The Last Unicorn

The Unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.  She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.

And so it begins--the first paragraph of my favorite childhood book, the Last Unicorn, by Peter Beagle. The lyrical rhythm of the words pulled me in and never let me go. The Last Unicorn is a beautifully written modern fairy tale, with funny moments, unforgettable characters, and deep themes.

But I actually saw the movie first.  One day, when I was around 9 years old, I unexpectedly came across the movie on tv. It was not a Disney movie. The animation was done by the Japanese studio that later would become Studio Ghibli (famous for Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke).  The look was American anime with a somber color palette.  The distinctive images haunted my young mind and I was so happy to discover the book a few years later. 

In the Last Unicorn, a unicorn overhears from two hunters in her forest that she is the last of her kind.  She leaves her woods in order to discover what happened to all of the other unicorns but is captured and placed in a carnival.  Worse yet, she discovers that very few humans can see her for what she truly is--an immortal unicorn.  She escapes with the help of a bumbling magician, Schmendrick, who, we later discover, is actually much older and more powerful than he appears.  During their journey, they meet Molly Grue, a middle-aged woman who can see the Last Unicorn for who she really is.

As Schmendrick, Molly Grue, and the Last Unicorn travel towards the castle of King Haggard, they meet the Red Bull, the fire beast that has captured all of the other unicorns.  Schmendrick, summoning all of his magic, transforms the Last Unicorn into a young woman in order to escape the Red Bull.  The Red Bull is only interested in unicorns.

When they arrive at the castle, King Haggard allows Schmendrick, Molly Grue, and the young woman (later named Amalthea) to stay because he suspects Amalthea is also a unicorn.  King Haggard uses the Red Bull to imprison the unicorns in the sea because watching them is the only thing that brings him joy.

During her stay at the castle, Amalthea starts to fall in love with King Haggard's adopted son, the noble Prince Lir.  She starts to feel torn between returning to her true form and mission and staying human and in love with Prince Lir.

One night, Schmendrik, Molly Grue, Amalthea, and Prince Lir find a secret passageway behind a clock in the castle and set out to find the Red Bull.  Instead, the Red Bull finds them and pursues them.  Schmendrick, summoning all of his magic again, transforms Amalthea back into a unicorn.  As the Last Unicorn  battles the Red Bull, Prince Lir heroically steps in the path of the Red Bull and is struck down.  Because of her rage, the Last Unicorn drives the Red Bull into the sea.  When the Red Bull falls into the water, all of the captured unicorns stream out of the sea.

The Last Unicorn frees all of her kind and also saves Prince Lir's life.  But the victory is bittersweet.  The Last Unicorn is again an immortal, but she knows can never be with Prince Lir again. She tells Schmendrik:

I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I do. I regret.

When I read this sentence, I thought back to what Schmendrik said to the Last Unicorn when she first became human:

Whatever can die is beautiful--more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world.

I have shared this book with my nieces and I hope to share this book with my future children because it is a story of magic, heroic deeds, good triumphing over evil, making hard choices, and how being human, with all its imperfections and experiences, is sometimes better than being perfect, being immortal.  The story inspired me when I was young and it's life lessons became more meaningful to me as I grew older.  I hope it will do the same for the next generation.

I also hope to share this special story because it was written by a special man, Peter Beagle.  I was lucky to meet Peter Beagle twice--he lived in Seattle for a time.  I first met him after college, at a talk he gave at the Hugo House, where he signed my DVD of the Last Unicorn.  Then in 2013, I met him again during his Last Unicorn Tour at the Cinerama, where they played the movie and I purchased yet another copy of The Last Unicorn to add my collection.

Peter Beagle is an intelligent, humble, and extremely funny man.  He always downplayed his writing genius and never mentioned his writing awards.  He started writing the Last Unicorn when he was 23 in a cabin in the woods, returned to it over the years, and seems genuinely surprised that it became a classic that touched the hearts of so many.  He is a good soul.  He was battling his ex-manager in court for many years, but recently (in February 2021) regained the intellectual property rights to most of his life's works, including the Last Unicorn.  I hope Peter Beagle's dream of turning the Last Unicorn into a live-action movie comes true.  Like in the book, good finally triumphs in the end!