Strigoi

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Strigoi (derived from the Latin : strix ; German : night-eared owl - a blood-sucking bird after a Roman old wives' tale ) is, according to a film from 2008, a variation in the Romanian , once Transylvanian folklore of the vampire Upir.

According to the forensic biologist Mark Benecke (2007), “Strigoi” is a condition that already exists in some people, but of which these people are not aware. The Strigoi behaved like normal people all their lives, with the exception of one night a year. On the night of the holiday of St. Andrew , who is also known in Romania as the Lord of the Wolves, these people, who are Strigoi, would get up at midnight, leave the house and meet other Strigoi at crossroads. Here they fought until they "woke up" from their state at sunrise. The people no longer know anything about the events of the night, they can no longer remember anything.

The weapon the Strigoi used to fight each other is called “Meletoi” in Romanian , a kitchen appliance that can be found in old houses in the countryside. So that the Strigoi would not take them and injure them accordingly, the farmers hid the "Meletoi" on the evening before the holiday of St. Andrew.

The superstition about the Strigoi, which grandmothers and mothers tell every child in the country or in the city in Romania, is still widespread today. In 2005, residents of the village of Marotinu de Sus in south-western Romania removed an alleged Strigoi from his grave, cut the heart from the corpse, burned it, dissolved the ashes in water and drank the solution. The case attracted international attention, but it is not verifiable.

Differences from other vampires

Vampires were commonly called strigoi in the areas of Transylvania , Wallachia and Moldova and, in contrast to Upir and the Greek vampires, the Wrukolakas , are exclusively human and non-demonic souls who have returned from the dead.

Unlife phases

Another difference from the Upir and Wrukolakas is that strigoi return to the world of the living through two different stages. At the beginning, the souls are up to speed as invisible poltergeists and harass their bereaved family members by stealing food and moving furniture. After a while the soul becomes visible and looks like the person during his lifetime. Again the undead soul returns to its remaining family, begs for food, steals cattle and brings disease. Now strigoi also feed on people, first on their families and then on all other living people who cross their path. Some sources say that strigoi suck the blood of their victims straight from the heart.

In both phases of the return of the strigoi , these undead beings must return to their grave regularly, like an Upir. Romanian folklore speaks of alleged strigoi being exhumed and burned, staked or cut up. In contrast to the Upir, however, the Strigoi lose this bond with their grave after seven years of walking on earth, so that they move to other, distant villages and cities and begin a new life there, pretending to be normal mortals which, however, gather weekly in secret meetings.

Strigoi morți and strigoi vii

In addition to the strigoi morți , the undead, there are also the living vampires, strigoi vii , to fear. Strigoi vii are cursed people in their lifetime who must become strigoi after their death . This happens through descent from a strigoi mort or, less often, through serious sins committed by the mother. Anatomical deviations are interpreted as signs of such a curse, such as tail-like spinal processes or parts of the amniotic sac that have grown onto the head and look like bumps and are popularly called caul .

Vampires (including Strigoi) from a historical perspective

In an evening lecture at the Evangelical Academy of Transylvania, Sibiu in 2015, the EAS press officer and master's student at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Manuel Stübecke, addressed the phenomenon of "vampires" from a historical perspective. According to his account, there is a popular belief in vampires in Romania, or as they are called there "Strigoi". This was (and in part still is) widespread. Dead people believed to be vampires were exhumed to have a stake punched through their hearts. Since those involved often became infected with diseases and died, Empress Maria Theresia tried to end this practice in 1755 with Ordinance No. 385, known as the “Vampire Decree” under the title “Superstition is to be stopped”. Exhuming the dead without "consulting a reasonable doctor" was now made a criminal offense. Stübecke continued that the fascination for vampires lived on in secret despite this decree.

The Strigoi in art

  • The vampire- like beings in the book Die Saat and in the television series The Strain are based very freely on the Strigoi and are referred to as such in the plot.
  • The song Armata Strigoi is on the album Blessed & Possessed (2015) by the German power metal band Powerwolf .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report by the British daily newspaper The Observer (August 4, 2009)
  2. ^ Lecture at the Evangelical Academy in Transylvania on vampires. Retrieved March 12, 2017 .