Types of Vampires: Strigoii, Strigoi

Written by C.H. Scarlett

The Strigoii or  also spelt Strigoi are one of my favorite types of Vampires to write about or discuss aside from one more which I won’t reveal just yet. They are the most  popular and common species of Romania and believe it or not, have been the foundation for the imagination of many writers and their novels. There are two types of Strigoii, living and dead. We will be discussing both.

Males are called Strigoii, Strigoi which come from the Latin word Strix. (Striges–plural) These types of vampires can change or Shape-shift into a flying mammal. (Now we know how Dracula turns into a bat. Is it possible that he was a Strigoii?)

Dead Strigoii were those who died unforgiven of something, sins but usually by parents. Those who died before they wed were also high candidates to become Strigoii. If a cat walked over a dead body or the person died filled with pain or having regrets, they to became Strigoii. Precautions had to be taken which are as thick and heavy of a list as ways to become one. But you could bet your bottom dollar a priest would have to be involved, some form of decapitation and cremation.

If the name Strigoii is referred to someone who is living then it would mean that person was a witch, wizard and or made this their means of employment. Funny enough, much of what I have read on these creatures, it seems that some lore suggests that the living Strigoii were a good thing. In fact, they could use their magic to protect humans, particularly children, from being harmed by a dead Strigoii. But every source has its own meaning or version. In some, a living Strigoi was a witch who did favors for a dead Strigoii by way of magic and sooner or later, would become Vampire for their services.

In Romania, a  female is called a Strigoica or Strigoaica. She can be either dead or living. If she is living then she is a witch, can shape-shift and has great power. During life, she takes power from anything having life so when she dies, she then turns into a dead Vampire. Priests often warned women to harness this ability they easily had or else after life, they would be severely punished for it by becoming a vampire.

The stories seem rather silly but it seems these women (living) were obsessed with milk and cows. They would suck all the milk from these cows so that no one else had any.

In one story, a Strigoica had no cow of her own so she got herself a wooden one. With her magic she would milk this wooden cow and the milk from everyone else’s cow would magically come through hers. She was so obsessed with milking her wooden cow that neighbors started to complain to the local priest. He investigated the matter and found the woman milking her wooden cow morning, noon and night. So the priest had the girl make butter from the milk she had bewitched from the wooden creature. He then told her to go out into the forest one morning and throw the butter on a tree.

“In three days,” he told her, “Go back to that tree and tell me what you find.”

She did what the old priest said and in three days was horrified by what she found. When she returned to the tree she saw different kinds of serpents and all kinds of horrible creatures slithering around and eating up the butter. When she ran back to the priest, frightened nearly to death, he warned her what would happen if she continued her naughty ways. “If you keep stealing the life from this world then those creatures will suck your blood for all eternity in the next!.” He warned. And that seemed warning and moral enough to frighten many a congregation.

Something even more interesting in these stories is that Vampires, Evil Witches, Werewolves or whatever else that went bump in the night, were not forced to return to their graves at dawn but rather at 3 am in the morning.

So those of you who awake at 3 am each night for no reason in your beds…are you returning to your mortal bodies which just might be the form of your graves in this life? (Insert Vincent Price evil laughter here—Muahahahahahahaha!)

Part Two Coming Soon!!!

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