Winged unicorn

A winged unicorn (or flying unicorn) is a fictional ungulate, typically portrayed as a horse, with wings like Pegasus and the horn of a unicorn. In some literature and media, it has been referred to as an alicorn, a Latin word for the horn of a unicorn, especially in alchemical texts,[1] or as a pegacorn, a portmanteau of pegasus and unicorn.

Not to be confused with flying horse or winged horse.

Description

A winged unicorn on the Manège d'Andréa

Winged unicorns have been depicted in art. Ancient Achaemenid Assyrian seals depict winged unicorns and winged bulls as representing evil, but winged unicorns can also represent light.[2][3]

Irish poet W. B. Yeats wrote of imagining a winged beast that he associated with ecstatic destruction. The beast took the form of a winged unicorn in his 1907 play The Unicorn from the Stars and later that of the rough beast slouching towards Bethlehem in his poem "The Second Coming".[4]

In popular culture

Detail of the embroidered dress of an Apkallu, showing four-legged winged and horned animals. From Nimrud, Iraq. 883-859 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul

• Tokimeki Tonight features them as part of a royal crest visible on a throne in the Underworld.[5]
• A character named Whisper appears in Whisper, the Winged Unicorn (sticker book, 1983), story by Karen Styles,[6] and Whisper's Golden Friend (sticker book, 1986) by Jill Wolf.[7]
• A recurring character on the popular podcasts The Scathing Atheist, The Skepticrats, and God Awful Movies is Carl the Pugapegacorn, who claims to be a unicorn, Pegasus, and Pug hybrid/chimera. Often depicted as overweight, the character's obesity is presumably a consequence of eating too much garlic bread, evidenced by the character's purported cravings for it as a running gag.[8]
• She-Ra, a spin-off of Mattel's Masters of the Universe, features Swift Wind.[9]
• In Hasbro's My Little Pony Tales episode "Up, Up and Away", Dazzleglow, a leader of extraterrestrial pegasi, has a unicorn horn. The character's colour and other appearance is based on a Glow 'n Show unicorn character of the same name released during the original generation of the My Little Pony toy line, but the Tales incarnation of Dazzleglow with a pair of wings was never released as a toy.
• Arthur features a winged "My Fluffy Unicorn" toy that D.W. names "Uni" is the focus of "Hic or Treat" when she considers giving it to the Tibbles to get rid of her hiccups.[10]
• In Valkyria Chronicles (2008), the princess Cordelia wears a winged unicorn hat.
• In the universe of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the rare and powerful winged unicorns, referred to as alicorns[note 1], play a role as ponies of royal status in Equestria. Such characters include Princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight Sparkle (who was a unicorn until "Magical Mystery Cure"), Cadance's daughter Flurry Heart and the villain Cozy Glow (who was a pegasus until "The Ending of the End - Part 1 & 2").
• In Sofia the First episode "Baileywhoops", Cedric turns a merry-go-round of unicorns into winged ones.[14] The episode "The Mystic Isles" features winged unicorns.
• In Little Charmers episode "A Charmazing Race", Hazel Charming's racing broom has a unicorn horn and wings.[15]
• In 2016, video game heroine Cora Veralux is depicted wearing a winged unicorn turtleneck as a cadet.[16]
• Ever since their introduction in Fire Emblem Gaiden in 1992, members of the "Falcon Knight" class in the Fire Emblem series ride winged unicorns.
• In the Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero episode "Alpha, Bravo, Unicorn," the dragons of Dragon World are at war with winged unicorns that have Australian accents.
• In Corn & Peg, the main characters’ idol Captain Thunderhoof is a winged unicorn.

Notes

1. In the earlier seasons of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic television series, the species is not specifically named; for example, the royal alicorn sisters Celestia and Luna were referred as unicorns in first season's first episode "Friendship Is Magic - Part 1" despite having wings.[11] However, an amulet with a pair of wings and a unicorn head is referred as the "Alicorn Amulet" in the third season's fifth episode "Magic Duel" (written by M. A. Larson),[12] and the species is explicitly named "alicorn" in its season finale "Magical Mystery Cure" (also written by Larson).[13]

References

1. Shepard, Odell (1930). The Lore of the Unicorn. London: Unwin and Allen. ISBN 9781437508536.
2. Brown, Robert (2004). The Unicorn: A Mythological Investigation. Kessinger Publishing. p. 18. ISBN 9780766185302.
3. Von Der Osten, Hans Henning (June 1931). "The Ancient Seals from the Near East in the Metropolitan Museum: Old and Middle Persian Seals". The Art Bulletin. 13 (2): 221–41. JSTOR 3050798.
4. Ward, David (Spring 1982). "Yeats's Conflicts with His Audience, 1897–1917". ELH. 49 (1): 155–6. JSTOR 2872885.
5. Tokimeki Tonight. Episode 4. 4 November 1982.
6. Whisper the Winged Unicorn
7. Whisper's Golden Friend
8. "Carl the Pugapegacorn". Albino Goth. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
9. Princess of Power Magazine issue 2. April 1986. She-Ra and her winged unicorn Swift Wind
10. "Hic or Treat". Arthur. Season 11. Episode 142. 4 September 2007.
11. Faust, Lauren. "Friendship Is Magic - part 1". My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Season 1. Hasbro Studios.
12. Larson, M. A. "Magic Duel". My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Season 3. Hasbro Studios.
13. Larson, M. A. "Magical Mystery Cure". My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Season 3. Hasbro Studios.
14. "Baileywhoops". Sofia the First. Episode 41. 7 November 2014.
15. Charming, Hazel (29 January 2016). "A Charmazing Race". Little Charmers. 7 minutes in. It's my unicorn wings, they want to fly over all the rainbows like unicorns do.
16. Ratchet and Clank (film). 64 minutes in.