Unicorn

[fredpuli47]

Do some horned animals occasionally produce a single-horned example, the result of some genetic abnormality? I'm wondering whether the belief in the unicorn is based on some folk-memory of seeing such a creature...

[heathfield]

More likely the belief is based on fishermens' stories about the narwhal, and the stories being corrupted as they were told and re-told, with the marine mammal becoming a horse.

[fredpuli47]

Thanks. Your link led me to others, one of which did say that a goat in Italy had developed a single horn in the middle of its forehead, but it seems obvious that the old stories, with associated mythology, are from the narwhal's 'horn' being found and brought back from northern seas.

[chadad]

Most likely from some traveler trying to describe a rhino.
JOKE. There was this gigantic beast called an elephant.
Believe it or not, it had a tail at each end.
One small and the other very large.
It could pick up a cabbage with the large tail, and if I told you what it did with the cabbage you would not believe me.