Was the narwhal the unicorn?
In medieval Europe, the horn of the unicorn, the legendary animal with a single horn on its forehead, was believed to neutralize poison. And long, twisted white horns really were traded as “unicorn horns” among courts and the wealthy at prices higher than gold. They were in fact the tusks of the narwhal, a whale of the Arctic seas.
How it was discovered and confirmed
The Norse Vikings and the Inuit knew the narwhal, but its tusks were carried to Europe by merchants who kept their source secret, so for a long time they were thought to be unicorn horns. In the 16th–17th centuries, naturalists revealed that the tusks were narwhal teeth, solving the mystery of the unicorn’s “horn.” Rosenborg Castle in Denmark has a throne made of narwhal tusks.
What we know today
The narwhal’s long tusk is a tooth, mainly the upper left tooth of males, that grows out to 2–3 meters long. Many nerves run through it, and one theory says it is a sense organ that detects changes in seawater, but its role is still not fully understood. It lives in the icy Arctic seas, and there is concern about the effects of shrinking sea ice due to global warming.
