Creature DA·C·0004
Strigoi
A figure in Romanian folklore: a restless soul or body, living or dead, associated with unusual births and irregular deaths. Often conflated with the cinematic vampire.
- Name origin
- From Latin strix (night bird, witch) DOC: Documented
- Variants
- Strigoi viu (living) and strigoi mort (dead); related to the moroi DOC: Documented
- Earliest accounts
- Nineteenth-century folklore collections INC: Incomplete information
- Traditional remedies
- Garlic, careful funeral rites, intervention on the corpse DOC: Documented
A category broader than the vampire
The strigoi is not the same as the vampire: it can be a living person● DocumentedCorroborated by multiple reliable and independent sources., destined from birth or by ritual circumstances to leave the body at night in spirit. Cinema, which sets many of its vampires in Transylvania, has often merged the two figures.
Differences between tradition and popular culture
The association between Romania and the aristocratic vampire is largely an effect of Dracula. The idea that the strigoi originates with the historical figure of Vlad III✕ Debunked claimStoker’s Dracula uses the name of Vlad III, but beliefs about the strigoi do not derive from the Wallachian prince. is a common misconception.
Connections
5 direct connections · 18 further links. Dashed lines indicate weak or unproven links.
- Film
- Creature · ritual
- Motif
- Source
- Person
- Weak link
Creatures (4)
Vampire
- Area
- Balkans, Central Europe
- Earliest attestations
- 1725 (Kisiljevo case)
Vurdalak
- Area
- Russia, Balkans
- Earliest attestations
- 19th century (literary form)
Vampire
- Area
- Balkans, Central Europe
- Earliest attestations
- 1725 (Kisiljevo case)
Vurdalak
- Area
- Russia, Balkans
- Earliest attestations
- 19th century (literary form)
Places (2)
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Beliefs & rituals (2)
Protections against the dead
Protections against the dead
Collections (1)
Vampires of Eastern Europe
- Revenant creature · via Vampire
- Visum et Repertum source · via Vampire
- Kisiljevo place · via Vampire
- Medveđa place · via Vampire
- The threshold and invitation belief or ritual · via Vampire
- The Vampyre (Polidori, 1819) source · via Vampire
- Dracula (Stoker, 1897) source · via Vampire
- Black Sabbath film · via Vampire
- The family vampire motif · via Vampire
- La Guzla source · via Vampire
- The Vurdalak, from folklore to cinema bloodline · via Vurdalak
- La famiglia del Vurdalak source · via Vurdalak
- The vampire child motif · via Vurdalak
- Night of the Devils film · via Vurdalak
- Sem’ja vurdalakov film · via Vurdalak
- Boris Karloff person · via Vurdalak
- A. K. Tolstoy person · via Vurdalak
- Theft from the dead motif · via Protections against the dead
Revision history
- First draft.— Editorial team
How to cite this page
Redazione Dread Atlas, «Strigoi», Dread Atlas, Entry DA·C·0004, updated 16 September 2026. https://macabralia.com/en/creature/strigoi/