I first heard Oberon Zell on Coast to Coast AM talking about his book “A Wizard’s Bestiary” almost a year ago. The book is a pretty neat idea, he takes all the mystical and cryptozoological creatures and figures out how the myths started and if any of them were actually real. Turns out unicorns were real, but not in the sense we think of them today.

Unicorns aren’t born that way, nature won’t let that happen. Even the Narwhal, although awesome, isn’t a real unicorn. A unicorn is an animal that can grow 2 horns and goes through a unicorning process.

In 1933 Dr. Franklin Dove did some research and found out that horns do not grow out of the skull, but they actually start out as unattached tissue and then root into the skull as the animal grows. Since this is the case all one needs to do is surgically take the buds of a newborn and place them in the middle of the head in such a way that they grow into each other. Once this happens, if done right, they will cancel each other’s natural curvature thus producing a perfectly straight horn.

If you haven’t figured it out already, Mr. Oberon Zell is a wizard. An awesome looking wizard. One of the earliest instances of unicorns he came across in his research were the Unicorn Tapestries from over 500 years ago. If you’ll look closely you’ll notice that the unicorns aren’t the horses of today’s pop culture, but they actually have goatees and hooves like a goat. After he came across Dr. Franklin Dove’s work, and being knowledgeable in biology and having some pre-med under his belt he decided to try it for himself. It worked, and he even went so far as to go through the patent process. During the 80’s he toured the country showing off his unicorns at Ren-Fairs, sideshows, and even the Ringling Bros. circus for 4 years. If you’d like to read more there’s an interview with him here about unicorns, and how the process changes the animal’s temperament. Unfortunately he doesn’t make unicorns anymore and the last one died a few years ago. I sure wish someone would take up the call, make an army of unicorned bulls, and set them loose during the running of the bulls.