1. Etymology

2. Historiography
     Early reports  Modern writings  Communist era  Post-communist era 

3. Mythology
    Creation  Types   Prevention & protection  

4. Other uses

5. See also

6. References

7. Further reading

8. External links

Etymology

Strigoi originated from the Latin terms strix and striga,^[3] the root of which relates particularly to owls and commonly appears in related taxonomic terms for them as well as for blood parasites such as the Strigeidida. Cognates are found throughout the Romance languages, such as the Italian word strega or the Venetian word strìga which mean "witch". 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. The Greek word Strix and the Albanian word shtriga are also cognate.

In the late Roman period the word became associated with witches or a type of ill-omened nocturnal flying creature. A strix (Late Latin striga, Greek στρίγξ), referred to night-time entities that craved human flesh and blood, particularly infants.^[4]

The name strigoi is related to the Romanian verb a striga, which in Romanian means "to scream".

Historiography

Early reports

One of the earliest mentions of a historical strigoi was Jure Grando Alilović (1579 – 1656) from the region of Istria (in modern-day Croatia). The villager is believed to have been the first real person described as a vampire because he was referred to as a strigoi, štrigon or štrigun in contemporary local records.^[5] Grando is supposed to have terrorised his former village sixteen years after his death. Eventually he was decapitated by the local priest and villagers. The Carniolan scientist Janez Vajkard Valvasor wrote about Jure Grando Alilović's life and afterlife in his extensive work The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola when he visited Kringa during his travels.^[6][7] This was the first written document on vampires.^[8] Grando was also mentioned in writings by Erasmus Francisci and Johann Joseph von Goerres (La mystique divine, naturelle, et diabolique, Paris 1855), whose story was much more elaborate, full of fantastic details to make the story more interesting and sensational. In modern times, Croatian writer Boris Perić has researched the legend and written a book (The Vampire) on the story.^[7]

Striga are mentioned by the Moldavian statesman and soldier, Dimitrie Cantemir, in his work the Descriptio Moldaviae (1714–1716). He thought that the striga were mostly Moldavian and Transylvanian beliefs. However, he associated them with witches or warlocks rather than blood-drinking undead vampires. The book ascribes dunking - a traditional test for witchcraft - as a method of identifying Striga.

Modern writings

An 1865 article on Transylvanian folklore by Wilhelm Schmidt describes the strigoi as nocturnal creatures that preyed on infants. He reports a tradition in which, upon the birth of a child, one tosses a stone behind oneself and exclaims "this into the mouth of the strigoi!"^[9]

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.^[10]

Communist era

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.^[11]

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.^[12]

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.^[13]

Post-communist era

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.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}} 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",^[14] 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".^[15] The six who exhumed the body were charged and sentenced to six months time served.^[16]

Mythology

Creation

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
• Die by execution for perjury
• Die by suicide
• Die from a witches curse

Types

Tudor Pamfile in his book Mitologie românească compiles all appellations of strigoi in Romania strâgoi, Moroi^[17][18] in western Transylvania, Wallachia and Oltenia, vidmă^[19] in Bucovina, vârcolacul, Cel-rau, or vampire. The types described are:

• Strigoaică: a witch.^[20]
• Strigoi viu: a living strigoi or sorcerer.
• Strigoi mort: a dead strigoi are the most dangerous. They emerge from their graves in order to torment their families until their relatives die.

Prevention & protection

In 1887, French geographer Élisée Reclus details 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. "^[21]

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

There is a known method used by Romanis to get rid of a strigoi as explained on the show Lost Tapes:

1. Exhume the strigoi.
2. Remove its heart and cut it in two.
3. Drive a nail in its forehead.
4. Place a clove of garlic under its tongue.
5. Smear its body with fat of a pig killed on St. Ignatius' Day.
6. Turn its body face down so that if the strigoi were ever to wake up it would be headed to the afterlife.

Other uses

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

References

Further reading

• {{cite book |first1=Jan Lois |last1=Perkowski |authorlink=Jan L. Perkowski |chapter=footnote 10 in 'The Romanian Folkloric Vampire' |chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=PpTWQDc0dqEC&pg=PA46 |year=1998 |editor1-first=Alan |editor1-last=Dundes |title=The Vampire: a Casebook |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison |page=46 |isbn=978-0-299-15924-5}} citing {{cite book |first=Dimitrie |last=Cantemir |authorlink=Dimitrie Cantemir |year=1714 |chapter=Striga |title=Descriptio Moldaviae|language=Latin|title-link=:s:la:Descriptio Moldaviae }}
• {{cite book |first=Rosemary Ellen |last=Guiley |authorlink=Rosemary Ellen Guiley |year=2004 |chapter=Strigoi |title=The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters |publisher=Facts on File |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8160-4684-3 |pages=268–270}}

External links

• Across the Forest, a documentary that interviews Transylvanian villagers about their experiences with strigoi, pricolici, and mama padurii.
• {{HowStuffWorks|page=vampire3|name=How Vampires Work § Later Vampires|author=Tom Harris}}. This section of the vampire article contains a drawing of a strigo and a discussion of the strigoi's characteristics.

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