The Regional Anthem of Visaria
There is a land where winter skies,
Resound with wolf and vulture cries,
Thunder and lightening paint the clouds,
those dark grey clouds.
Where misty swamps and mountain crags,
Are crowned with bats and alpine stags,
And here we sing before that ancient flag,
Visaria, Visaria, Visaria
Resound with wolf and vulture cries,
Thunder and lightening paint the clouds,
those dark grey clouds.
Where misty swamps and mountain crags,
Are crowned with bats and alpine stags,
And here we sing before that ancient flag,
Visaria, Visaria, Visaria
(Translated from the High German).
The Forgotten Land of Visaria
As I was growing up there were many ancient lands spoken of by my family. My mother and father told me about our family origins in the UK. There were stories passed down about my Cornish, Irish, Scottish and English ancestors and the way they forged a new life in Australia. Then I married into a German family and began to learn about a whole lot of places on the other side of the English Channel, such as Switzerland, Austria, and Bavaria. Eventually I met someone from Transylvania and read up on the histories of that ancient land and the tales of the infamous Prince Dracula and Countess Bathory. However amongst all this discussion of European regions, there was one land that no one ever talked about.
Visaria
It was In the 1980's I first heard the name of the mystical land of Visaria. This forgotten region is little known by many and its mention is only found in important film texts from the 1940's. The occasion of my first hearing of Visaria was on Peter Goers' Late Night Horror Show on Channel 10, Adelaide, South Australia. That evening he was presenting a screening of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), the first meeting of two Universal monsters in one film. As a child, cartoons and other programs had convinced me that it was Transylvania that was the scene of the Universal Monster's horrible supernatural crimes but here I began to see otherwise. Visaria, this land of 'hills, mountains,..forests (Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)', and festive villagers, was also a mecca for mad scientists and monsters alike.
Document 1: Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
The first document to reveal the existence of the region was The Ghost of Frankenstein. It begins with the villagers of Frankenstein deciding to blow up Frankenstein Castle, left deserted by the Frankenstein family for many years since the last appearance of the monster (The Son of Frankenstein (1939). The only occupant of the Castle is Ygor (Bela Lugosi), the hunchbacked friend of the monster. It is while the castle is being demolished that Ygor finds the still living creature (Lon Chaney Jr) encased in sulfur. The creature had been pushed into the castle's basement sulfur pit many years before by Henry Frankenstein's first son, Wolf (Basil Rathbone). As the castle explodes,Ygor and the Monster escape through the wilderness to find Henry Frankenstein's second son, Dr Ludwig Frankenstein (Cedric Hardwicke). Ludwig is a brain surgeon extraordinaire who has set up practice in Visaria, a peaceful town at the foot of the Alps, fond of singing, dancing and spontaneous village mobs. It is at this point that the location of the Frankenstein saga moves from the Village of Frankenstein to the Visarian region.
Document 3: House of Frankenstein (1944)
In Document 3, the Monster (Glenn Strange) and the Wolf Man are found frozen in the bowels of the original Frankenstein Castle. The icy discovery is made by the insidious Visarian scientist , Dr Gustav Neimann (Boris Karloff) and his hunchbacked assistant Daniel (J. Carrol Naish). This is remarkable seeing as they were last seen battling in Ludwig's castle in Visaria, a town shown here as being some 152 km away by road. The ruins of the original Castle Frankenstein appear with a ruined dam wall reminiscent of Ludwig's Castle. At this point it could be suggested that the writers have actually fiddled with the details put forward in the previous installment to serve their new narrative direction. Perish the thought. An analysis of the details in the text suggest that there may have been ancient tunnels and glacial caverns linking the two ancestral fortresses of the Frankenstein family. The villages of Frankenstein and Visaria were geographically close, separated by an alpine ridge that can be crossed on foot or by a 152 km journey by road through the nearest alpine pass. When the dam was destroyed in Visaria, the Monster and the Wolf Man were washed through the subterranean tunnels into the cavern below the ruins of the original Frankenstein Castle. This explosion also overwhelmed the second dam wall on the Frankenstein village side. This dam was once a prime example of the rare double wall dam design unique to Visarian/Frankensteinian alpine architecture. It also a prime example of the needs of alpine experimental brain surgeons driving hydroelectric technology.
Document 4: House of Dracula (1945)
It's in Document 4 that we discover that Visaria is also located in a coastal region. Here we are introduced to Doctor Franz Edelmann (Onslow Stevens), another Visarian brain surgeon, whose house and practice are situated near the Visarian coast. The action starts when Count Dracula (John Carradine) arrives at Edelmann's house claiming to seek a cure for his vampirism. Not long after, Lawrence Talbot, the Wolf Man, also arrives looking for an answer to his supernatural curse. Before long Dr Edelmann is vampirised by Dracula and Lawrence Talbot tries to end his life by throwing himself into the ocean. While rescuing the Wolf Man from his failed watery suicide, the skeletal remains of Doctor Niemann and a dormant Frankenstein Monster are found in a coastal cave. The Monster and Dr Niemann had met their demise in the previous installment by sinking into a pool of quick sand, eventually emerging in the cave. Soon Dracula is dead, Dr Edelmann has turned into a homicidal mad scientist vampire and the Monster is laid out in the laboratory ready to be revived. When the curtain comes down on this installment the house is in flames as a hostile village mob storms the premises to send the Universal monsters to a fiery demise.
The House of Dracula is the last we hear of Visaria. Soon the Universal Monsters had shifted to America and left their European homelands far behind (Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). But where is this region of Visaria to be found and how does one book a holiday there? When we look at an atlas some related landmarks jump out. First of all there is Castle Frankenstein located in the west of Germany in the State of Hesse and the Village of Frankenstein located to the east in the State of Saxony. In the South there are the Alps located in the State of Bavaria and the ocean in the far north. As exciting as it is to pinpoint these places, it becomes quickly apparent that the region Visaria is a geographical impossibility. Visaria is located in a fictional Germany of the imagination. It is found in a 1940's American dream of a Europe that is free of war and where the only evil to be found is of supernatural and fantastic origin. In Visaria there are no jackboots only the asphalt-spreader's boots of the Frankenstein monster. In this far off land the only bullets fired are those of silver and not of Nazi lead. In the wartime Europe of the imagination, mad scientists are obsessed with creating artificial life and not death on a massive scale. The only way to holiday in Visaria is to find a copy of these cinema classics, grab some popcorn and while away the hours in the company of The Monster, The Count, The Wolf Man and the feistiest village mob this side of Transylvania. Faro-La, Faro-Li!
The Universal Frankenstein Series
Frankenstein (1931)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
House of Dracula (1945)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Document 1: Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
The first document to reveal the existence of the region was The Ghost of Frankenstein. It begins with the villagers of Frankenstein deciding to blow up Frankenstein Castle, left deserted by the Frankenstein family for many years since the last appearance of the monster (The Son of Frankenstein (1939). The only occupant of the Castle is Ygor (Bela Lugosi), the hunchbacked friend of the monster. It is while the castle is being demolished that Ygor finds the still living creature (Lon Chaney Jr) encased in sulfur. The creature had been pushed into the castle's basement sulfur pit many years before by Henry Frankenstein's first son, Wolf (Basil Rathbone). As the castle explodes,Ygor and the Monster escape through the wilderness to find Henry Frankenstein's second son, Dr Ludwig Frankenstein (Cedric Hardwicke). Ludwig is a brain surgeon extraordinaire who has set up practice in Visaria, a peaceful town at the foot of the Alps, fond of singing, dancing and spontaneous village mobs. It is at this point that the location of the Frankenstein saga moves from the Village of Frankenstein to the Visarian region.
Document 2: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
In Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man we discover that Ludwig's sanitarium is also known as Frankenstein's Castle and that there is a mountain stream that runs beneath the castle and drives the turbines that power the laboratory. This stream is dammed, the wall of which can be seen adjacent to the castle. This dam is eventually blown up in an attempt to kill the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr) and the Monster (Bela Lugosi), washing the remains of Ludwig's castle away. It's in this movie that we get exposed to Visaria's wonderful alpine culture with its depiction of a boisterous village festival. We also get to hear a rousing rendition of the the Visarian folk song 'Faro-la Faro-li'.
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| The could be one of the quaint rustic streets of Visaria, the location of many a village festival. . |
Document 3: House of Frankenstein (1944)
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| This could be a surviving watchtower from Dr Ludwig Frankenstein's Castle. |
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| Visaria, a land of hills, mountains and forests. |
It's in Document 4 that we discover that Visaria is also located in a coastal region. Here we are introduced to Doctor Franz Edelmann (Onslow Stevens), another Visarian brain surgeon, whose house and practice are situated near the Visarian coast. The action starts when Count Dracula (John Carradine) arrives at Edelmann's house claiming to seek a cure for his vampirism. Not long after, Lawrence Talbot, the Wolf Man, also arrives looking for an answer to his supernatural curse. Before long Dr Edelmann is vampirised by Dracula and Lawrence Talbot tries to end his life by throwing himself into the ocean. While rescuing the Wolf Man from his failed watery suicide, the skeletal remains of Doctor Niemann and a dormant Frankenstein Monster are found in a coastal cave. The Monster and Dr Niemann had met their demise in the previous installment by sinking into a pool of quick sand, eventually emerging in the cave. Soon Dracula is dead, Dr Edelmann has turned into a homicidal mad scientist vampire and the Monster is laid out in the laboratory ready to be revived. When the curtain comes down on this installment the house is in flames as a hostile village mob storms the premises to send the Universal monsters to a fiery demise.
Where is Visaria?
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The Universal Frankenstein Series
Frankenstein (1931)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
House of Dracula (1945)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Well, it's only been 10 years since your 'Visaria' essay appeared, but it speaks to the heart of my inner child, who grew up immersed in these wonderful, mythic narratives. They were full of high art, if low theater - fantastic acting, truly inspired music by gifted composers, one of whom - Hans J. Salter (The Wolf Man, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns) became a lifelong friend, and Frank Skinner (also 'The Wolf Man' & 'Invisible Man Returns, & "Son of Frankenstein; and I too became a composer. But back to your admirable attempt to ameliorate the anomalies in Tyrolean geography. . .the much simpler, truer solution is not the ingenious and complex one of having the ice-bound bodies of The Monster & the Wolf Man glacially drifting from Visaria to Frankenstein, but in realizing that either Curt Siodmak or script writer Edward T. Lowe slipped up in notating the road sign in 'House of Frankenstein' as Niemann & Co. make their way out of Reigleburg - for it should have read 'Visaria' 1 km. . .which would make everything so simple and right - i.e., in 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man' (Visaria) the chateau once inhabited by Ludwig & Elsa Frankenstein and torched at the end of 'Ghost of Frankenstein' is exactly where the Wolf Man finds himself after being hunted by the torchlight parade of villagers, falling through the floor and into the ice cavern. And this is where their battle royale takes place - Visaria! Thus, when Niemann and Daniel come along and are told by the gendarme of the dynamiting of the dam 'sweeping the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man to their destruction' - he is recounting what occurred in FMTWM - still all in Visaria - (the hell with the misleading 'Frankenstein' road sign!) No frozen bodies floated or flew or drifted anywhere but into the bowels of the castle foundation. Thus it was that the Monster & Niemann conveniently oozed through the watershed into the aquifers of the inland sea below Dr. Edelmann's castle, and why Larry Talbot was still in town to seek out the good doctor. All your hard cerebral work because some village prankster decided to post an April Fool's road sign saying 'Frankenstein' instead of Visaria! But love your map, and your attempts to delineate location and culture. Interesting journey for Larry - first Llanwelly Village, Wales. . .then, in FMTWM, Llanwelly to Cardiff, throughout much of Western Europe (as described by Dr. Mannering) seeking out Maleva's clan, with her finally bringing him to Visaria to see Ludwig Frankenstein (Diseases of the Mind), only to find him dead. In Visaria he stayed after his Great Battle with the Monster, and so we are only left to explain that Niemann, in his eagerness to prevent the Monster from decaying, need not have said to Daniel, 'We need to get him to Visaria as soon as possible', because they were already in Central Visaria, whereas his laboratory was in the hill country of 'Greater Visaria', several kilometers distant. Thus it was that Dr. Edelmann, in recounting the HOF narrative to Larry Talbot in the cave, says, 'As the story goes. . .' clearly telling us that he is telling a local- rather than a remote - happening. And then, all's well that ends well. Thanks for your scholarship, though. A noble effort!
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