The Origin of Spooky Halloween Monsters

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

@MSB

"Although Frankenstein is not part of medieval European history"

Yeah, but there was that whole bizarre bit with Homunculi, trying to kick start artificial human-like life.

A good read is Vallée's "Passport to Magonia", which covers stories of medieval abductions by monsters, although his look is more of a tying of those events to modern UFO/entity encounters.

Cheers

Here is what Wiki says about the homunculus

. . . Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human.

. . . During medieval and early modern times, it was thought that homunculus, an artificial humanlike being, could be created through alchemy.[1] The homunculus first appears by name in alchemical writings attributed to Paracelsus (1493–1541).

The similarities are there, science creating life more or less, and the era is perfect. If it wasn't for the fact that humunculi are very small humanoids and Frankenstein's monster was very large, I'd say that is the origin of Franky. It may have contributed to the story though, I'll include a reference to it.