Narwhal tales Elizabeth I, the Inuit – and Buddy the Elf
Even before its unexpected role in helping prevent the London Bridge attacker causing further injury the narwhal tusk had already found its place in folklore and legend.
It was once considered to be the horn of a “sea unicorn” and Queen Elizabeth I is said to have spent £10,000 on one, roughly equivalent to £1.5million today, and had it placed within the crown jewels.
The narwhal is an Arctic predator of the whale family who feeds in winter mostly on flatfish under pack ice and in summer on cod and Greenland halibut.
Its tusk usk is an overgrown rown spiralized zed tooth – one of only two teeth eth they possess ss
– which h is incredibly dibly sensitive ive on the outside, tside, with up p to 10million ion nerve endings on each h one. It is so flexible exible it can bend nd about a foot in any direction. rection.
Some me scientists ists believe e the tusk helps elps the narwhal hal detect sound and temperature, rature, while others believe e it has more of a physical cal functionality, onality, like breaking reaking through gh ice.
In Inuit nuit legend, d, the narwhal’s tusk was created when a woman with a harpoon rope tied around her waist was dragged into the ocean after the harpoon had struck a large narwhal.
She was transformed into a narwhal, and her hair, which had been worn in a twisted knot, turned into the characteristic spiral tusk.
The narwhal was also one of the possible explanations of the giant sea phenomenon phen written by Jules Verne in his 1870
novel Tw Twenty Thousa Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Sea while
the film Elf features a narwhal saying goodbye to Buddy the Elf at the start of his adventure. Today the average price of a narwhal tusk is £3,000 to £12,000, while rare “double tusks” can fetch as much as £25,000. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society found shops in Japan selling ground narwhal tusk as a tonic to treat fever, measles, venereal disease and general pain relief. Prices varied from $540 (£421) to $929 (£724) for 100g.