So many animals, so little time. I find that the more I learn, the more there is to learn. Do you ever find that to be true?
It’s this huge rabbit hole that I seem to dive into head-first with alarming regularity.
Narwhals may be the unicorn of the sea, but the Norwegians might have named them because of their coloration – and their disturbing habit of floating on the surface of the ocean like a corpse.
According to EtymOnline.com:
“sea-unicorn, dolphin-like Arctic sea mammal” (one of the teeth of the male is enormously developed into a straight spirally fluted tusk), 1650s, from Danish and Norwegian narhval, probably a metathesis of Old Norse nahvalr, literally “corpse-whale,” from na “corpse” (see need (n.)) + hvalr “whale” (see whale). If this is right, it likely was so called from its whitish color, resembling that of dead bodies. But according to nature writer Barry Lopez (“Arctic Dreams”), Winfred P. Lehmann, professor of Germanic linguistics, suggested the name was folk-etymology and said nahvalr was a West Norse term meaning “whale distinguished by a long, narrow projection.“
I seem to remember reading somewhere, at some point, that things that were claimed to be unicorn horns were really the tusk of the narwhal. I’d have to look that one up though – maybe I’ll have it verified and in the book this spring!
