ABSTRACT
The myth of the unicorn is primarily represented by La Dame a la Licorne, an image was popularized iconographically. It also provides a point of convergence for traditions which are often ancient. Before the typically fifteenth-century image of the graceful white filly with the long twisted horn had become firmly established. Although the unicorn has continued to survive in the literary memory, it has been detached from its myth and remains purely an example of the inaccessible, the fantastical and even the fabulous. In spite of many surviving elements of the tradition, the unicorn does not appear in its conventional role, but rather forms part of the exotic bric-a-brac, as does the phoenix in the novel. Most contemporary authors who refer to the unicorn are simply making use of the evocative power of its name, particularly in titles. The unicorn is revealed as the symbol of the spiritual and the supernatural, destined to destroy all human imperfection.
