Seafoodpunch

In a previous post we mentioned how the unicorn legend may have begun with the narwhal. These peculiar whales deserve a little more attention, though. They have lived in the unicorn’s shadow long enough and I’m sure they’ve gotten pretty sick and tired of rarely receiving credit for growing the giant, 10 foot long tooth out of their faces.

The narwhals are already cursed with an unflattering name: Whoever was in charge of naming them decided that their blue and grey mottled skin bore a strong resemblance to the bloated, body of a drowned sailor-’nar’ is the old Norse word for corpse-and the catchy name seems to have stuck.

Narwhals seclude themselves to the Arctic, and who could blame them with a name like corpse-whale? Since frostbite isn’t appealing to most people, these little whales were unknown to many in the past (Animal Planet wasn’t too popular at the time) and they still don’t come up in a lot of conversations.

The whale’s secluded nature helped conceal the true identity of the unicorn horns sold throughout Europe. Even Queen Elizabeth was happy to receive a diamond crusted “unicorn horn” costing about as much as the castle she lived in. If she knew that the horn actually came from something as ordinary as a blubber covered whale, she wouldn’t have been as excited about it.

 Either way, Narwhals are still pretty sensitive when it comes to the topic of unicorns.