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Friday 30 October 2015

The Black Beast Of Darmstadt -The True Frankenstein Story!




  That's Keel (above) in younger days.


In my book, Some Things Strange And Sinister I could not resist referring to this little story.  The location -and story, of course- is one I would like to visit one day, perhaps as part of a TV programme.  We can all live in hope!

But here, slightly expanded on, is the chapter from STS&S.
 **************************************************************


  Don’t get me wrong, I find the books of John Keel [1-4] to be very good reads; they snatch you up and string you along and are very difficult to put down.  Just look at the chapter headings in one of my favourites, Strange Creatures From Time & Space – “A World Filled with Ambling Nightmares”, “The Uglies and the Nasties”, “Demon Dogs and Phantom Cats,” “Creatures from the Black Lagoon,” “Winged Weirdos,” “The Great Sea Serpent of Silver Lake, New York” –and they go on.

  I love them!

    Whereas dear old Charles Fort either muddled his reference notes and dates by accident or deliberately [I think the former], Keel goes one better –he quotes incidents from magazine sources he has read but seems never to have followed-up to check on.  In some cases he gives no original source.

    I suppose that’s fine if all you want to read is a good tale that leaves you wondering “was that really true –surely he’d never put it in a book if it wasn’t?”  Oh, the innocent days!  However, if you are one of those people who has to find the truth whether good or bad and you are willing to work hard to get to the real source, then this is fun but very frustrating.  This latter type of person is known to Ufologists, Forteans and their kind as a “kill-joy pain-in-the-ass” or “kijopitas”.  My name is kijopitas!

    One paragraph in Strange Creatures From Time & Space that intrigued me for years related to an incident from the (possibly, Keel wasn’t even definite on this!) 8th Century:-


                  “In Germany during this same period,some huge black
                  animal was prowling the dark forests near Darmstadt,killing
                  people off like flies.  Finally,a local baron fought the beast.
                  He managed to kill it but during the fight he suffered a wound
                  which led to his death.  A statue was erected to him in the
                  tomb of his castle,both of which are still standing.”


 Above Tower and ruins of Castle Frankenstein -Pascal Rehfeldt 
CC BY-SA 3.0

    There are two things of interest here.  Firstly, if  if—Keel was referring to the incidents I think he was, and the previous paragraph had the details almost right, then we are talking about the 8th century.  Keel was, like many after him, basing his account on one of the biggest offenders in the “I don’t need to quote sources” brigade –Harold T. Wilkins [5] but it is worth mentioning the Mesopotamian incident.




    A 9th century document from Mesopotamia reports that, some time “before” AD 774, the Abdin Rock region was the scene of between “twenty to 100” people being killed by mysterious beasts.  The animals were “similar to wolves but with ears like a horse and a ridge of bristly hair along their spines” and they apparently entered houses in villages from which they carried off children, probably adults also, though children would have been the easier prey.  These creatures demonstrated no fear of men and would even turn and attack anyone who was chasing them.

      I have yet to see one writer on mysteries positively identify these “mystery beasts” –of course, doing so would negate the “mystery” aspect.  So, let me tell you now that, as a naturalist, the description is clear enough –hyaena.  It sounds like the beasts had obviously been kept by humans, as demonstrated by their lack of fear of Man [a very bad sign] and entering native huts in Africa to run off with children or adults is not unknown.  The behaviour, which is unusual,seems to indicate these animals must have been starving and humans were easy prey [6 & 7].

 Standbild des hl. Georg in der Michaelskapelle auf der Burg Hohenzollern 
CC BY-SA 3.0

    Now, if the Black Beast was seen around this period we must be talking early-to-mid 8th century.  This brings me to the second interesting point, for me.

    Along with Professor Alayne Street-Perrott, of the Exotic Cat Project, University of Wales Swansea, I have been looking at the history of menageries from ancient times up until the 1970s.  We are both aware of reports of “black beasts” attacking and killing livestock and people. 

    For example; around AD 940, in the area around Flixton, Yorkshire, a large black animal with a long tail, “glowing eyes” [reflecting light] and nasty smell was killing livestock, dogs and people.  The details that exist  seem to very strongly point to a black leopard –odd  though this sounds, such animals were regularly given as gifts between royalty or powerful chiefs.  Having been kept by humans there would be no real fear of these.  Sheep make easy meals with hardly any effort required to chase or kill.  Dogs are, unfortunately, something the leopard has a keen taste for [8].

Georg von Frankenstein 1531, Nieder-Beerbach
 Georg von Frankenstein 1531, Nieder-Beerbach



    So, when someone mentions a “black beast” on a killing spree around the mid-8th century I need to chase down the source and see whether a big cat was involved or not.  Well, for about 15 years I was searching any records or source possible for references to a “black beast” and came up with none.  Then it occurred to me that, perhaps, the expression “black beast” was not referring to the animals colour but to a creature being evil –as in “he was a black-hearted swine”?

    Obviously a search for statues built inside tombs was difficult and I gave up on trying to find any such thing.  So, in desperation I did what I should have done at the very outset: looked at castles in Darmstadt.  This came up with a surprise or two.




    The village of Frankenstein sits on the northern edge of the Magnetberg mountain range near Darmstadt and would have been a forested, wild region at one time with deer, boar, bears, lynx and much more.  A friend sent me the following information that is handed out to those interested in attending the yearly “Halloween Bash”:-


             “Originally the residence of Lord Konrad Dippel von Frankenstein
             during the 1500s,Frankenstein Castle’s myths and legends overshadow
             its actual history.  Legend has it that von Frankenstein exchanged his
             soul for the secrets to eternal life.  He was allegedly found dead in his
             laboratory,foaming at the mouth and surrounded by various body parts
             he had stolen from area cemeteries….many people believe that writer
             Mary Shelley heard this tale during a trip to Germany in 1814 and used
             it [and the castle] as the inspiration for her famous novel.”

    Tourist information.  Wonderful stuff.  Actually, the castle is mentioned in documents dating back to 1252, though recent document discoveries in Leipzig mention “burg Frankenstein” in the year AD 948. 

    The name “Frankenstein” probably refers to the Franks while “stein” means stone –probably indicating and ancient site had probably existed there long before the 10th century.  When someone has the word “von” in their names it simply indicates their origins  Ludwig von Dresden simply means Ludwig from Dresden.  Just as English names indicate ancestral employment –“Cutter” probably being from the cloth trade, ”Stockman” someone who had been involved in livestock trade and, of course, ”Hooper” being someone who put the hoops around wooden beer barrels.

    Every source indicates that Johann Konrad Dippel von Frankenstein [1673-1734], an educated physician was a mad scientist, using the isolated castle to carry out experiments in alchemy and sought the answer to the ultimate challenge to science  of the day –immortality.  It is said that Johann gathered parts of butchered animals and human corpses but not to sew together and charge with electricity but to boil down in large vats; muscle, skin,bone, hair, blood, organs –more strange and sinister  than anything you’ll encounter in the dark.  And human to boot.  The villagers  (there had to be angry villagers,right?) got wind of things, probably quite literally, and exiled him from the town.

    It seems to be documented that Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, according to some but I’ve found nothing.  We know that she and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley visited France and Switzerland in 1816 and that while staying near Geneva, their friend Lord Byron issued a challenge to write a ghost story. While at Eton college Mary had been fascinated by the electrical experiments of Luigi Calvani –creating  electric shocks to make a dead frogs legs jerk.  That, we know from her own words, is where she got the inspiration for Frankenstein, though the name may have been one she had heard while on her European tour.




    So, all of that is pure bunkum.  However, a well known traveller and collector of stories, John Keel may have visited the castle and gotten the details mixed up.  A von Frankenstein did fight a beast and die from his wounds.

    George von Frankenstein was the son of Phillip von Frankenstein and Margarethe Boeckle.  George died in 1531 –the 16th not  8th century.  The legend has it that, in a river called Katzenborn, near to Nieder-Beerbach, lived a dragon that spent each day terrorizing the locality.  As in all such stories, the only way the villagers could pacify the dragon and make it return to the river was to sacrifice the most beautiful young woman in the valley.  On this particular occasion the sacrifice was to be the “rose of the valley,” Anne Marie.

    Now, it turned out that George secretly loved Anne Marie and when he returned from a military expedition, heard what was to take place.  George, still clad in his armour, arrived in time and fought the dragon in a mighty and long battle.  As the opportunity presented itself, George dealt the dragon a death-blow, sending the dragon twisting in agony.  Knight George had saved Anne Marie but, as it writhed in its death-throes, the dragon curled its tail around George’s leg and jabbed his knee with a venom from a spur on its tail-tip.

    George was returned to the castle where he died.  What happened to Anne Marie –who knows.  Here is the interesting part; George was buried in Nieder-Beerbach and his tomb is located in the town churchyard –the tomb is carved and features a knight stepping on the head of a dragon, with the creature’s tail wrapped around the hero’s leg!  Superstitious people confused Knight George with Saint George.

    Whether the “dragon” symbolized a real beast or a pagan enemy we cannot say.  It may even be that George died after being bitten  by some animal [ with rabies] – a bear or any one of half a dozen I could come up with. Even an exotic is not out of the question since crocodiles are recorded living in the wild in Britain.

    But at least I now know that there was a knight who died and that the beast said to be involved was a dragon –dragons looking like serpents which represented the Biblical evil in Adam and Eve and thusly “black-hearted”.  Short story, long explanation!









References.

[1]        Keel, John A., UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, Putnam,NY,1970

[2]                              The Cosmic Question,Panther,London,1978

[3]                              Our Haunted Planet,Futura,London,1975

[4]                              Strange Creatures From Time & Space,Sphere,London,1979:
                                   p.26 for the “Black Beast” story.  Republished in 1994 as The
                                   Complete Guide To Mysterious Beings.

[5]        Wilkins, Harold T., Mysteries Solved and Unsolved, Odhams,London,
                                    1959:p.197

[6]         Ibid 4:p.26

[7]         Bord,Janet & Colin, Alien Animals, Book Club associates,London,1980
                                     pp.68 & 69

[8]          Harris, John, The Ghost Hunters Roadbook” [no longer available refers to this
                                     particularly nasty beasty.


Some Things Strange & Sinister 

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