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The Lion and the Unicorn are 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. By extension, they have also been used in the Coat of Arms of Canada since 1921. ==Nursery rhyme== The traditional legend of enmity between the two heraldic animals is recorded in a nursery rhyme which has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20170. It is usually given with the lyrics: :The lion and the unicorn :Were fighting for the crown :The lion beat the unicorn :All around the town. :Some gave them white bread, :And some gave them brown; :Some gave them plum cake :and drummed them out of town.〔 The legend of the two animals may have been intensified by the Acts of Union 1707 and it was one year later that William King (1663–1712) recorded a verse very similar to the first stanza of the modern rhyme.〔I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 442-3.〕 This seems to have grown to include several other verses. Apart from those above only one survives: :And when he had beat him out, :He beat him in again; :He beat him three times over, :His power to maintain.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Lion and the Unicorn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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