“The sight of men filled her with an old, slow, strange mixture of tenderness and terror.”
(Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn 1968)
Arthur Rankin Jr and Jules Bass’ 1982 adaptation of Peter S. Beagle’s novel The Last Unicorn is a folklore fantasy that follows the journey of a unicorn as she searches for more of her kind after learning she might be the last, desperate to prove she isn’t singular.
Personally, this was a pivotal film in my youth, it’s dark and philosophical narrative accompanied by beautiful animation of rich landscapes, terrifying monsters and creatures of wonder took root in my mind and even now, as I grow ever older, I find myself coming back to its tale of sorrow and journey of discovery.
The Last Unicorn follows Amalthea’s journey to find other unicorns after learning she might be the last, the other unicorns cast out by King Haggard, her desire to prove she isn’t truly alone and that magic isn’t disappearing from the world. This tale is about morality, how everything is, at its core, ending and the desperate need everyone has in this cycle to prevent the end.
The film is a journey of change, driven by the loss of self-belief where even Amalthea has lost faith in her own position in the world. Beagle’s version of unicorns are characterised as creatures completely centred in themselves, their lives unmoved by time, therefore, they have to be unchanging. Yet Instead of staying motionless the last unicorn steps over her own boundaries setting in motion her transformation, her immortality becoming tainted by the movement of mortality she encounters through the human characters, their fears and desires and love all teaching her that you cannot remain motionless forever, and if you do there isn’t much more to offer than banality and loneliness.
Each character grapples with their own finality and through this fear of the inevitable, they seek reprieve in folklore, in the unchanging and ancient magic of immortality, represented through the timeless unicorns. Mommy Fortuna, an evil witch that creates her midnight carnival in order to control and imprison immortal magical beings to prove she – even in mortality – can be more powerful. Schmendrick the Magician is a rooky wizard that desires to strengthen his powers so he can be remembered, be seen as someone great rather than a fool. King Haggard ties himself to the Red Bull as a way of fulfilling his own human pleasures, using the Red Bull to steal the unicorns so he can possess their wonder. Molly Grue is stricken by grief of growing old, maintaining her belief in magic as a way of maintaining the memory of being innocent and young.
‘Where were you when I was new, when I was one of those innocent young maidens you always come to? How dare you come to me now. When I am this …’ (40:56)
She shows anger towards her because her purity has run out, her youth is over and the wonder is gone. Her perception of self is severed, like the unicorn, because there was a version of her that belonged to folklore ; her child self, the self a unicorn would take more of an affinity to – and reality; transformed and worn by time. Each character, even in passing, uses folklore as a way of feeling alive through storytelling. The unicorn is perfect because her immortality prevents her from being blemished by time.
The unicorn became a popular symbol throughout history, the first artworks depicting this one horned creature began in the Indus Valley Civilisations, a bronze age society in 2000 BC. It’s a creature whose depiction shifts from known animals like a horse or goat, yet despite the changing reality of the creature the folklore lasts through its singular horn. In the medieval age they were a symbol of purity, innocence, a seal meant to show the power of chivalry associated with knights. Yet despite these signifiers of power and strength, the unicorn is often depicted through art as being hunted, tamed and controlled by others. A prevalent depiction of this is through Scotland’s National emblem – the creature is chained, a crown slipped low over its neck showing the command and power of the monarch, a strong and magical creature overpowered by man. Alike to these versions of the unicorns, Amalthea is momentarily stripped of her power. Schmendrick, in order to save the unicorn from the red bull, he transforms her into a human girl. When trapped in this new and unfamiliar body she finally speaks words of fear; ‘I can feel this body dying all around me’ (49:07). It’s a fear of mortality, before she was stable and serene but with the loss of herself she is floating, feeling the ebbing away of her life. In unicorn form she was an incarnation but when she was stripped of that, the last unicorn became not a unicorn at all.
Mortality is the horror in the subtext of this film. In our childhoods we felt the power of wonder, youth untamed and limitless, like a unicorn, yet with age we can only reminisce about that magic we had. The Last unicorn is truly an embrace of motion, we and the characters are not immortal, yet even Amalthea isn’t immortal in the end, not truly – she can be changed into a human, she can feel love and make sacrifices for those she didn’t know she could care for and ultimately she can change how she lives. The lust for power ultimately leads to the demise of the villains of the story, both Mommy Fortuna and King Haggard consumed by their greed and need to control the things out of their reach. The characters who embrace their life, even in its restlessness, find happiness even if it’s finite. Life and morality isn’t so dark when it offers you the enchantment of change, without change you cannot appreciate what you’ve had.
– Siena Kemble-Smith
The Folklore Anthology team would like to say a big thank you to all the contributors of this year’s beautiful Folklore anthology, seeing your work in print is truly magical! Thank you to all who have taken the time to get our anthology and read it. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did making it.