Strigoi

For the 2009 film, see Strigoi (film).

In Romanian mythology, strigoi (English: striga, poltergeist) are the troubled souls of the dead rising from the grave. Some strigoi can be living people with certain magical properties. Some of the properties of the strigoi include: the ability to transform into an animal, invisibility, and the propensity to drain the vitality of victims via blood loss. Strigoi are also known as immortal vampires.

History

Origin

According to Adrien Cremene, strigoi date back to the Dacians. The strigoi are creatures of Dacian mythology, evil spirits, the spirits of the dead whose actions made them unworthy of entering the kingdom of Zalmoxis. As these stories were transmitted only by oral tradition, legend has lost its original substance, and Romanians have transformed strigoi into bloodthirsty creatures.

Middle Ages

See also: Jure Grando

The Croatian Jure Grando, who died in 1656, was the first vampire whose existence is documented. In his native Istria, he was called strigoi, a local dialect word to describe a vampire. He terrorized the villagers until beheaded in 1672.

See also: Petar Blagojevich

A Serbian peasant named Petar Blagojevich, who died in 1725, was believed to become an authentic strigoi after his death. Blagojevich came back to his house to haunt his own son and demand food, but the son refused, so Blagojevich brutally murdered him.

Belle Époque

In 1909, Franz Hartmann mentions in his book An Authenticated Vampire Story that peasant children from a village in the Carpathian Mountains started to die mysteriously. The villagers began to suspect a recently deceased count was a vampire, dwelling in his old fortress. Frightened villagers burned the castle to stop the deaths.

Under communism

In his book In Search of Dracula, The History of Dracula and Vampires, Radu Florescu mentions an event in 1969 in the city of Căpăţâneni, where after the death of an old man, several family members began to die in suspicious circumstances. Unearthed, the corpse did not show signs of decomposition, his eyes were wide open, the face was red and twisted in the coffin. The corpse was burned to save his soul.

In 1970, a series of hideous crimes shocked Bucharest. The attacks took place at midnight during rainstorms. The victims were usually waitresses returning home from work. In 1971, Ion Rîmaru was arrested and identified by teeth marks on the corpses. During the trial he was in a state of continual drowsiness. He was interrogated at night because he was not lucid at any other time. During daylight hours, Rîmaru was intractably lethargic. Sentenced to death, Rîmaru became violently agitated. Several policemen were needed to restrain him. After the execution, Rîmaru's father died in a suspicious accident. During the investigation of the accident, it was discovered that the father's fingerprints matched those of a serial killer active in 1944 whose crimes looked remarkably similar to those of Ion Rîmaru. The similarities included the weather conditions and similar or identical names of some of the victims. It was rumored that the accident was engineered by the Securitate, who decided to eliminate the dangerous individual.

During the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the corpse of Nicolae Ceaușescu did not receive a proper burial. This made the ghost of the former dictator a threat in the minds of superstitious Romanians. Noted revolutionary Gelu Voican carpeted the apartment of the Conducător with braids of garlic. This is a traditional remedy against the strigoi.

Today

Before Christmas 2003, in the village of Marotinu de Sus, a 76-year-old Romanian man named Petre Toma died. In February 2004, a niece of the deceased revealed that she had been visited by her late uncle. Gheorghe Marinescu, a brother-in-law, became the leader of a vampire hunting group made up of several family members. After drinking some alcohol, they dug up the coffin of Petre Toma, made an incision in his chest, and tore the heart out. After removal of the heart, the body was burned and the ashes mixed in water and drunk by the family, as is customary. However, the Romanian government anxious to maintain a good image in preparation for the country's accession to the European Union had banned this practice, and six family members were arrested by the police of Craiova from Dolj County for "disturbing the peace of the dead", and were imprisoned and sentenced to pay damages to the family of the deceased. Since then, in the nearby village of Amărăştii de Sus, people drive a fire-hardened stake through the heart or belly of the dead as a "preventative".

Etymology

The name strigoi is related to the Romanian verb a striga, which in Romanian means scream. The writer Romulus Vulcanescu has found a Latin origin of the name strigoi. He argues that the name is related to the Latin term strigosus meaning "skinny", a term found in Strigeidida. Another theory relates Strigoi to the Italian word Strega which means "witch" and the Greek word Strigx. In French, stryge means a bird-woman who sucks the blood of children. Jules Verne used the term "stryges" in Chapter II of his novel The Castle of the Carpathians, published in 1892.

Different types of strigoi

Tudor Pamfile in his book Mitologie românească compiles all appellations of strigoi in Romania strâgoi, Moroi in western Transylvania, Wallachia and Oltenia, vidmă in Bucovina, vârcolacul, Cel-rau, or vampire.

The strigoaică

A strigoaică (singular feminine form) is a witch.

The strigoi viu

The strigoi viu (living strigoi) is a kind of sorcerer. According to Adrian Cremene, in his book Mythology of the vampire in Romania, the living strigoi steals the wealth of farmers, that is to say, wheat and milk. But it can also stop the rain, drop hail and give death to men and cattle.

The strigoi mort

The strigoi mort (dead strigoi) is much more dangerous. Its nature is ambiguous, both human and demonic. He emerges from his grave, returns to his family and behaves as in his lifetime, while weakening his relatives until they die in their turn.

Becoming a strigoi

The encyclopedist Dimitrie Cantemir and the folklorist Teodor Burada in his book Datinile Poporului român la înmormântări published in 1882 refer to cases of strigoism. The strigoi can be a living man, born under certain conditions:

• Be the seventh child of the same sex in a family;
• Lead a life of sin
• Die without being married…
  • …by execution for perjury
  • …by suicide
  • …having been cursed by a witch.

According to Ionna Andreesco, in his book Where are the vampires? published in 1997, children born with a caul atop their head will become strigoi to their death.

Prevention

File:Simion Florea Marian - Inmormantarea la romani, 1892.png

Inmormantarea la romani (Romanian burial) written by Simion Florea Marian

In 1887, French geographer Élisée Reclus details the burials in Romania: "if the deceased has red hair, he is very concerned that he was back in the form of dog, frog, flea or bedbug, and that it enters into houses at night to suck the blood of beautiful young girls. So it is prudent to nail the coffin heavily, or, better yet, a stake through the chest of the corpse. "

Simeon Florea Marian in Înmormântarea la români (1892) describes another preventive method, unearthing and beheading then re-interring the corpse and head face down.

The Dracula Scrapbook by Peter Haining, published by New English Library editions in 1976, reported that the meat of pig killed on the day of St. Ignatius is a good way to guard against vampire, according to Romanian legend.

In popular culture

See also: Strigoi in popular culture

A poem named Strigoii by Gheorghe Coşbuc :

Creştinii câţi nu dorm, cu spaimă cheamă

Pe maica lui Hristos şi-aprind grăbit

Tămâie şi usturoi pe-un vas de aramă

Ea singură-n căscioară, biata mamă

Stă chip înmărmurit…

(The Christians that are awake, with fear they call / The Mother of Christ and-light rushed / Incense and garlic on a bronze vessel / She's single in the lodge, poor mother / image sits stunned...)

Strigoi can also be found as monsters in the book series Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead as well as in the spin-off series, Bloodlines. The strigoi are the evil, undead vampires who feed off of humans and moroi, the peaceful vampires. Dhampirs, half humans and half vampires, train to protect the moroi from strigoi. In the series, a strigoi can turn a human, dhampir, or moroi into a strigoi. A Moroi can turn themselves strigoi without assistance from a strigoi by feeding off of a human or dhampir and killing them.

Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain book, comic, and TV series vampires are loosely based on the mythology of the strigoi

See also

• Moroi
• Shtriga
• Strzyga
• Suangi
• Vǎrkolak
• Strigoi in popular culture
• Burial at cross-roads
• List of ghosts
• Christmas in Romania § Advent
• Folklore of Romania

Further reading

• Perkowski, Jan Lois (1998). "footnote 10 in 'The Romanian Folkloric Vampire'". In Dundes, Alan. The Vampire: a Casebook. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-299-15924-5.  citing Cantemir, Dimitrie (1714). "Striga". Descriptio Moldaviae (in Latin). 
• Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (2004). "Strigoi". The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters. New York: Facts on File. pp. 268–270. ISBN 978-0-8160-4684-3. 

External links

• Across the Forest, a documentary that interviews Transylvanian villagers about their experiences with strigoi, pricolici, and mama padurii.
• (Romanian) Julia Maria Cristea, "Noaptea Strigoilor—Noaptea Sfântului Andrei" (Strigois' Night—St. Andrew's Night), Revista Agero.
• Tom Harris. How Vampires Work § Later Vampires at HowStuffWorks. This section of the vampire article contains a drawing of a strigo and a discussion of the strigoi's characteristics.

pl:Strzyga