"Frankenstein" - the very name sends chills down your spine. And yet a hundred years ago the poet Corrila equated the name Frankenstein with the mind of America. Before that, in the early nineteenth century, the name Frankenstein played an important role in the development of the romantic movement. Earlier still the name was a symbol of chivalry and inspired Grimm's tale about the dragon slayer from Frankenstein.

Frankenstein means literally the stone of the Franks. Around 500 A.D. the Franks took control of Gaul which was part of the Roman empire at that time. Included in their conquest was a Roman quarry in the vicinity of what is now Darmstadt, Germany. Knight Arbogast Von Frankenstein, a victorious fighter from that area, is the earliest person known using this surname. In the thirteenth century a castle was erected for the Baron von Frankenstein and his knights near the site of the roman quarry. The history and the legends of the castle lie close to the roots of the romantic spirit that was responsible for all of the art and literature eventually associated with this name.

One of the knights in the sixteenth century, Sir George Frankenstein, is known, according to legend, for sacrificing his life in combat. Carvings in the crypt where he is buried near the ruins depict him slaying a dragon under his feet. The dragon's tail, nevertheless, pierces the knight's armor, killing him. Before he died, however, he was able to save beautiful Annemarie, "The Rose of the Valley."

Another legendary figure was Johann Konrad Dippel [1673-1734] who was born in the castle. He studied Paracelsus and lived his life searching for knowledge as a wandering scholar and alchemist. He would sometimes sign his works "Frankensteina," and claimed to have the secret of the philosopher's stone, as well as the ability to create life.

By the late eighteenth century the castle had fallen into ruin, but it remained a symbol of its chivalrous past. It was an inspiration for Johann Wolfgang Goethe, a poet, scientist, and founder of the Sturm und Drang movement, a precursor of German Romanticism. Goethe spent much of his life producing Faust, an epic poem about the quest for self-knowledge. Faust sells his soul to the devil in seeking the philosopher's stone and the secret of life and its creation. Goethe spent part of his youth near the Frankenstein Ruins and later read Faust in progress under the linden trees of the Frankenstein Ruins to a circle of friends from Darmstadt.

In 1814 Mary Shelley journeyed down the Rhine with her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, stopping in Mannheim near the ruins. The Frankenstein Ruins no doubt served as a magnet to travelers of their romantic temperaments and interest in legends. Whether she was exposed to the ruins at that time or through Goethe's Faust is not known, although she did name her novel published in 1818, Frankenstein. The novel features Victor Frankenstein, a student who creates an artificial man while exploring the secrets of life in his laboratory. Victor Frankenstein recoils from his creation, fearing that he has spawned a monster.

In 1831 a teacher named Johann Adam Tracht fled Darmstadt with his family in search of freedom of thought and expression. Upon arrival in America the family adopted the surname Frankenstein, a name well suited to their romantic aspirations. Two of his sons, George and Godfrey Frankenstein became well known artists.

Together they painted a 1000 foot by 8 foot panorama of Niagara Falls. Unrolled on stage to music and commentary it was hailed in Harper's Monthly Magazine in August 1853. It has been called the first motion picture. Inspired by the panorama, on the fourth of July, 1855, the poet Corrila rhapsodized about the artists in a poem ending:

"America, Niagara, Frankenstein-
Three names united in a kindred bond-
Glad freedom's home - her voice of Praise- her mind."

George Frankenstein is best known for his Civil War scenes. Godfrey Frankenstein painted outdoors in all kinds of weather throughout the seasons. His painting Lagonda Creek has been described as representing the "Emersonian Transparent Eyeball," the eye of inner man transcending the ego to view God's nature, in the surrounding landscape, and himself, as one.

Godfrey Frankenstein enjoyed the romantic setting of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, painting dramatic scenes of the rugged landscape. Frankenstein Cliff in Crawford Notch was named after Godfrey Frankenstein by Dr. Bemis who owned much land in the area. Dr. Bemis, like Dippel and Victor Frankenstein, was fascinated with technology. He invented artificial teeth, developed a new genetic strain of apples, and is credited with taking the first Daguerreotype landscape images, capturing scenes in the White Mountains.

The same rugged scenery inspired the American romantics Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Cole, Daniel Webster, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Sketches from Memory Hawthorne describes the area around Frankenstein Cliff:

"A demon it might be fancied or one of the Titans, was traveling up the valley elbowing the heights carelessly aside as he passed, till at length a great mountain took its stand directly across his intended road. He tarries not for such an obstacle but rendering it asunder a thousand feet from peak to base, discloses its treasures of hidden minerals, its guiless water, all the secrets of the mountain's innermost heart, with a mighty fracture of rugged precipices on each side. This is the Notch of the White Hills."

Today the name Frankenstein inspires fear, a fear aroused by the image of the Hollywood monster. The monster derives from the novel by Mary Shelley and is the result of man's tinkering with nature and his untamed desire to create and apply his knowledge. In the novel the monster's fictional creator, Victor Frankenstein, expresses a warning to those who would brave the limits to what is known:

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