In 1663, a great deal of excitement was generated by the discovery of a large unicorn skeleton in the Harz Mountains region of central Germany.

The skeleton was found among piles of other fossil bones in a limestone cave near Quedlinburg, which is located a little north of the Harz Mountains. Crowds of people soon flocked to the site to view this historic find. In the initial confusion over who owned the cave, many people simply helped themselves to souvenirs. After a fierce legal battle, the Abbess of Quedlinburg took charge. In spite of her supervision of the work at the site, the skeleton was badly damaged during the excavations, emerging as a fragmented pile of bones. Scientific examination of the remains was undertaken by the famous scientist, Otto von Guericke.

Not too surprisingly, the skeleton that emerged from his reconstruction presents a very strange picture in the drawings of the time. It lacked half its spine, and appeared to be completely devoid of hindquarters. Its most interesting feature, the skull, had miraculously survived intact, and firmly attached to it was a single, straight, tapering horn some seven feet in length.

Quedlinburg is part of the ancient Hercynian Forest, and bones from there were for a long time sold as "Hercynian Fossil Unicorn". Perhaps proof had at last been found of Julius Caesar's "ox shaped like a stag with a single horn"? The proportions of the skull and bones indicate that the beast would have been about the same size as the Biblical re'em.

Then, about a hundred years later, a similar skeleton was unearthed in the Einhornloch at nearby Scharzfeld. Both skeletons were examined by the philosopher and scientist Leibniz. He declared that these bones had completely converted him to a belief in unicorns, whose existence he had previously doubted.

The regions' link with unicorns has continued into modern times. In an interview published in Die Ganze Woch magazine in December of 1991, the renowned Austrian naturalist Antal Festetics, a visiting professor at Gottingen University, made a startling claim. He recounted an incident which occurred while he was filming a wildlife documentary in the Harz Mountains. One night, he said, he was out on horseback in the neighborhood of the Einhornhohle with a video camera when, "Suddenly a unicorn came towards me at a gallop. There was a glow of light around the animal. My horse reared and almost threw me. Then, just as quickly, it was gone."

The following April (1992) Festetics repeated his claim in a television interview. What is more, he claims he captured the encounter with the unicorn on video. Even though none of this footage was broadcast in his three-part documentary program, it is reportedly available for viewing in Gottingen.

How serious this claim was is open to question. Festetics neither staked his reputation on it nor admitted to having exercised poetic license.

In this day and age there is no more likely a place to find a unicorn than in the ancient Hercynian Forest. The forest is dominated by the Brocken Mountain, which in the Middle Ages was associated with witches' sabbats, usually the sign of an earlier link with cults of the Moon Goddess, whose creature was the unicorn.

This region of Germany straddles the old border between East and West Germany. For over forty years after World War II, a large section of it was fenced off as a no-man's land and left entirely to its own devices. It is one of the last true wildernesses left in Europe, a slice of the ancient, dark enchanted woods of German folklore and legend. Could this be the the last refuge of the unicorn in the modern world? Is it possible some of the magic of the old gods who were said to rule the forests remains, protecting the unicorn from discovery?

I certainly don't have the answers to these questions. But, I do know that there are many areas of our modern world which still remain virtually unexplored. Who knows what wonders we might still find in the years ahead! The unicorn is a marvelous, mystical creature full of hope and possibilities.  Belief in the unicorn helps us remember to ask the question, "Why not?"