggukyojisungnam' (Revised Handbook of Korean Geography) complied in the 16th century wrote that there is a lair west of Pubyok Pavilion in Mt. Kumsu.

    The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom."
    Coincidentally, I'm running an article on Chinese unicorns in our next issue (not the Jan+Feb 2013, the Mar+Apr 2013). I am totally serious about this.

    North Korea Has Found a Secret Unicorn Lair, Apparently
    Alexander Abad-Santos 148,805 Views 8:44 AM ET

    "Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom," reports the — wait. Stop. UNICORNS? That's an actual snippet from a report from the Korean Central News Agency, the state news agency of North Korea and fine, okay, we totally understand that this might be a retaliatory joke in response to China getting fooled by The Onion naming Kim Jong-un the Sexiest Man Alive or something.

    But experts don't lie, do they?

    Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA:

    "Korea's history books deal with the unicorn, considered to be ridden by King Tongmyong, and its lair.

    And these are the history books Hoi Sung is talking about :

    The Sogyong (Pyongyang) chapter of the old book 'Koryo History' (geographical book), said: Ulmil Pavilion is on the top of Mt. Kumsu, with Yongmyong Temple, one of Pyongyang's eight scenic spots, beneath it. The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn.

    And there's more. It's not like this is a National Enquirer/Bat Boy type of fleeting story. This one has significance It looks like North Korea is using the unicorn lair to prove a bigger point:

    The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom.

    Taking into account that this is the same country with news agencies telling their people that mountains cry and birds lament when Kim Jong-il died and did so because he was sent down from the cosmos to destroy the Japanese to sink holes in one and that's totally normal, this isn't too far-fetched of a — you know what? I give up.

    Note: As a commenter has pointed out, western ideas of a unicorn and Korean ideas of a unicorn are a bit different and a unicorn is called a Qilin in Korea. It's still a mythical creature. You can see the Qilin here.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    48,028

    Interesting cultural clash

    Unicorn is definitely a mistranslation of Chilin (or Qilin 麒麟) which is a common mythological creature in Asian legend. I imagine Asians would have as much difficulty translating Chimeara.

    As for this author, hasn't he ever been to a Japanese restaurant?


    North Korea 'Secret Unicorn Lair' May Have Belonged To Beast With Dragon Head, Deer Body, Cow Tail (PHOTO)
    Posted: 12/08/2012 11:59 am EST | Updated: 12/08/2012 12:06 pm EST

    Was it a unicorn or something even more bizarre?

    In a bizarre twist to the earlier claim that archeologists had found a secret unicorn lair in North Korea, new reports claim that the liar may not have been the stomping grounds of the legendary animal after all. Instead, the fabled resting place, located in Pyongyang, may have belonged to this mythical mishmash of a beast:

    mythical north korean creature unicorn
    (Courtesy: Gawker Media)

    Citing a report on the International Business Times, Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz, who put the composite image of the strange animal together, writes:

    [T]he magic unicorn was based on a "mistranslation" of the original study. The reality is that the unicorn lair was actually the nest of a "beast with a dragon's head, a deer's body, the tail of a cow, hooves and a mane."

    I put together the illustration above so you can clearly picture this amazing beast. It's definitely not a unicorn.

    The "magical" animal hideaway made headlines last month when a North Korean state news agency reported the bizarre news that archaeologists had found "the lair of a unicorn once ridden by an ancient Korean king."

    According to an earlier Huffington Post report, Korean Central News Agency claimed that the "lair of the mythical creature is located 200 meters (about 219 yards) from the Yongmyong Temple in Pyongyang. A rock that sits in front of the lair contains carvings that some believe date back to the period of the Koryo Kingdom (918-1392)."

    However, experts have since asserted that a mistranslation of the original Korean had likely led to the misuse of the word "unicorn" to describe the lair's former occupant.

    Sixiang Wang, a Korean scholar, explained to i09 that "Kiringul," the name archeologists used to describe the lair, has nothing to do with unicorns.

    James Grayson, emeritus professor of Korean studies at Sheffield University, told the Guardian that the confusion had centered on the translation of the word kirin or qilin, which he describes as "a four-legged beast with a dragon's head." Sukyeon Cho, a colleague of Grayson's, added that kirins have "the body of a deer, the tail of a cow, hooves and a mane, as well as a horn jutting out from the top of their heads."

    Hmm.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    48,028

    There's been a lot of unicorn buzz lately

    I'll start with this little news item:

    Genghis Khan versus the Unicorn
    By Geoffrey Humble
    Posted 29th March 2016, 9:54
    The Mongol leader's encounter with a mystical beast marked him as a great leader, but says at least as much about his adviser.


    Mirror stand in the shape of a unicorn. Chinese, 1100-1350

    Mongol forces were poised to enter the territory of the Delhi Sultanate in northern India in 1224, after a long campaign against the forces of the Shah of Khwarazmshah in Transoxania and eastern Iran. After destroying the shah’s forces in the Punjab, however, Genghis Khan returned north, leaving the sultanate intact. The Persian historian Juzjani, writing from exile in Delhi, reported that a combination of climate, terrain and divination caused Genghis’ return. The latter may relate to an encounter, described in Chinese histories, between Genghis and a single-horned animal and its interpretation by the Khan’s adviser Yelü Chucai (1189-1243).

    The encounter is recorded in two medieval biographies of Chucai, a scholar and official in Mongol service, which locate it near the Iron Gate Pass in ‘East India’ (the Buzgala Pass, in modern Uzbekistan). ‘Shaped like a deer [with] the tail of a horse, green in colour and with a single horn’, the animal could ‘speak like a human’ and addressed the imperial bodyguard, recommending: ‘Your lord should return early.’ Genghis turned to Chucai for an explanation and, on receiving it, followed the creature’s advice by withdrawing immediately.

    Genghis had given Chucai the nickname Urtu Saqal (‘Longbeard’) at their first meeting. He had already spent six years in the Khan’s retinue, interpreting various portents – deep summer snow, a winter thunderstorm, a meteor – as omens of victory. Ordered to perform divination before every campaign, Chucai conducted scrying sessions at which his calculations were compared to Genghis’ own from scapulimancy (charring sheep’s shoulder blades and reading the cracks).

    Chucai was descended from the Kitan Yelü family, which had ruled northern China and Inner Asia from 907 to 1125 as the Liao Dynasty. After its fall, his father and grandfather served the Jin Dynasty (1125-1234). Chucai received an education based on the Confucian canon, covering medicine, mathematics, astrology and music and got top marks in the civil service examination set by Jin emperor Zhangzong. After surviving the Mongol siege of Zhongdu (now Beijing) in 1214-15, he spent several years at a Buddhist retreat. He was among many Kitan aristocrats recruited by Genghis in the vital and fluid frontier between the plains of China and the Inner Asian steppe. Besides divination, Chucai governed former Jin territories conquered under Genghis, the second Great Khan Ögödei and Ögödei’s widow, Töregene, until his death in 1243.

    Chucai drew on his education to identify the single-horned animal as a jueduan, a loan word related to Sanskrit khadga and Persian kargadān, ‘rhinoceros’. This fits modern scholars’ conclusions that this is an embroidered encounter with the Indian rhinoceros. Chucai’s explanation is less mundane; paraphrasing the Songshu, the history of the southern Chinese Liu Song Dynasty (420-79), he reported to Genghis:

    Able to travel 18,000 li [6,000 miles] in a day, it understands the languages of the four yi [i.e., foreigners]; symbolizing the abhorrence of taking life, it must have been sent from Heaven Above to warn Your Majesty.
    Chucai’s identification is selective. Chinese readers might know that the Songshu goes on to state that the jueduan appears at times of enlightened rule and would be expected to present the monarch with a message.

    Chucai interpreted the jueduan and its message as meaning ‘return early’. Both biographies quote him telling Genghis that the animal brings him a message expressing divine will. Choosing to accept this confirms Genghis as a monarch worthy of receiving such a message and links heaven’s will to the protection of human life. Sitting uneasily alongside what we know of the Mongol conquest after 1224, Genghis’ obedient withdrawal seems an insufficient reaction to such a message. For readers of the encounter in the Yuanshi, the most important source on Mongol rule in China, the episode both confirms and questions the divine basis of Genghis’ authority.

    As importantly, however, Chucai’s identification of the jueduan makes him a sage in a long Chinese intellectual tradition.

    Beside the animals’ nature as messengers to rulers, accounts of such encounters, prominently with the ‘Chinese unicorn’ qilin (Japanese kirin, hence the beer), similarly associated with royal status, emphasise those who recognise and name them. Chucai is thus linked to Confucius himself, who reportedly identified a qilin from eyewitness descriptions in 481 bc. It is also significant that, whether or not Genghis is a monarch worthy of messages from heaven, Chucai is clearly essential to his understanding of those messages. Chucai’s sagehood is, it seems, far more secure than Genghis’ empire, and the appearance of the jueduan – rhino or unicorn – is no simple event, but a tale making Yelü Chucai more than equal to his warlike rulers.

    Geoffrey Humble is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham, researching imperial Mongol historiography.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    48,028

    This is the source of all the unicorn buzz

    Giant Siberian unicorn may have existed at the same time as humans, fossil find hints
    MICHAEL GRAHAM RICHARD
    March 28, 2016, 2:21 p.m.


    A painting from the 1920s by Heinrich Harder showing what the Siberian unicorn might have looked like. (Photo: /Wikimedia Commons)

    The discovery of a fossilized skull in Kazakhstan is making paleontologists rewrite the timeline of the Siberian unicorn, Elasmotherium sibiricum. This impressive animal was a real-life unicorn, though it didn’t match the image most of us have for the fairytale creature.

    Closer to a rhino than a horse in appearance, it was similar in stature to the mammoth. Measuring up to 6.5 feet tall and almost 15 feet long, it weighed up to 9,000 pounds. Its most recognizable feature was its single horn, which is thought to have been much longer than a rhino’s, up to multiple feet long. Its habitat was the vast territory from the Don River in Russia to east of modern Kazakhstan.

    Here's a reconstructed Siberian unicorn skull at the London Natural History Museum. Note how sword-like the horn is, very different from the horn of a modern rhino.


    A Siberian unicorn's reconstructed skull and horn. (Photo: Ghedoghedo/Wikipedia)

    The Siberian unicorn, which first emerged in the fossil record around 2.5 million years ago, was thought to have disappeared 350,000 years ago. But the discovery made by researchers from Tomsk State University in Siberia, Russia, seems to show that E. sibiricum might have stuck around much longer. In fact, the beast and humans might have met, since our ancestors began spreading across Asia more than 50,000 years ago and likely went to Siberia around 35,000 years ago.

    The well-preserved skull found in the Pavlodar Priirtysh region of northeast Kazakhstan was dated using the radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry method and found to be about 29,000 years old. "Most likely, it was a very large male of very large individual age. The dimensions of this rhino are the biggest of those described in the literature, and the proportions are typical," Andrey Shpanski, a paleontologist at Tomsk State University, said in Phys.org. These findings are described in the American Journal of Applied Science.

    It’s not yet clear why a Siberian unicorn was alive so long after the rest of the species was thought to be extinct, but scientists have some theories: "Most likely, the south of Western Siberia was a refúgium, where this rhino persevered the longest in comparison with the rest of its range. There is another possibility that it could migrate and dwell for a while in the more southern areas," said Shpanski.


    This is the first published restoration of Elasmotherium sibiricum. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)


    Michael Graham Richard ( @Michael_GR ) Michael writes for MNN and TreeHugger about science, space and technology and more.
    The unicorn/chi lin translation never quite worked for me. Just like the dragon/long translation, these mythical creatures aren't quite analogous, neither in their appearance nor their symbolism.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    48,028

    ttt 4 2017!

    Weird Qilin story. Maybe the Feng Shui backlash of the Starsucks Unicorn Frappacino?

    Mystery of the dragon warrior: Experts are puzzled by a giant earth pattern found on a rural Chinese mountain

    Alleged pattern was spotted on Mengding Mountain in Sichuan Province
    It's thought to depict a warrior riding a dragon-like mythical creature
    Experts have studied it for 10 years, but couldn't explain why, said reports

    By TRACY YOU FOR MAILONLINE
    PUBLISHED: 07:00 EDT, 3 May 2017 | UPDATED: 07:35 EDT, 3 May 2017

    A mysterious pattern found on a rural Chinese mountain has reportedly kept scientists puzzled for a decade.

    The supposed formation, situated on Mengding Mountain in Sichuan Province, is thought by many to depict a warrior riding a dragon-like mythical creature, known as Qilin.

    Despite on-going research effort, experts are yet to give explanation on how the pattern has formed, according to Chinese media.


    Chinese experts have tried to demystified a mysterious pattern in Sichuan Province, China


    An illustration released by China Global Television Network shows what the image is supposed to look like. Many think it depicts a warrior riding a Qilin, a dragon-like mythical creature

    The alleged pattern was discovered in 2007 by a Chinese man who was using Google map to see the satellite images of his hometown, according to Huanqiu.com, a part of People's Daily group.

    The man, named Xie Qiang, worked for the Beijing General Research Institute of Mining of Metallurgy at the time.

    In an interview with China Central Television Station, Mr Xie said that he was using Google satellite to look for his hometown Ya'an, but his attention was quickly drawn by some lines on the surface of the mountains nearby.

    The man said: 'First, I saw the silhouette of a human face.

    'Then when I zoomed out to see the entire Mengding Mountain, I saw more than a human face. In fact, I saw a pattern that looks like a warrior riding a Qilin.'

    Qilin, an auspicious creature in ancient Chinese mythology, is said to have the head of a dragon, the body of a deer, the tail of an ox and the hooves of a horse.

    Mr Xie thought the warrior looked like a gladiator in particular because of the shape of his helmet.


    The supposed pattern was discovered in 2007 by Xie Qiang as he was using Google map. Mr Xie thought part of it looked like a warrior, in particular a gladiator (pictured)


    Mr Xie also said the pattern included a Qilin (pictured), which is a mythical creature in China


    The 'dragon warrior' pattern is situated on Mengding Mountain on the 30th parallel north

    According to Mr Xie, the pattern measures about 6.2 miles (10 kilometres) long and 2.5 miles (four kilometres) wide, and is situated on the 30th parallel north, or latitude 30 degrees north.

    Since Mr Xie published his so-called discovery, Chinese scientists and media have tried to demystify the phenomenon.

    Teams of experts were said to be sent to the area to study its geological features while documentaries about the mysterious pattern have been aired on state TV.

    Wang Chaozheng, a resident of the Houyan village near the mysterious site, told a reporter from Huaxi City Daily that the locals have long heard about the alleged pattern.

    Mr Wang, 70, said: 'It's been featured on TV many times. Experts have come here to study too. However, so far nobody knows how it has formed.'

    SPECULATIONS: HOW DID THE PATTERN COME INTO BEING?
    Over the years, many speculations have emerged on Chinese media, which tried to explain the origins of the 'dragon warrior pattern'.

    Below are three examples.

    1. Dug by ancient residents:

    It's been suggested that ancient residents in the area had created the giant pattern by digging trenches on the ground.

    According to the theory, Mengding Mountain had many tea plantations. The pattern was used to worship the 'Tea God'.

    However, Xie Qiang, who discovered the pattern, opposed to the theory. He said it would have been too difficult for the ancient Chinese to carry out a big project as such.

    2. Created by a meteorite

    Some people have suggested that the pattern was created after a meteorite had hit the area in ancient times.

    However, Xie, a metallurgist himself, said the power of a meteorite wouldn't have been strong enough to make such an impact.

    3. Centuries of erosion

    Some geologists suggested that it wasn't a purposefully drawn pattern.

    They suspected that these are random lines carved on the sandstone by rainwater. When they are viewed as a whole, they happen to imitate the suggested image.

    Source: Huanqiu.com/Huaxi City Daily
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    48,028

    Slightly OT

    'Unicorn': Nothing Is What It Seems
    Unicorns didn’t always look like that.

    Poor Marco Polo. The 13th century Italian explorer had finally gotten a glimpse of a unicorn and he was sorely disappointed:

    Their hair is like that of a buffalo, and their feet like those of an elephant. In the middle of the forehead they have a very large black horn…. Their head is like that of a wild boar, and is always carried bent to the ground. They delight in living in mire and in mud. It is a hideous beast to look at, and in no way like what we think and say in our countries, namely a beast that lets itself be taken in the lap of a virgin. Indeed, I assure you that it is quite the opposite of what we say it is.

    Best stock photo search ever.

    It's not hard to feel for him. Like the rest of us, he thought he knew what a unicorn looked like. Most of his contemporaries did too, as it was a very popular animal in the medieval equivalent of the Internet, i.e. art and literature. Just like today, medieval depictions of unicorns varied from artist to artist, but in general it was similar to the one we know: it was a horse-like (or goat-like) creature, pure white in color and dainty and refined in appearance. Unique to this marvelous animal was one long and tapering horn that grew straight out from its forehead. But where did this image come from? And what animal was Marco Polo so underwhelmed by?

    First things first: we can blame the Greek physician and historian Ctesias for the kernel of the ideal unicorn. As Margaret Beam Freeman reports in The Unicorn Tapestries, Ctesias was the first person to write about the one-horned animal. She quotes from his book Indica, written around 400 BCE:

    There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses and even larger. Their bodies are white, their heads are dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn in the middle of the forehead that is one cubit [about a foot and a half] in length; the base of this horn is pure white … the upper part is sharp and of a vivid crimson, and the middle portion is black. … Other asses, tame or wild … do not have an ankle-bone… but these do have an ankle-bone … the most beautiful that I have ever seen…. This animal is exceedingly swift and powerful, so that no creature, neither the horse nor any other, can overtake it….
    This early description gave the world the image of the horse-like body, the white color, and the single horn, an image that would later be transformed into the medieval unicorn. (And note the ankle bone. Swoon.) But it seems clear from several of Ctesias's statements that he actually had the Indian rhinoceros in mind (or perhaps someone's description of it—Ctesias himself never visited India). The Indian rhinoceros and one other Far-Eastern species are the only land mammals with one horn (the two species of African rhinoceros have two horns). Ctesias mentions the pharmaceutical value of the horn from the "Indian wild ass"; rhinoceroses have suffered for centuries from the supposed value of their horns as aphrodisiacs and antidotes. He considered the wild ass very fleet and difficult to capture; the Indian rhinoceros, despite its lumbering appearance, is swift, and its capture is both difficult and dangerous. But the Indian rhinoceros has a massive, ungainly body, stumpy legs, and a thick, folded hide that looks like plates of armor. With the exception of its single horn, it is profoundly unlike the lithe unicorn of medieval art, and one can understand why Marco Polo wasn't exactly dazzled.

    How did this huge and distinctly undainty beast get turned into a beautiful white horse? The beautiful ankle bone may have played a part, but a linguistic fumble likely shares some of them blame. We start with the word rhinoceros, based on the Greek rhin-, "nose," and keras, "horn," an accurate enough name for the animal. All rhinoceros species do have horns (more precisely, masses of compressed hairlike material), more or less on the nose. And what about unicorn? That means "one horn," from the Latin uni-, "one," and cornu, "horn." While this is a descriptive name for the rhinoceros, unicorn was originally applied to something entirely different.

    When scholars were translating the Bible's Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek in the third century B.C.E., they encountered a mysteriously named animal. The Hebrew word for this creature was re'em, and the beast was evidently large and powerful. In Job 39:9–11 the writer asks, as the 1611 King James Version puts it:
    Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

    Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

    Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him?
    Modern scholars believe the re'em was the aurochs, or wild ox, which is now extinct. The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, published in 1952, translates the passage differently to reflect this belief:

    Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your crib?

    Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?

    Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?
    Although our modern view of the creature referred to here is quite different, ancient scholars had to come up with a Greek word for it, so, drawing on garbled descriptions of the rhinoceros, they settled on the Greek word monokeros, meaning "one horn." (Monokeros had already been used by some writers for the Indian rhinoceros.) The Latin version of the Bible turned this word into unicornus, which in English became unicorn.

    To sum up: vague information on two different animals, the Indian rhinoceros and the aurochs, was conflated to produce another, imaginary animal, the unicorn. Then medieval writers, who tended to see the natural world as a single, unified allegory of Christian history and doctrine, turned this biblical animal into a symbol for Christ. And thus Marco Polo's disappointment was made inevitable.

    You, we should mention, are not required to join Mr. Polo in that disappointment. There's no reason why you can't enjoy the same old unicorn t-shirts and unicorn stickers and unicorn makeup and unicorn card games and unicorn noodles you always have. And certainly the business world need not stop its metaphorical unicorning at the one we've already written about—by all means bring on the the "unicorn dinosaur" too. We'll deal with it if we have to. Words are not ruined by their histories.

    One last question we'll address here: why is it unicorn and not unihorn? Besides the fact that it traces back to the Greek monokeros, the h at the beginning of the Old English word horn didn't sound like our h. It was a scraping of the tongue in the back of the mouth kind of sound (technically a voiceless velar fricative), like the Scottish ch at the end of loch. It sounded a lot more like corn than is apparent to a modern speaker, which we hope will be of some comfort to our readers.

    And there you have it: the original unicorn was a rhinoceros; our ancestors pronounced horn a lot like corn; and the business world is trying to make unicorn dinosaur happen. Don't let any of it prevent you from squeeing over the next unicorn you see.
    Not really about the qilin (the unicorn translation of qilin is poor because qilins have two horns, but that translation persists so we won't quibble). At least it mentions Marco Polo.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    48,028

    Split that horn

    I'm splitting the Chi Lin thread into a separate Unicorns thread on the Off Topic subforum. The topics really are distinct. Unicorn is a crappy translation for Chi Lin.

    Iceland's 'unicorn' goes under the hammer
    By News from Elsewhere...
    ...as found by BBC Monitoring
    10 October 2017 News from Elsewhere


    ERLA POREY OLAFSDOTTIR Einhyrningur's unique appearance may yet save him from the abbattoir

    There's good news for a single-horned ram found in Iceland earlier this year, after it emerged that he's been saved from the slaughterhouse.

    Einhyrningur, which incidentally is Icelandic for 'unicorn', was found among Erla Porey Olafsdottir's flock with his horns fused into one, and become an internet sensation around the world .

    As the Iceland Monitor reported at the time , Einhyrningur was destined for the slaughterhouse. Reykjavik Zoo offered to take him, but Iceland's strict animal movement rules meant he couldn't go there, and his sale options were limited.

    However, the animal's future seems a little brighter now with the news that he's to be auctioned for local charities next month, Frettir news website reports.

    Owner Erla says she's kept Einhyrningur out of the limelight since his brush with fame in April.

    "He just spent the summer in the fields with the other rams. But he's a bit of a loner, he gets left out a bit. I don't know if it's because he's different or whether he just chooses to be alone for some reason," she told Iceland Monitor .

    Erla's only real concern for the ram is about the horn itself.

    "Of course, the horn has grown a lot, and my children are still worried that it will eventually grow into his back because it bends back and forth," she says.


    ERLA POREY OLAFSDOTTIR Einhyrningur will be sold to help local charities

    Reporting by Alistair Coleman
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •