The Wandering Unicorn

First edition
Cover art: Il Fantastico Unicorno
by Walter Hermann Ryff, 1545[1]

El Unicorno translated in English as The Wandering Unicorn (1965) is a novel by the Argentinian author Manuel Mujica Láinez (1910–1964) in which the legend of Melusine is developed. Set in medieval France and Palestine of the Crusades, Láinez’s novel is a mixture of fantasy and romance which is narrated from the perspective of the shape-changing Melusine.

The events of the original legend of the medieval Romance are recollected early in the novel. Melusine, a fairy, marries Raimondin of Lusignan. However, when he spies her transformed as half-serpent, she flies away with frightful screams. Associated through marriage with the Lusignan family, Melusine appears over the centuries on the towers of their castle, wailing mournfully whenever a disaster or death in the family is imminent.

In Láinez's novel Melusine embarks upon an adventure and unrequited love-affair with Aiol, the son of Ozil, a crusader knight who bequeaths a unicorn's lance to his son. Together the young knight Aiol and Melusine travel across Europe encountering monsters, angels and Knights Templar, before eventually arriving in war-torn Jerusalem of the Crusades era.

Láinez’s novel of magic realism generates empathy towards Melusine as she recollects her adventures, before the love-affair between a mortal and an immortal concludes in a sad and tragic ending.[2]

Editions

The Wandering Unicorn (1965) translated by Mary Fitton with an introduction by Jorge Luis Borges Berkley Books 1985

Awards

See also

Middle Ages Myths/ Melusina

References

  1. ↑ Unicorni | Studi sul Mistero Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  2. ↑ The Wandering Unicorn trans. Mary Fritton with introduction by Jorge Luis Borges. Berkley Books 1985
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