Unicorn and Summer Solstice Love

The longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer Solstice, is June 20, this year. I have a spicy, Celtic, historical, shape-shifter novella set in Iron Age Britain during the Summer Solstice. Even better, the hero is a unicorn. 

In the ancient Celtic culture, the unicorn had a place in the turning of the seasons and the Summer Solstice festival. The Celts teamed up the White Horse with the Oak Tree to symbolize  Summer and the Unicorn with Holly to stand for Winter. The vigor of the White Horse carried the Celts through Summer, while the Unicorn's endurance empowered them through the re-birth brought by Winter. 

The unicorn was so important to the Celts that the Scottish adopted it as the symbol of their country. One reason is that it's the natural enemy of the lion - which represented English royals. It's also a proud and brave beast that would rather die than be captured. In fact, in Scotland's 15th and 16th centuries, they used golden coins called unicorns and half-unicorns with the animal depicted on them. Also, Clan Cunningham's crest features the image of a unicorn's head. 

Unicorns were popular throughout Europe, including Italy. Did you know Leonardo da Vinci wrote about unicorns in his notebook? "The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated damsel and fall to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it."

Fun Facts about Celtic Unicorns:

• The Celts believed unicorns had the power to see people's true character and value.
• The Unicorn is the Celtic Astrology sign for people born from July 8 to August 4.
• In Celtic mythology, the Unicorn's horn resembled a flaming spear and was a symbol of the sun's power. It could heal and kill.
• The Celts believed a unicorn horn offered protection against evil, and the ability to detect and counteract poisons. If you set a unicorn horn on a table laid with food, the horn would sweat or become moist if the food was poisoned.
• A group of unicorns is called a blessing of unicorns.

In The Unicorn and the Druidess, the fourth novella in the Druidry and the Beast Series, my unicorn is also a god who comes to earth because he's attracted to Maelona the Druidess of the Belgae tribe. This god, who goes by the name Epon, can shape-shift from the form of a man to that of a unicorn.

Here's the blurb:

At Summer Solstice people aren’t what they seem—they could be… a unicorn …a god…or someone you fall in love with.

Druidess Maelona pursues a unicorn into the woods and returns with a runaway slave boy she takes under her wing. Before she can go back to look for the unicorn, a handsome stranger ignites a fiery attraction within her. But she can tell he's keeping something from her. She suspects that he may be a Roman spy.

God Epon’s blood burns at first sight of the gorgeous Druidess. Goaded by his desire for her he passes through the portal from the otherworld as a unicorn. Then he runs into the forest and she gives chase. There he shapeshifts into human form so he can get to know her better. 

Then, to win her trust, he fights the Romans and saves her tribe. But even then, will he and Maelona be able to overcome the surmountable odds of a romance between a mortal and immortal being anything more than a summertime tryst?