The Last
Unicorn is a tale that slips through your synapses like a
spell. Peter S. Beagle weaves words into something that feels like a half-remembered dream. Enter the pages of this fairytale at your own risk, for like the title character, you will find yourself transformed by the end of the journey.
There was a unicorn that lived in a wood. Since
unicorns are immortal and solitary creatures that exist outside of time, the space where this unicorn dwelt was never touched by the passing years. Unicorns have no need of company, being completely fulfilled with their own being. It is enough for them to know that others like themselves exist. But one day the unicorn overhears a conversation between two hunters. They are pondering the legends they have heard about the mythical horned animal. It seems one hunter recalls rumors of a unicorn in his great-grandfather’s day, but nothing since—a shame, really.
The hunters ride on, leaving the unicorn with a growing unease. Surely she can’t be the last unicorn left in the world? She decides to go in search of the other unicorns, just to put her mind at peace. As she ventures out into the world, she
finds that matters are more dire than she had supposed. Not only have all the other unicorns vanished without a trace, but people have also lost the ability to recognize the last unicorn for the immortal wonder that she is. In fact, when the unicorn is captured by a witch and displayed in a seedy traveling menagerie, the witch must mesmerize the audience before they see the white mare before them is really a unicorn.
The unicorn is freed by the traveling circus’ resident magician, Schmendrick, who doesn’t have the ability to cast a single spell, and resorts to picking the lock on the unicorn’s cage. As a reward, the unicorn reluctantly allows him to accompany her on the quest. Schmendrick and the unicorn gather another companion as they journey—a hard woman who has lived a harder life, and who weeps with bitterness when she meets the unicorn she should have encountered 20 years earlier, while she still had youth and hope.
Molly Grue, Schmendrick, and the unicorn hear tales of cruel
king Haggard and his
red Bull who may be behind the disappearance of the unicorns. When the company is confronted by the terrible red demon, and the unicorn finds that she doesn’t have the power to stand against the bull, Schmendrick miraculously channels enough magic to turn the unicorn into a girl. But in saving her from the Red Bull, Schmendrick’s spell may prove to be her ultimate destruction. For with each passing day, the unicorn becomes more human and less magical, and will soon forget that she ever was a unicorn.
Complicating the situation is Prince Lyr, King Haggard’s gentle son, who finds himself hopelessly in love with the enigmatic girl that accompanies Schmendrick and Molly. There are no easy answers, only painful choices and sincere sacrifice, as each person struggles to do what is right and restore to the world the magic and wonder that the wicked king and the Red Bull have stolen.
Lyrical imagery and eloquent symbolism are balanced by liberal doses of whimsy and delicate humor in this story about the need for magic in every life, the meaning of heroism, and the transforming power of love.