The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn
Dust-jacket for the first edition of The Last Unicorn
Author	Peter S. Beagle
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fantasy novel
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	1968
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	218 pp
ISBN	9870451450523
Followed by	Two Hearts

The Last Unicorn is a fantasy novel written by Peter S. Beagle and published in 1968. It has sold more than five million copies worldwide since its original publication, and has been translated into at least twenty languages.^[1]

The third-person narrative centers on a unicorn who, believing she is the last of her kind in the world, sets off on a journey to discover what has happened to the others. She encounters a host of diverse characters as her journey progresses, each of them bringing her closer to her goal.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Characters 3 Conception and creation 4 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations 4.1 Rankin/Bass 4.2 Continent Films 4.3 Stage adaptation 5 Sequels and related works 6 Publication history 6.1 Audiobook 7 References 8 External links

Plot summary

The story begins with a team of human hunters passing through a forest in search of game. After days of coming up empty handed, they begin to believe that they are passing through a Unicorn's forest where animals are kept safe by a magical aura. They resign themselves to hunting somewhere else, but before they leave, one of the hunters calls out a warning to the Unicorn that she may be the last of her kind. This revelation disturbs the Unicorn, but she initially dismisses the thought. She encounters a talking butterfly who speaks in riddles and songs and initially dodges her questions about the other unicorns, but eventually issues warning that her kind have been herded to a far away land by a creature known as the Red Bull. Fearing for the other unicorns, the Unicorn decides to leave the comfort and safety of her forest to find out what has happened to the others. During her journey she is taken captive by a traveling carnival led by Mommy Fortuna, a witch who uses magical spells to create the illusion that regular animals are in fact creatures of myth and legend. The Unicorn finds herself the only true legendary creature among the group, save for the harpy, Celaeno. Schmendrick, a magician traveling with the carnival, sees the Unicorn for what she is, and frees her in the middle of the night. The Unicorn frees the other creatures including Celaeno, who kills Mommy Fortuna and her hunchback assistant Ruhk.

The Unicorn and Schmendrick continue traveling in an attempt to reach the castle of King Haggard, where the Red Bull resides. When Schmendrick is captured by bandits, the Unicorn comes to his rescue and attracts the attention of Molly Grue, the bandit leader's wife. Together, the three continue their journey and arrive at Hagsgate, a town under Haggard's rule and the first one he had conquered when he claimed his kingdom. A resident of Hagsgate named Drinn informs them of a curse that stated that their town would continue to share in Haggard's fortune until such a time that someone from Hagsgate would bring Haggard's castle down. Drinn also went on to claim that he discovered a baby boy in the town's marketplace one night in winter. He knew that the child was the one the prophecy spoke of, but he left the baby where he found it, not wanting the prophecy to come true. King Haggard found the baby later that evening and adopted it.

Molly, Schmendrick, and the Unicorn leave Hagsgate and continue toward Haggard's castle, but on their way they are attacked by the Red Bull. The Unicorn runs, but is unable to escape the bull. In an effort to aid her, Schmendrick unwittingly turns the Unicorn into a human female. Confused by the change, the Red Bull gives up the pursuit and disappears. The change has disastrous consequences on the Unicorn, who suffers tremendous shock at the sudden feeling of mortality in her human body. The three continue to Haggard's castle, where Schmendrick introduces the Unicorn as "Lady Amalthea" to throw off Haggard's suspicions. They manage to convince Haggard to allow them to serve him in his court, with the hopes of gathering clues as to the location of the other unicorns. During their stay, the Unicorn is romanced by Haggard's adopted son, Prince Lír. Haggard eventually reveals to Amalthea that the unicorns are trapped in the sea for his own amusement, because the unicorns are the only things that make him happy. He then openly accuses Amalthea of coming to his kingdom to save the unicorns and says that he knows who she really is, but Amalthea has seemingly forgotten about her true nature and her desire to save the other unicorns.

Following clues given to them by a cat, Molly, Schmendrick, and Amalthea manage to find the entrance to the Red Bull's lair. Haggard and his men-at-arms attempt to stop them, but they manage to enter the bull's lair and are joined by Lír. When the Red Bull attacks them, Schmendrick manages to change Amalthea back to her original form. In an effort to save the Unicorn, Lír jumps into the bull's path and is killed. Fueled by anger and sorrow, the Unicorn drives the bull into the sea. The other unicorns are freed and they run back to their homes, with Haggard's castle falling in their wake. Lír, who has been revived by the Unicorn and is now king after Haggard's death, attempts to follow the Unicorn despite Schmendrick advising against it. As they pass through the town of Hagsgate, they learn that Drinn is actually Lír's father, and that he had abandoned him in the marketplace on purpose to fulfill the prophecy. Realizing that he had new responsibilities as king after seeing the state of Hagsgate, Lír returns to rebuild it after accompanying Schmendrick and Molly to the outskirts of his kingdom. The Unicorn returns to her forest. She tells Schmendrick that she is different from all the other unicorns now, because she knows what it's like to feel love and regret.

Characters

• The Unicorn is the main protagonist of the story. She leaves the safety of her forest upon learning that she is the last unicorn in the world, with information about the Red Bull as her only clue. When she first encounters the Red Bull, Schmendrick manages to inadvertently change the Unicorn into a human female to confuse the Red Bull and force its withdrawal. Schmendrick calls her "Lady Amalthea" so as not to arouse King Haggard's suspicions. Beagle notes that he took the name "Amalthea" from a Greek deity with the same name.^[2]

• The butterfly is an eccentric character who happens upon the Unicorn at the beginning of the story. While often speaking in riddles and songs, he manages to give the Unicorn some vital information about the other unicorns' whereabouts. Beagle stated that the butterfly's dialogue is drawn from things that amused him and his childhood friend, Phil Sigunick, during a trip to Berkshire Hills wherein Beagle began writing the novel.^[2]

• Mommy Fortuna is a wicked old witch, who uses her dark magic to run a sideshow carnival for profit. The carnival features what appear to be mythical creatures, but are actually just normal animals that have been enchanted, with the exception of the harpy, Celaeno. According to Beagle, the name "Fortuna" was taken from the Roman goddess of fortune, and German mythical hero Fortunatus.^[2]

• Schmendrick is a bumbling magician who travels with Mommy Fortuna's traveling carnival out of pure necessity. Reserved to entertaining the sight seers who come to the carnival, Schmendrick wants nothing more than to become a true, powerful magician who does not rely on card tricks and cheap illusions. He sees Mommy Fortuna as an opportunity to gain experience, but when he sees the captured Unicorn for what she is, he decides to free her and join her on her quest. Schmendrick was a character Beagle had initially made up for his children's bedtime stories, and was called "the world's worst magician". The name "Schmendrick the Magician" is a parody of the character "Mandrake the Magician", and is also drawn from a Yiddish word that Beagle defines as "somebody out of his depth, the boy sent to do a man's job, someone who has expanded to the limits of his incapacity."^[2]

• Captain Cully is the leader of a second-rate band of outlaws in direct opposition to King Haggard. Although he attempts to be dashing and hospitable, Cully falls victim to his own jealousy of famous mythical outlaws such as Robin Hood, who Schmendrick inadvertently conjures into an illusion. According to Beagle, Captain Cully's name is drawn from an old English slang word for "buddy".^[2]

• Molly Grue is Captain Cully's common-law wife. As a young woman she had eloped with him, naïvely attracted to the romance of loving a woodland fugitive and sharing his life. Unfortunately, this turned into years of serving Cully's ragged vagrants as their camp cook. She seeks a different reality from the one fate decided for her, and when she discovers Schmendrick leaving with the unicorn, she decides to follow them and do whatever she can to help the unicorn in her quest. Molly Grue's name is drawn from a French slang word meaning "crane". While never initially making the connection, Beagle notes that it is possible that the name was also inspired by Molly Epstein, his "favorite writing teacher in high school".^[2]

• King Haggard is a miserable and cruel King who cares for no one, not even his adopted son Prince Lír. His loneliness and misery is only alleviated by the sight of Unicorns, and this drove him to capture all of them for his own pleasure. He commands the powerful Red Bull, who has driven all the Unicorns into the sea underneath of his castle by his own decree. The name "Haggard" is based on the actual word. Beagle stated that "on the one hand, it is a particular look, but on the other it's also a falconer's term. It's what you call an undomesticated hawk, a bird that knows the rudiments but is not reliable. If you fly a haggard, you might never see it again, it might go back to the wild." He also went on to say that he has "never really been able to see [Haggard] as a villain", explaining that he saw much of his own character in Haggard to the point that he "felt sorry for him".^[2]

• Prince Lír is a skilled hero who was adopted by King Haggard, who found him at the town of Hagsgate. Despite living with Haggard, Prince Lír is the opposite of his adopted father, living his life through valor, honor, and compassion for others. He falls in love with Lady Amalthea, not realizing what she is until the very end. For all of her arrogance towards humankind, the Unicorn falls in love with Lír. Beagle stated that he "knew that the prince's name had to be one syllable", and that he made a long list of one-syllable names to choose from. He chose "Lír" because he liked the sound of it, but later on noted that he had borrowed the name of a Celtic sea god, Llyr, and that the fact that Lír became "King Lír" after succeeding his adoptive father "echoed Shakespeare".^[2]

Conception and creation

It took Beagle "close to two years" to write The Last Unicorn, and he states that "it was hard every step of the way". Beagle came up with the idea for the novel in 1962 while on an "artistic retreat" in Berkshire Hills after Viking Press rejected his novel, The Mirror Kingdom. He stated that though the idea for the novel was "just suddenly there", he also said that he had "read tons of fantasy and mythology" from childhood, and that his mother told him that he had shared a story about unicorns during a visit to one of the elementary school classes she taught. He also mentioned that he loved the book The Colt from Moon Mountain by Dorothy Lathrop (a story about a unicorn in Kansas) as a child, and that spanish artist Marcial Rodriguez gave him a painting of unicorns fighting bulls when he was seventeen. Once he had the idea, he did research on unicorns at the Pittsfield Library.^[2]

The 85-page manuscript that Beagle first wrote differs greatly from the current version of the book. Though the unicorn "is much the same", the story is set in modern times, and the unicorn is accompanied by a two-headed demon named Webster and Azazel. This original version has been published as a limited edition hardcover by Subterranean Press titled The Last Unicorn: The Lost Version in 2006.^[2][3] Beagle stopped working on The Last Unicorn this initial manuscript in 1963, stating that "[i]t was a dead end", but picked the project up again in 1965.^[2]

Beagle dedicated the novel to Olfert Dapper, whose work Beagle came across during his research, as well as Robert Nathan, whose novel One More Spring influenced Beagle's A Fine and Private Place.^[2]

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Rankin/Bass

In 1982 the novel was made into an animated film directed and produced by Rankin/Bass for ITC Entertainment, with a screenplay written by Beagle himself. The music was composed and written by Jimmy Webb and performed by America. The voice talents include Christopher Lee, Angela Lansbury, Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, and Mia Farrow. The first DVD release of the film by Lionsgate was of poor quality,^[4] but a "25th Anniversary Edition" DVD with superior quality was released in February 2007.^[4][5] Beagle is currently in conflict with Granada International, successor to ITC Entertainment in terms of control and ownership of the film. Beagle seeks to be paid what he feels he is contractually owed for the film from video and DVD sales, other distribution and merchandising.^[6]

Continent Films

In addition, a live-action adaptation of the original book has been announced as in development for several years, but it is not clear what progress (if any) has been made towards production. A minor controversy erupted in 2005 over the producers' plans to create their screen unicorn by filming trained horses and then using CGI to modify them. This runs directly counter to the physical description of the unicorn in the book, which explicitly states that the unicorn looks nothing at all like "a horned horse".

In February 2006, Continent Films unveiled a new official website for the project which made clear that the film was still in development.^[7] It was not yet funded, did not have a shooting script, and had not been cast. In the new website, all actor names but Christopher Lee's had been removed; and even Lee's involvement was revealed to be nothing more than a promise to appear in the film if he was available and if terms could be worked out with his agent.^[8]

Stage adaptation

In 1988 a stage adaptation of the novel was presented by the Intiman Playhouse in Seattle. Peter S. Beagle wrote the script, which was a musical presented in collaboration with Pacific Northwest Ballet. The production was directed by Elizabeth Huddle.^[9]

In fall 2009, a new stage adaptation will be presented in Chicago by Promethean Theatre Ensemble.^[10][11]

Sequels and related works

In 2005, Beagle published a coda story to the Last Unicorn titled Two Hearts in the October/November issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine. Though beginning with a new narrator, four main characters from the original story appear again. The story is also included in the short story anthology, The Line Between, published in July 2006, as well the deluxe edition of The Last Unicorn that was published in 2007.^[12]

At the end of December 2008, Peter S. Beagle announced that he had written several new stories which were directly or indirectly linked to The Last Unicorn. These included three Schmendrick stories and three unicorn stories (about a Chinese ki-lin, a Persian karkadann, and the unicorn that Dr. Olfert Dappert met in the Maine woods).

Publication history

• 1968, USA, Viking Press ISBN 978-0370006543, Pub date August 1968, Hardcover
• 1991, USA, ROC ISBN 978-0451450524, Pub date 01 January 1991, Paperback
• 1994, USA, ROC ISBN 978-1417644933, Pub date October 1994, Paperback
• 2007, USA, ROC ISBN 978-0-7607-8374-0 Pub date 2007, Hard Cover

Audiobook

In 2005, Beagle recorded an unabridged audiobook of his novel for Conlan Press. The audiobook is sold in three formats with varying prices. It can be purchased as downloadable MP3 files, an MP3 CD, and as an eight-CD collector's set (containing the audiobook on seven audio CDs and an exclusive interview with Beagle on the eighth).

Those who purchase the Last Unicorn audiobook from Conlan Press will be sent a free autographed 3,000-copy limited hardcover edition of Two Hearts when it is published.^[13] Preorders began in late 2004, but as of August 2009, the book and CDs are finished but not yet manufactured. It is slated to ship after Conlan Press can get enough "private funds" to manufacture them. ^[14]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Last Unicorn

• Official Peter Beagle website
• The Last Unicorn publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Conlan Press, Beagle's affiliated American publisher and source for autographed Peter S. Beagle books, audiobooks, media, etc.
• The Last Unicorn's Development Website - the development website for the proposed new adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn