Unicorns Did Exist!!

by Yair Davidiy (on behalf of Brit-Am).

Contents:
Introduction.
The Unicorn in the Bible.
Ancient Possibilities.
Aurochs.
How Many Horns Did the Unicorn [Raem] Really Have?.
The Classical Rabbinical Opinion.
The Ancient World.
The Narwhal.
The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser.
Sakea.
Talmudic Sources.
The Unicorn in the Prophecy of Bilaam.
The Unicorn Represents Joseph.
The Unicorn: Intermediate Conclusion.
Brit-Am Significance.

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Detail from synagogue ceiling, in Hodorov (in Poland?), 17th-c. replication. Picture depicts a lion and unicorn. The lion is kissing the horn of the unicorn -perhaps indicating the reunification of Judah and Joseph?

Unicorns Did Exist!!

Expanded and adapted from: Biblical Concepts:   The UNICORN by Yair Davidiy Brit-Am Truth no.7 (Tribesman 12) http://www.britam.org/magazine/Brit-AmTruth7.html

The Bible mentions unicorns. Israelites are identified by a lion and a unicorn such as appears on the British coat of arms. The Scottish coat of arms depicts two unicorns. An analysis of Biblical passages, archaeological findings, Rabbinical and other sources, indicates that there once was a one-horned creature who gave rise to our image of the unicorn. Duration: 16.46 minutes. To Continue Reading the Article Please Scroll Down!

Introduction

The Lion and Unicorn together appear on the British Coat of Arms. They are the official symbols of Britain. According to our understanding of the Hebrew Bible the lion and unicorn are associated with Israel and the unicorn especially with the sons of Joseph.
Does the Bible really speak of the unicorn? Did unicorns exist? Does it even matter?
The word we understand should be translated as unicorn is Raem.
In Hebrew we have the word Raem which the King James Version translated as unicorn but modern translations render as wild ox.
We consider the King James translation (in this case) to be the correct one.
 
The Unicorn in the Bible
The "raem" or "unicorn" appears several times in the Bible. The word 'Raem' is from the Hebrew root 'R-A-M'. This root and related roots all connote 'raise up' as confirmed by Shimeon Rafael Hirsch.
The Raem is associated with the sons of Joseph (Deuteronomy 33:17) and the lion and unicorn together are linked with the Israelites in the Latter Days (Numbers 23:22).

Deuteronomy 33:
17 His glory is like a firstborn bull,
And his horns like the horns of the wild ox [RAEM];
Together with them
He shall push the peoples
To the ends of the earth;
They are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of Manasseh.

Numbers 23:
22 God brings them out of Egypt;
He has strength like a wild ox [RAEM].
....
24 Look, a people rises like a lioness [Hebrew: LAVI (masculine) i.e. Great Lion as rendered in the KJV],
And lifts itself up like a lion;
It shall not lie down until it devours the prey,
And drinks the blood of the slain.

We shall see that the term 'Raem' was in effect eventually applied to almost any horned animal though the Biblical usage does indicate a unicorn. Our English word "ram" for a male sheep is derived from this "RAM" root and from it we obtain the verb "ram" meaning to butt something as a male sheep will often do with or without his horns. The "RAEM" has been identified as an oryx (a type of straight horned deer) and as a kind of auroch or wild bull now extinct. Midrashic sources apply the term "RAEM" (Feliks p.9) to both the deer and bull. The white antelope is called by the Arabs rim. The white antelope is also identified with the oryx that in profile can appear to have only one horn. In Biblical terms, however, the word 'raem' originally referred ONLY to one specific species. One branch of this species had an only horn.

The Augsburg aurochs. This painting is a copy of the original that was presented by a merchant in Augsburg (Germany) in the 19th century. The original probably dates from the 16th century. http://www.petermaas.nl/ extinct/speciesinfo/aurochs.htm

The Aurochs by Heinrich Harder (1858-1935). http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/ speciesinfo/aurochs.htm

Ancient Possibilities


The Prehistoric Elasmotherium: 'This was a gigantic rhinoceros the size of an elephant, with a horn that may have measured up to six feet long.  Unlike the contemporary rhinoceros, the horn of the elasmotherium was situated on its forehead rather than on its nose.' (Slifkin p.62).
This animal was reportedly extinct long before the age of man, but who knows?

The Raem is sometimes identified with the rhinoceros. The Asian rhino has one horn whereas the African rhinoceros has two horns. The horn of the rhino is not really a horn in the strict sense but rather hardened keratin 'the substance of which human hair and fingernails are made' (Rabbi Natan Slifkin, Sacred Monsters). Horns of other animals are bone covered by a horny sheath. Animals with natural horns such as sheep, goats, and cattle can have their horns manipulated when young so that they grow together and look like one horn. Such creatures are sometimes on display in the USA at local rodeo shows, animal fairs, and so on.

Aurochs

 The auroch was a species of very large wild bull which is now extinct.
The Assyrians referred to the auroch as 'rimu' and it is thought that this is another version of the Hebrew word 'raem'.  According to the Encyclopedia Britannica (2003), the Auroch (Aeuroch):

# Auroch (species Bos primigenius), extinct wild ox of Europe, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), from which cattle are probably descended. The aurochs survived in central Poland until 1627. The aurochs was black, stood 1.8 m (6 feet) high at the shoulder, and had spreading, forward-curving horns. Some German breeders claim that since 1945 they have re-created this race by crossing Spanish fighting cattle with longhorns and cattle of other breeds. Their animals, however, are smaller and, though they resemble the aurochs, probably do not have similar genetic constitutions. The name aurochs has sometimes been wrongly applied to the European bison, or wisent (Bison bonasus). #

The Book of Job speaks of the Raem (Unicorn) in terms that may be pertinent to the auroch: The auroch was reputed to be fantastically strong and as such would in principle have made a very desirable farm animal that could be used for plowing fields and later drawing carriages laden with produce reaped from fields that had previously been plowed by him. The only trouble was that the auroch was a wild animal and could not be domesticated. The inability to tame the 'unicorn' was part of a challenge cast before Job and the description given suits the auroch:

WILL THE UNICORN [Raem] BE WILLING TO SERVE THEE, OR ABIDE BY THY CRIB?
CANST THOU BIND THE UNICORN [Raem] WITH HIS BAND IN THE FURROW? OR WILL HE HARROW THE VALLEYS AFTER THEE?
WILT THOU TRUST HIM, BECAUSE HIS STRENGTH IS GREAT? OR WILT THOU LEAVE THY LABOUR TO HIM?
WILT THOU BELIEVE HIM, THAT HE WILL BRING HOME THY SEED, AND GATHER IT INTO THY BARN? [Job 39:9-12] 

Modern Translations tend to translate the word "Raem" as in the above passage from Job as "wild ox" instead of unicorn.
It is not clear the the Raem (unicorn) mentioned by Job really is the auroch though it is possible.
 
How Many Horns Did the Unicorn [Raem] Really Have?

HIS HORNS ARE LIKE THE HORNS OF UNICORNS [Deuteronomy 33:17]. This phrase in the Hebrew says, 'Karnei [the Horns of] Raem [a unicorn] Karnov [are his horns]'. The expression in the Hebrew can in effect be understood to say that the raem (unicorn) has more than one horn. Rabbinical Commentators however (and the King James Translation after them) chose to interpret it as referring to a one-horned beast. There is in fact a Biblical verse that could justify this view:

Toyafat (Numbers 23:22).

HE HATH AS IT WERE THE STRENGTH [Hebrew: TOYAFOTH] OF AN UNICORN [Numbers 23:22].                     The word translated above from the Hebrew as 'strength' is TOYAFOTH and literally means 'that which he is exalted by' (lifted up) and appears to be referring to the horns. This word is spelt one way and traditionally pronounced another. It is spelt in the singular and pronounced in the plural. The expression of strength (Toyafoth), meaning the horns which are normally plural, in this case have become ONE [TOYAFATH: in the singular instead of TOYAFOTH in the plural]. Perhaps it is an animal that in some cases has one horn and in other cases has two?

The Classical Rabbinical Opinion

Rabbi David Kimchi (Safer HaShorashim, RAEM):

# HIS HORNS ARE LIKE THE HORNS OF UNICORNS (Deuteronomy 33:17). It is intended to mean that his horns are like the horns of (several) unicorns for the Raem has only one horn. [Psalms 29:6] HE MAKETH THEM ALSO TO SKIP LIKE A CALF; LEBANON AND SIRION LIKE A YOUNG UNICORN. [Psalms 22:21] SAVE ME FROM THE LION'S MOUTH: FOR THOU HAST HEARD ME FROM THE HORNS OF THE UNICORNS, i.e. A wild beast of the wilderness, extremely strong.

The Greek Translation of the Bible (Septuagent) translates Raem (Numbers 23:22) as 'monokeros' i.e. one-horned unicorn.
Early authorities such as Saadia Gaon, Yehudah HaLevi, and Ibn Ezra also considered the "Reem" to be a unicorn (see Kaplan in the "Living Torah"), as did Menasseh ben Israel.
 
The Ancient World

 "The unicorn appears on Assyrian memorials as a bull with an arched horn on the head. In the Cheops pyramid in Egypt, there are images of an antelope with a single horn". Legends from Arabia, India, and Persia tell of a huge and ferocious unicorn called a Karkadan. The Karkadan was said to be capable of carrying off an elephant on its horn. Ctesias, Aristotle, Pliny, and Aelian all mentioned the unicorn.
The hunt of the unicorn is depicted in the Medieval Art of Europe, the Islamic world, and in China.

Below is a seal from the Bronze Age Harappa Civilization on the Indus River in India. Compare it to the almost identical picture from the region of Assyria to the right.

Here is an image from the region of Mesopotamia, probably Assyria. Compare it to the almost indentical picture from the area of India to the left.

The Narwhal

The Narwhal is a small whale up to 15 feet long with a tusk that grows in a spiral up to 10 feet long. 'Broken tusks or tusks of dead narwhal can sometimes be found on beaches'. 'Tusks of wooly mammoths, dug out of the ground were also sometimes passed off to unsuspecting buyers as unicorn horns'. Cups reputedly made of unicorn horn but actually made of rhinoceros horn or narwhal tusk were highly valued by important persons in the Middle Ages as a protection against poisoned drinks.

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser is famous since it depicts King Jehu of Israel making supplication. Israel is here named "Beith-Humri" i.e. the House of Omri(or Gumri). The Black Obelisk also pictures the King of Musri (probably a region in northern Syria) bringing animals as tribute. Amongst the animals is a sakea which is was a kind of unicorn. Below is a detail of the Sakea.

Sakea 

            An animal with one horn referred to as a 'Sakea' is depicted on the Black Obelisk of King Shalmaneser.

The Black Obelisk records the exploits of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 BCE). It was discovered by the Englishman, Sir Austen Henry Layard, in 1846, during a large scale excavation at Nimrud, an ancient site located south of Baghdad, in modern-day Iraq.  The Black Obelisk has four sides, each with 5 picture panels interspersed with cuneiform inscriptions; there is also cuneiform above and below each set of pictures.  The inscriptions record the annals of thirty-two years of Shalmaneser's reign. The Black Obelisk became famous when it was realized that it made reference to Jehu, King of the Israelites. who is mentioned in the Old Testament (2 Kings 9-10).  A descendant of Shalmaneser, Shalmaneser-V, is mentioned in 2 Kings 17:3 and 18:9.  The Black Obelisk also mentions King Hazael of Damascus who appears in the Old Testament (2 Kings 8:28f; 9:14f). Most of the illustrations record the tributes brought to Shalmaneser by various vassal kings.  The second panel depicts Shalmaneser receiving tribute from Jehu, king of Israel, who is prostrate before the king. Shalmaneser holds a bowl in his raised hand and is sheltered by a parasol held by an attendant.  The tribute of the country of Musri is illustrated on the third panel. This consists entirely of animals led or driven by attendants dressed in knee-length garments.

Musri, is sometimes interpreted as Egypt, but in this case the intention is apparently to an area in Northern Syria (as demonstrated by Michael Banyai) that may at one stage have been an Egyptian outpost.
For more on Mutsri see:
Ephraim Comes Back! The USA in Iraq:
Has the Return of the Lost Ten Tribes Began?
http://britam.org/USAMatsor.html

Tribute from the land of Musri includes in the words of Salmaneser:
# Camels whose backs are doubled [i.e. Bactrian Camels as distinct from Arabian camels that have only one hump], a river ox [hippopotamus], a sakea, a susu [antelope], elephants, baz'u [and] uqupu [monkeys], I received from him.#
The sakea is interpreted as a rhinoceros but it does not look like one and almost certainly is not one, as Banyai proves.

M. Banyai remarks:

# The legs of the creature are not different from the ones of the antelope or the buffalo. This looks odd, since the artist was seemingly able to observe the difference between the elephant's legs and those of the other animals. It is also hairy, which a rhinoceros is not! ...it is not the representation of a real animal at all, but at best what in the heraldic is to be held as an unicorn. Maybe the Assyrian artist felt indebted to an iconographic convention concerning the representation of a 'sakea'? #

#The typology of the unicorn is said among heraldists to have come about as a result of observations of wild antelope in Syria and Palestine. When viewed from the side, the two long horns of these animals give the illusion of a single horn. There are plenty of such representations in Assyrian art. It must be borne in mind that re'm or re'em (Assyrian rumu), rendered by 'monokeros' in the Septuaginta, may perhaps be the oryx. Thus the most probable reading of sakea, once one has forgot the presumed Egyptian connection, ought be 'oryx' or 'wild ox'.

In other words Banyai is saying that King of Musri did not really bring a one-horned sakea as tribute to the Assyrians but rather an imaginative artist depicted him as doing so and used conventional depictions of a 'unicorn' as his model. Alternately, Banyai implies the sakea may have been a real animal (that is now extinct?) that had two horns but when depicted in profile looked like one.

See the reproduction from the Black Obelisk where the Sakea clearly has one horn and compare this to the one-horned creatures on the Gundestrup Cauldron below.

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundestrup_cauldron
The Gundestrup cauldron is a richly-decorated silver vessel, thought to date to the 1st century BC, placing it into the late La Tène period. It was found in 1891 in a peat bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup, in the Aars parish in Himmerland, Denmark....The Gundestrup cauldron is the largest known example of European Iron Age silver work (diameter 69 cm, height 42 cm). The style and workmanship suggest Thracian origin, while the imagery seems Celtic.

The Sakea in the Assyrian Depiction and the one-horned creatues from Grundestrup, Denmark, look similar despite the centuries of time and great geographical distance between the two. The Grundestrup beasts look a little more like horses than the Assyrian ones but not overduly so. We suggest that the Sakea and the Gundestrup animals were of the same type, that they were a kind of wild buffalo (possibly related to the auroch) but with one horn, and a leaner body build with some remote similarity to that of a deer or horse.

It is interesting to note a similarity of the name  'Sakea' for one-horned creature and 'Sacae' which is what the Israelite-Scythians were later named. The image of unicorns as decorative elements are said to have been found in regions of the Sacae and Massagetae in Scythia.  A king of the Khazars was named 'Bulan' and one interpretation of this name is 'Unicorn'.
 
Talmudic Sources

Tachash skins (Exodus 25:5). Rabbi Hoshea taught: The tachash has a single horn on its forehead (Talmud Yerushalmi, Shabbat 2:3)
 Talmud, Chullin 60a: 'Rav Yehudah said: the bull that Adam the First Man sacrificed had a single horn on its forehead'.
#These are the signs of a wild animal the fat of which is permitted: Anything that possesses horns and hooves; And the fat of the keresh, even though it possesses one horn is permitted # (Talmud, Chullin, 59b).
Here the Keresh is now believed to be the giraffe which has a single horn like protuberance jutting out before its two horns.
 

The Coat of Arms of Britain	The Coat of Arms of Scotland

The Unicorn in the Prophecy of Bilaam
Bilaam the heathen prophet foresaw that in the End Times the descendants of Israel would be very powerful. He likened them to a lion and a 'raem' or unicorn.
GOD BROUGHT THEM OUT OF EGYPT; HE HATH AS IT WERE THE STRENGTH OF AN UNICORN.                     
SURELY THERE IS NO ENCHANTMENT AGAINST JACOB, NEITHER IS THERE ANY DIVINATION AGAINST ISRAEL: ACCORDING TO THIS TIME IT SHALL BE SAID OF JACOB AND OF ISRAEL, WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT!
BEHOLD, THE PEOPLE SHALL RISE UP AS A GREAT LION, AND LIFT UP HIMSELF AS A YOUNG LION: HE SHALL NOT LIE DOWN UNTIL HE EAT OF THE PREY,
AND DRINK THE BLOOD OF THE SLAIN [Numbers 23:22-24].
The coat of arms of Scotland had two unicorns and that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain had a lion and a unicorn. It has been claimed that the translators of the King James Bible deliberately rendered 'raem' as unicorn in order to please King James, their monarch and patron. This implies that King James wished to associate his kingdom with Israel in the End Times.
James-i (1567–1625) of England was also known as James-vi of Scotland. Before becoming the King of England and Scotland together he had ruled over Scotland. He did indeed bring the unicorn symbol from Scotland to England and is said to have referred to himself as king of Israel.
On the other hand the 'raem' was indeed identified with the unicorn in Rabbinical thought, since the beginning, as we have seen.

The lion and the unicorn are connected with Israel in the Last Days being the major world power with offshoots in several oceans: 'HIS SEED SHALL BE IN MANY WATERS' (Numbers 24:7). The symbolism recalls  Joseph who is likened unto a unicorn (Deuteronomy 33:17).
It also reflects Judah who in Genesis is likened unto an old and new lion: JUDAH IS A LION'S WHELP: FROM THE PREY, MY SON, THOU ART GONE UP: HE STOOPED DOWN, HE COUCHED AS A LION, AND AS AN OLD LION; WHO SHALL ROUSE HIM UP? (Genesis 49:9).
The State of Israel is an Old-New State (as the Zionist leader, Theodore Herzl predicted) that has been reconstituted. The lion and unicorn may symbolize the ultimate re-union of Judah with Joseph.                   
 
HE SHALL POUR THE WATER OUT OF HIS BUCKETS, AND HIS SEED SHALL BE IN MANY WATERS, AND HIS KING SHALL BE HIGHER THAN AGAG, AND HIS KINGDOM SHALL BE EXALTED.
GOD BROUGHT HIM FORTH OUT OF EGYPT; HE HATH AS IT WERE THE STRENGTH OF AN UNICORN: HE SHALL EAT UP THE NATIONS HIS ENEMIES, AND SHALL BREAK THEIR BONES, AND PIERCE THEM THROUGH WITH HIS ARROWS.
HE COUCHED, HE LAY DOWN AS A LION, AND AS A GREAT LION: WHO SHALL STIR HIM UP? BLESSED IS HE THAT BLESSETH THEE, AND CURSED IS HE THAT CURSETH THEE [Numbers 24:7-9].
 
The Unicorn Represents Joseph:
HIS GLORY IS LIKE THE FIRSTLING OF HIS BULL, AND HIS HORNS ARE LIKE THE HORNS OF UNICORNS: WITH THEM HE SHALL PUSH THE PEOPLES TOGETHER TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH: AND THEY ARE THE TEN THOUSANDS OF EPHRAIM, AND THEY ARE THE THOUSANDS OF MANASSEH [Deuteronomy 33:17].

In the above verse it says:
HIS HORNS ARE LIKE THE HORNS OF UNICORNS: WITH THEM HE SHALL PUSH THE PEOPLES TOGETHER.
The Hebrew says in literal transliteration,
# The Horns of a Unicorn [Raem] are his horns, with them peoples will he but together as one...#
The Hebrew could be read also as saying,
# The Horns of a Unicorn [Raem] are his horns, with them as one, peoples will he but together...#
Notice the possible combination, "his horns, with them, as one".
This could hint that the two horns have become one which may have been a known phenomenon amongst some species of Raem.
This is only a suggestion. It may sound far-fetched but it is consistent with the Hebrew and fits in with the rest of the evidence.

BULLOCK or  bull:  In Hebrew "shor" meaning bull. John 'Bull' is a nickname for Britain. England is named after the Angles who were also known as 'Aegloi'. In Hebrew "Aegel" means young bull or bull-calf. "Aegel" is a nickname in the Bible for Ephraim, cf. Jeremiah 31;18 where Ephraim is referred to as an "aegel".

Depictions of John Bull meaning England.

See Also:
John Bull of England and the Bull-Calf of Joseph
Why the British are Ephraim!
#6. Ephraim Represents the "BULL". John Bull of England, "Land of the Bull-Calf".
Scroll down a little to see historical representations of John Bull.

Roughly speaking Joseph in general is represented by a bull, Ephraim by a bull-calf (Aegel), and Manasseh by a Raem meaning unicorn. In actuality the unicorn-raem was a type of wild bull that amongst some sub-species had one horn. The unicorn was originally the symbol of Scotland. The Coat of Arms of Scotland bears two unicorns. When Scotland was unified with England the unicorn (together with the lion) became a symbol of Britain. The word for Unicorn in Hebrew is 'raem'. 'Unicorn' really is a legitimate translation of 'raem'. Only Britain (together with Scotland) has the unicorn as an official symbol. This alone is worth considering. The unicorn became the emblem of Scotland: the Scottish coat of arms has two unicorns. When Scotland united with England the lion and the unicorn were together on the British coat of arms. The Midrash (Bamidbar 2:5) says that 'raem' (unicorn) was the symbol of MANASSEH.
It is worth remembering that the unicorn symbol came to Britain from Scotland which is still represented by two unicorns.
We found a predominance of Manasseh entities that in the past were to be found in Scotland. More than 80% of the founding settlers of the USA came from Scotland and related areas in the North and West of Britain.     

The Coat of Arms of Scotland

The Coat of Arms of Scotland

The Coat of Arms of Britain

The Coat of Arms of Britain	The Coat of Arms of Scotland	The Coat of Arms of Canada

The Unicorn: Intermediate Conclusion

There are different types of horned animals that in profile seem to have only one horn. Animals that really did have only one horn also existed. Our impression is that there were several of them. Popular imagination developed a mythology about the unicorn based on fantasies and actual historical sightings of different one-horned creatures. The term 'raem' in Colloquial Hebrew eventually could be applied to different types of horned animal. In the Bible however it appears to be the name of one specific beast. We would say that this beast had qualities similar to those of the auroch. Perhaps it was a type of auroch, i.e. a gigantic wild bull (now extinct) with only one horn? Alternately it may have been a species that usually had two horns but in some of its sub-species the two horns would grow together to become one? This creature though similar to the auroch and quite hefty in its own right may have been a little thinner. Its leaner appearance would have facilitated its later depiction as a horse-like creature.

Brit-Am Significance

There were real unicorns!
We have identified the Raem of Scripture with the Sakea as shown on Assyrian engravings. The Sakea was a one horned animal. It was depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser (r. 858-824 BCE). The Black Obelisk is famous since it depicts King Jehu of Israel making supplication to Shalmaneser, King of Assyria. Israel is named "Beith-Humri" (or Gumri) i.e. the House of Omri. The Black Obelisk shows the King of Musri (probably a region in northern Syria) bringing animals as tribute. Amongst the animals is a sakea which was a kind of unicorn. The Black Obelisk also pictures the King of Musri (probably a region in northern Syria) bringing animals as tribute. Amongst the animals is a sakea which was a kind of unicorn.
The outlines of the sakea are quite clear. They are almost identical to a herd of one-horned animals shown on the Gundestrup Cauldron from Himmerland in Denmark and dating from after ca. 100 BCE i.e. more than 700 years later and almost a continent away! The sakea appears to have been a type of auroch. It seems that several different one-horned animals once existed. One of these and that which in Scripture is translated as meaning Unicorn was the Raem. In those days in Europe and the Middle East an animal known as the auroch was to be found. Aurochs were ancient wild bulls of large dimensions. The Ream (Sakea) was probably a species of auroch, subsets of which had the mutation of one horn whereas other varieties did not.
Roughly speaking Joseph in general is represented by a bull, Ephraim by a bull-calf (Aegel), and Manasseh by a Raem meaning a unicorn. In actuality the unicorn-raem was therefore a type of wild bull that amongst some sub-species had one horn.

The Ream was identified with the unicorn from the earliest times and by the highest authorities. The unicorn was representative of both Scotland and Great Britain and as such is a proof of ours confirming the Israelite ancestry of many peoples of British origin. The unicorn exists as a symbol in all ancient cultures. We have come to the conclusion that such an animal did indeed once exist. We however have no conclusive evidence of this. What if the unicorn did not exist? From our point of view it does not really matter. It is enough that Joseph was linked with the raem and that the raem was identified with the unicorn. If the identification of 'raem' with the one-horned unicorn was mistaken it was nevertheless accepted symbolically and therefore pertinent to us. The British themselves saw significance in their use of this symbol and its equation with the raem in the blessing to Joseph.
This is the bottom line and a minimalist position: Regardless as to whether or not the unicorn existed its identification with the Biblical Raem has significance for the understanding of Prophecy. The Bible speaks in language that its adherents can understand.
Nevertheless, this minimalist understanding is probably superfluous.
The impression is that a Unicorn type creature did exist and in the Hebrew Scripture it is identical to the RAEM as associated with Joseph and Israel in the End Times.

 See Also:
Lion and Unicorn
 http://www.britam.org/Proof/Joseph/joUnicorn.html

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