I'd say it didn't change the mythos but just updated it, like werewolf and vampire movies did for those creatures. The book is very self aware about it's relation to mythology (kind of a post modern take on fairy tales, such as, the Princess Bride). It's full of references to fairy tales, Robin Hood, etc. and their relation to the modern world, and will they still be remembered or cared about? That's what the book is about, the mortality of an immortal. It asks, if a unicorn lives alone in the woods forever, won't she get lonely? - Then it puts her in a world full of lonely people. Very 1960's (in the best way.) Viet Nam war allegory, even.
Beagle had a set of stories for various creatures like this- my other favorite being his first novel about ghosts, "A Fine and Private Place". It is really excellent, even as a very early work- he was something of a prodigy. The nonsensical but secretly wise poet butterfly that briefly appears in The Last Unicorn is meant to be Beagle.
I was going to guess the unicorn myth came from a source similar to fauns and satyrs (woodland creatures related to fertility) but then wiki tells me the ancient greeks took unicorns as part of natural history, not mythology. They believed they were literal horned horses far away in India.
So the mythology came later out of stuff like Physiologus (ancient proto-furriness? neat trivia for furries to know about, so thanks for posting this :). The mythology seems mainly out of medieval europe, and christian symbolism, with the virgin as virgin mary.
I could say a lot of stuff about business dealings with Beagle's publisher, but that's kind of off topic. I got a ton of dealer stock from them, and permission to animate his work.
I'd say it didn't change the mythos but just updated it, like werewolf and vampire movies did for those creatures. The book is very self aware about it's relation to mythology (kind of a post modern take on fairy tales, such as, the Princess Bride). It's full of references to fairy tales, Robin Hood, etc. and their relation to the modern world, and will they still be remembered or cared about? That's what the book is about, the mortality of an immortal. It asks, if a unicorn lives alone in the woods forever, won't she get lonely? - Then it puts her in a world full of lonely people. Very 1960's (in the best way.) Viet Nam war allegory, even.
Beagle had a set of stories for various creatures like this- my other favorite being his first novel about ghosts, "A Fine and Private Place". It is really excellent, even as a very early work- he was something of a prodigy. The nonsensical but secretly wise poet butterfly that briefly appears in The Last Unicorn is meant to be Beagle.
I was going to guess the unicorn myth came from a source similar to fauns and satyrs (woodland creatures related to fertility) but then wiki tells me the ancient greeks took unicorns as part of natural history, not mythology. They believed they were literal horned horses far away in India.
So the mythology came later out of stuff like Physiologus (ancient proto-furriness? neat trivia for furries to know about, so thanks for posting this :). The mythology seems mainly out of medieval europe, and christian symbolism, with the virgin as virgin mary.
I could say a lot of stuff about business dealings with Beagle's publisher, but that's kind of off topic. I got a ton of dealer stock from them, and permission to animate his work.