In 'Through the Looking-Glass', which two animals fight for the crown?

In “Through the Looking-Glass,” the Lion and the Unicorn fight for the crown.

Alice meets these two fantastical figures in Chapter VII, “The Lion and the Unicorn.” They are accompanying the White King, and their quarrel echoes the traditional English nursery rhyme in which the Lion and the Unicorn battle for a crown, fight around the town, and are eventually driven out after being given cake.

Lewis Carroll adapts that familiar rhyme into the mirror-world setting. The crown belongs to the White King, making the rivalry deliberately nonsensical because both creatures are associated with his side. The Lion is portrayed as a powerful but rather slow fighter, while the Unicorn treats Alice as a monster because he does not believe that children exist.

The episode also has a political layer for Victorian readers. The Lion and Unicorn were heraldic supporters representing England and Scotland, and John Tenniel’s illustrations have often been read as caricaturing politicians Benjamin Disraeli and William Ewart Gladstone, though Carroll’s exact intention is uncertain. The Lory and Eaglet belong to the first Alice book, not this contest.