Q 01/05

What is a unicorn's defining feature?

A) A lion's mane

B) Golden hooves

C) A single spiral horn

D) Feathered wings

Answer · why

C) A single spiral horn

European art has shown it for a thousand years as a white horse- or goat-like beast with cloven hooves and sometimes a goat's beard.

Q 02/05

In medieval legend, who was the only person able to capture a unicorn?

A) A knight in white armour

B) A virgin maiden

C) A king

D) A child

Answer · why

B) A virgin maiden

The Physiologus turned this into an allegory of the Incarnation, with the maiden standing for the Virgin Mary.

Q 03/05

Which real animal's tusk was often sold as a 'unicorn horn' in medieval and Renaissance Europe?

A) Elephant

B) Walrus

C) Rhinoceros

D) Narwhal

Answer · why

D) Narwhal

Danish physician Ole Worm worked out the truth in 1638; fake horn powder was still sold in 1741.

Q 04/05

What was the medieval name for a unicorn's horn and the substance it was made of?

A) Cornucopia

B) Monoceros

C) Rhinocorn

D) Alicorn

Answer · why

D) Alicorn

It was believed to purify poisoned water and cure disease, and cups made of it were gifts for kings.

Q 05/05

Which Danish physician determined in 1638 that alleged unicorn horns were really whale tusks?

A) Tycho Brahe

B) Ole Worm

C) Thomas Bartholin

D) Niels Steensen

Answer · why

B) Ole Worm

Sir Thomas Browne then took the belief apart at length in his 1646 Pseudodoxia Epidemica.