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In Vienna you can see a narwhal tusk that was sold to the emperor as a unicorn’s horn. I’d love to know the story - probably a dead narwhal washed up in a beach
by comrade1234 2y ago
In Vienna you can see a narwhal tusk that was sold to the emperor as a unicorn’s horn. I’d love to know the story - probably a dead narwhal washed up in a beach, someone took the horn, then how many hands it passed through before making it to the Austrian empire, and who actually believed it was from a unicorn?
- ForTheKidz 2y agoWithout knowing what a narwhal is, such a horn might make a compelling case for the existence of unicorns in the first place. The other tusks and horns I can think of aren't nearly as straight and it's easy to imagine emanating from the symmetry line of an animal. IIRC though the knowledge of the existence of a narwhal would likely have penetrated to vienna by then, so I bet some people correctly identified it.