As a Catholic, the part discussing Mary's role in the story is quite at odds with what I read, both from medieval times and more modern.
I wonder if the perspective in the article comes more from a Protestant understanding of Mary?
In Catholic teaching at least, Mary's "fiat" ("Yes") was one of the most pivotal moments in salvation history, and Mary is regarded as the "Queen" of all saints, for her role and her personal decision to say yes.
Author suggests unicorns were after African/Asian rhinos, but there is another genus that better fits the description "forest-dwelling creatures with this monstrous four-foot long horn that they used to stab the wombs of elephants, and they were regarded as the most dangerous beast in the forests” and may have existed alongside humans- https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-11-27-extinct-siberian-unicor...
yeah I don’t see why not, maybe they were hunted to extinction, maybe they even had medicinal properties, heck the most mythical part of the fable might be the virgin
Because 100,000 years is rather extreme to have any kind of myth survive. Instead the ultra long spiral horn likely comes from narwhal as in people could hold and sell “unicorn” horns.
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/01/23/in-medieval-europe...
Accounts of unicorns in antiquity had rather different horns.