The Lion and the Unicorn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the academic journal see The Lion and the Unicorn (journal).

For the book by George Orwell see "The Lion and the Unicorn (book).

The Lion and the Unicorn are time-honoured symbols of the United Kingdom. They are properly speaking heraldic supporters, appearing in the full Royal Coat of arms of the United Kingdom. The lion stands for England and the unicorn for Scotland. The combination therefore dates back to the 1603 accession of James I of England who was already James VI of Scotland.

The Lion and the Unicorn appear as characters in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.

Derived from the above meaning, "The Lion and the Unicorn" is also the title of an extensive article written by George Orwell in 1940, expressing his opinions on the situation in wartime Britain and shedding some light on the process which eventually led to the writing of his famous dystopia, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It expressed his opinion that the outdated British class system was hampering the war effort, and that in order to defeat Hitler, Britain needed a socialist revolution. Therefore, Orwell argued, being a socialist and being a patriot were no longer antithetical, they became very much complementary.

As a result, in Orwell's vision at the time, "The Lion and the Unicorn" would become the emblems of the revolution which would create a new kind of Socialism, a democratic "English Socialism" in contrast to the oppressive Soviet model - and also a new form of Englishness, a Socialist one free of oppressing colonial peoples and of the decadent old ruling classes. (Orwell specified that the revolutionary regime may keep on the royal family as a national symbol, though sweeping away all the rest of the British aristocracy).

In later years, when Orwell's hopes for such a revolution were dashed, this dreamed-of "English Socialism" was transformed into the nightmarish "INGSOC" of Nineteen Eighty-Four.