A uniped (from
Latinuni- "one" and ped- "foot") is a person or creature with only one
foot and one
leg, as contrasted with a
biped (two legs) and a
quadruped (four legs). Moving using only one leg is known as unipedal movement. Many
bivalvia and nearly all
gastropoda molluscs have evolved only one foot. Through accidents (i.e.
amputation) or
birth abnormalities it is also possible for an animal, including
humans, to end up with only a single leg.
In fiction and mythology
One major study of mythological unipeds is Teresa Pàroli (2009): "How many are the unipeds' feet? Their tracks in texts and sources", in Analecta Septentrionalia: Beiträge zur nordgermanischen Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte, ed. by
Wilhelm Heizmann,
Klaus Böldl and
Heinrich Beck (Berlin/London/New York: De Gruyter), pp. 281–327.
In the Saga of Erik the Red, a native of
Vinland who is described as being one-legged kills one of Eric's men (his brother). In the children's fiction book They Came on Viking Ships by
Jackie French, a uniped is a one-legged Norse mythical creature that lived in the south of Vinland during the time of the expedition of
Freydís Eiríksdóttir.[1]
The
sciapod was another mythical one-legged humanoid.
In Japanese mythology and folklore, some yōkai such as the
karakasa-obake and the ippon-datara have one leg.
In the
Narnia book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by
C. S. Lewis, the heroes meet the "Dufflepuds". These are two-legged
dwarfs who have been rendered one-legged by their master, a wizard. He did this to force them to use the water from the stream next to their food garden, rather than walking miles to get the water.[citation needed]
In Brazilian folklore, there is a mythical humanoid uniped called "
Saci" who appears in several tales and is associated with
dustdevils. Colombian folklore has a female version of this monster, the "
Patasola".
In the Indian epic
Mahabharata, there is a mention of a Southern Indian tribe of humans named 'Ekapada' (literally 'one-footed') living, which
Sahadeva conquers.[4][5]
In
Hindu culture, there is a form of the god
Shiva known as
Ekapada.
Kunz, Keneva, trans. (2008). The Vinland Sagas: The Icelandic Sagas About the First Documented Voyages Across the North Atlantic. London: Penguin.
ISBN978-0-140-44776-7.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)