Today I stopped by a campus bookstore that sells excess warehouse inventory for cheap- I bought 4 brand new books for $20, three of them hardcover. Not too bad, eh? One of them is a little book called Dragons and Fabulous Beasts. On the first page of the Fabulous Beasts section is a picture of Homie Bear. Just kidding. Anyways, there's a bunch of pictures of dragons from different cultures, and other beasts and monsters such as yetis and gryphons. And there's a section about unicorns. Here's something I never knew- in medieval times a unicorn symbolized Christ, and every year during Annunciation (when Mary is told by Gabriel that she will bear the Christ child) it was said that the archangel Gabriel and his four hounds (Mercy, Truth, Justice and Peace) went on a unicorn hunt, chasing the Unicorn into the lap of the Virgin Mary. Interesting. I'd like to look into that a bit more, since that's about all the book says on the subject. I really like how the Medieval guys used a lot of symbolic imagery and such to enrich their faith.
Have you ever read Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley? It's a fictional take on Noah's Ark, and explains why unicorns and dragons are no longer with us. It also has fairies and demons and Lucy the female devil, and a blue-skinned Japheth. An interesting read, and challenging. For you non-Canadians, Timothy Findley is a Canadian literary icon. He actually just passed away last year.
Oh yeah, the other three books I bought today are about an American Buddhist pilgrimaging in China, Beck Wethers' account of the fateful 1996 Everest expedition most famously written about by Jon Krakauer in Into Thin Air, and a book on strange little artifacts called Jumbo's Hide, Elvis's Ride and the Tooth of Buddha.