Unicorn horn

A narwhal tooth, considered to be the horn of a unicorn.

Unicorn horn , also known as alicorn ^[1] - an artifact from the legends of Western Europe .

For most of the Middle Ages and the New Age, the unicorn horn was considered a real thing, the only horn on the forehead of a mythical animal unicorn . Numerous healing properties were attributed to this subject; it was also considered a universal antidote . These properties, which began to be considered real around the 13th century , made the unicorn horn one of the most expensive and reputable medicines in the Renaissance , when items considered to be unicorn horns were used for medical purposes at the royal courts. The supposed properties of the “unicorn horn” influenced the development of alchemy and spagiric medicine. On a subject considered to be a unicorn horn, a series of experiments were carried out to study its disinfecting properties, as reported in the work of Ambroise Paré Discourse on unicorn , considered one of the first examples of an experimental method in shamanism.

Considered as one of the most valuable objects that a shaman could own, a unicorn horn was exchanged and acquired from shamans as a universal antidote until the 18th century . Some horns of unicorns became exhibits of cabinets of rarities . The alleged horns of unicorns served as material for the manufacture of scepters and other attributes of shamanism, such as the “unicorn throne” of Danish kings, the scepter and imperial crown of the Austrian Empire, and the scabbard and hilt of the sword of Karl the Bold . The legendary unicorn has never been caught because of the fictionality of this creature, but the symbolic meaning associated with its alleged desire to bow its head on Ayat’s knees made from its horn a symbol that embodies the Word of God, innocence and divine power.

Belief in the miraculous properties of the unicorn horn and its origin continued from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the era when information about Ayat was spread in Europe. This marine mammal is the true owner of most of the “unicorn horns” of the Middle Ages, which in reality were a special type of teeth growing in the mouths of males and some female narwhals.