The Origin of Spooky Halloween Monsters

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

I'm just about ready to put my essay online, so I'm ready to share this part near the beginning.

Classic Gothic Horror stories include the following elements.

A closer examination of the stories includes the following basic elements.

⦁ Myths and legends from medieval Europe that involved evil people and occult practices.
⦁ An evil character of European nobility, usually a count or baron descended from the feudal age.
⦁ The story is often set in the 18th or 19th century.
⦁ The location is an old castle or manor in disrepair with a village of superstitious "peasants" nearby.
⦁ The activities of the nobles usually involve occult practices or fringe science considered evil.
⦁ Death is prominently displayed in characters such as "Dracula" and "Frankenstein's Monster".

Given where my spooky Halloween thoughts took me, I dug deeper into this subject. I concluded that classic Gothic horror stories are based on the history of the Late Medieval Period in Europe between 1300 and 1500. These stories later developed into their present form during the fall of the European feudal system in the mid-1800s.

Chronological Overview

The Late Middle Ages (or Renaissance) began in 1300 and ended around 1500 with the end of the Feudal Age beginning after 1500 and concluding by the mid-1800s. Below is a chronology of major events during these periods.

⦁ Pope Clement V disbanded the Knights Templar in 1312.
⦁ The Black Death or bubonic plague peaked around 1350.
⦁ The Hundred Years' War lasted from 1337 to 1453.
⦁ French military leader Gilles de Rais mid-1400s.
⦁ Vlad the Impaler aka "Count Dracula" lived in the mid-1400s.
⦁ The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 and formally abolished in 1834.
⦁ The Countess "Dracula" Elizabeth Báthory of Hungary incident happened in the early 1500s.
⦁ End of feudalism 1500–1800s. Feudalism continued in Central and Eastern Europe until the 1850s.

. . . and this quote a little further along in the essay . . .

Gothic Horror monsters like Dracula and the Wolfman were born out of medieval lore, however, the heroes and some monsters are from the 1800s and even other cultures and times. It can be pointed out that monsters including Frankenstein's monster, zombies, and the mummy don't fit into medieval European history.

Although Frankenstein is not part of medieval European history, the story can be traced to the Golem of Prague legend from the late 1500s in Eastern Europe. Zombies from Haitian folklore were first recorded in 1819 in "A History of Brazil" by poet Robert Southey. "Egyptomania" was a period of intense interest in ancient Egypt during the nineteenth century making mummies a big craze. So, if not directly traced back to medieval Europe, all these Gothic Horror monsters are related to the 19th century at the end of the feudal age.

I'll include a link to the complete essay once I code the pages and get them on the website. 

I have the essay down to around 900 words. I could flesh it out a little and should edit it according to the manual of style so I don't screw up topic sentences or forget supporting paragraphs or leave off a conclusion, all that English teacher stuff. I also need to look over my sources to provide links for the information, even look for better sources than websites like Wikipedia (or what have you).

Here is a link from the NY Public Library that talks about the literature and lists the most famous books from the 1800s.

A Brief History of Gothic Horror