Types of Vampires: Strigoii, Strigoi Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who knew this one particular type of Vampire would be so popular? Ever since I wrote the first article based on research done by popular resources, (see my book list) my inbox became filled with emails offering up first hand knowledge because they have either worked in Romania or have lived there. So part 2 of this article will be about the knowledge and the very interesting people I have permission to name and about those who prefer to remain nameless.

Now…brace yourself…

Are you ready?

Are you sure?

 

 

 

 

Ok, here’s the scoop….it turns out that the Strigoii Vampire is NOT a Vampire at all—in Romania that is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you believe that?

How the hell did this happen?

How did all these encyclopedias and books concerning demons, monsters and things that go bump in the night be wrong?

 

I honestly do not know. I think somewhere along the way, something would have happened to these Authors that happened to me…someone from Romania or someone who had done a documentary would have emailed them, called them, SOMETHING…to let them know that “Hey, they are not Vampires man! Rewrite it!!!!”

Is it impossible to screw this information up? Nope. When I found out the real scoop, I thought about Bram Stoker who miswrote the meaning of Nosferatu all because the resource he used also defined the creature wrong.

And that’s what did happen to me. My resources were wrong…and not only that…the majority of the resources out there are WRONG.

I was first contacted by Myky (if you check my comments under the first article). And turns out, even though Myky, or Mihaela, doesn’t speak English to well, had a first hand knowledge of these creatures called Strigoi.  Now to avoid any confusion or misinterpretation, I am going to paste exactly what she said…(remember, she doesn’t speak English to well)

I will try to explain you the nature of the strigoi. I think there will be spelling mistakes, because like I told you the other day, I’m learning, haha.
Strigoi are alive creatures with the appereance of normal people. The strigoi are different people. When a baby borns with a kind of skin cap on his/her head, and the baby eats that skin, it means that that baby is a strigoi. While they live, they are normal people, but when they die (I mean when their body die, because their soul doesn’t die unless you fix a stake in its heart), they consume the soul of the most beloved person who the strigoi loved while he was alive. I don’t know if you understand me, sorry for the bad explanation. Like I said before, they consume the soul of the person they loved, and sometimes, the soul of the person beloved by the strigoi falls so ill, that the person dies. So that consummation can be manifested by diseases. In order to kill the soul of the strigoi, it is necessary to fix a stake to the dead body in the heart. Also there is another way of killing his(its) soul which I do not remember…sorry. If you kill his soul, the consummation of the soul of the dear person it won’t happen. I think that’s all. Once more: sorry for the spelling mistakes haha, I hope that this information it will help you. All I have been telling you are the things that my grandmother told me. Remember that this is the truth about strigoi, and this truth is less spectacular that the lies about the strigoi, there are no bats and no drinkers of blood.

See you soon, Mihaela.

Now interestingly enough, after Mihaela gave me that information…another person emailed me. His name is Justin Blair. Turns out that he has created a Documentary on the subject. And again, just so I do not misinterpreted, I will paste what he said…

I was reading your blog entry about strigoi.  I had some comments.  First, let me say that I am a documentary filmmaker and I just released my first film.  It was actually filmed in Transylvania (Ardeal in Romanian).  I spent seven months there collecting folklore stories about the supernatural.  So, I have done a lot of research, in books as well as on the ground in Romania concerning these topics.

I think a lot of what you have written is very accurate, first of all.  Strigoii with two "i" s is simply the way the Romanians pluralize the word.  So strigoi is singular.

Now, as to the shapshifting characteristics of the strigoi, it is true this is possible, though a bat is not one of the animals that is usually mentioned.  We have a story about a strigoi being transformed into a wolf actually in the movie.  Though there is also a kind of entity known to the Romanians called a varcolaci or pricolici which is a kind of were-wolf or were-dog.

You say that the story about the cow seems silly, but you have to understand the context.  Romania is very very poor, so a fatal attack on livestock is essentially a potentially fatal attack on the person or family. Sucking the blood from a cow, could mean no protein for the family for a long winter and could result in death.  It does seem silly to us in America, but it is very serious when life is lived close to the bone.  We actually have a story in our movie about an attack on a woman’s livestock.  You wouldn’t believe the measures she took to rid herself of this strigoi.  (And you are correct that strigoaca is the feminine version, but for the most part they just use strigoi while talking.)

Well, there is a lot to write actually, but I am very tired.  If you want to check out the film, there is a trailer on the website and you can get the DVD from there.  www.acrosstheforest.com The comment by Miky is too harsh.  You are right about quite a lot, if there is even a "right" concerning such matters.  I have read some of the accounts you probably read.  I had to actually go there to get the whole story.  And it is a strange story indeed.  (Plus, Miky is a Hungarian name, which means he is probably more accustomed to the Hungarian version of the strigoi.  A lot of ethnic Hungarians live in Transylvania.)

I would be happy to correspond with you more on this matter.  You can also check out an interview I just did on darkplainsradio.com KLMT is the radio show, it is under archived shows.

Sincerely,

Justin Blair

www.acrosstheforest.com

Now I emailed Justin back explaining why I thought sucking the milk from a cow was so funny. Sometimes, these superstitions, even though people take them seriously, sound more like something that someone made up to bring about fear in the villagers. I mean why would a Vampire suck the milk from a cow? So Justin corrected me on that as well…

Well, blood and mil are related in the sense that they are literally the vitality of the animal, and thus the vitality of the humans that depend on the animals for meat, milk, etc..

Now, the strigoi is not exactly a vampire.  It shares a lot of characteristics of what we would call a ghost.  Bram Stoker essentially popularized the idea of the vampire in the West, though there were actually other authors predating "Dracula" that dealt with a similiear entity.  He made his character a composite of Vlad Tepes and the romanian ethnological accounts he found in the London library, plus some imagination.

The strigoi is a big big subject and our film deals with it in a lot of detail.  In the film we do have a lady who claims to have killed a strigoi with a "stake" through the heart.  Not actually a stake, but I will not go into the detail, because I don’t want to ruin the story for you if you get the movie.

There are strigoii that act like ghosts, haunting, making noises, but fairly harmless.  There are strigoi that kill animals and there are strigoi that kill people.  There are strigoi vii and strgoi mort.  that is simply strigoi that are alive and strigoi that are dead.  It’s very complicated really and there are no set rules since each individual community sees things a little differently.

I hope you get a chance to look at the film.  I think you will really enjoy it and possibly find some material in the interviews about these subjects to use in your work.  It covers all kinds of supernatural creatures in Transilvania including were-creatures and forest spirits.

As far as other subjects, my curiosity is wide ranging.  So, right now I am reading a lot of Joseph Campbell who is the first person to create comparitive mythology.  I am working through the multi-volume "Masks of God" series now.  I practice martial arts, bartend, like to travel.  All kinds of stuff.

Sorry, it took so long to get back to you.  It’s been hectic lately.  Check out our blog on the website www.acrosstheforest.com if ou want to hear some of the interviews I have been doing recently.  The darkness on the edge of town show is probably the best I have done so far.

Sincerely,

Justin Blair

And there you have it…Part 2 to the whole Strigoi confusion. I highly recommend you check out the film by Justin. By what he emailed me, he is very wise concerning all of this.  So I thank Justin and Miky for contacting me and giving me their input…now hopefully these books that publish this stuff can correct it as well!!!!! I know my fiction will be.