31 Days of Monsters 2014: Strigoi

Early vampires were not the suave, sparkly anti-heroes you see in movies today. Vampires, like the Strigoi were much nastier creatures with convoluted stories. Strigoi arose from the graves of suicides, the unbaptised, or certain witches and warlocks. Cadaverous, and foul, a Strigoi, would prey on family and loved ones, leeching their health and vitality, eventually turning them into the undead as well. Strigoi were known to befoul crops, poison water, kill livestock and steal from farmers. The surest way to destroy a Strigoi was to find it in its grave, and cut its head off. Some accounts insist that the head should be reattached to the body upside down and backward so that the Strigoi would not know which way it was going when it next rose from the grave. This, to me seems like questionable advise, because if there's one thing worse than a vampire, it's one that can't figure out where it's going.

31 Days of Monsters 2014: Varcolac

Details about the Romanian Varcolac, like many mythological beats are hard to verify. A Varcolac is described variously as a vampire-like werewolf, a werewolf-like vampire, or something else altogether. Varcolaci (the plural form of the creature) are said to originate from the bodies of un-baptised children, from dust swept under furniture by slovenly housekeepers, or from children born out of wedlock. One thing common to many Varcolac legends are that they routinely fly into the heavens and devour the moon, thus explaining why lunar eclipses happen. And I thought it had something to do with the positions of the earth, and sun in relation to the moon. Stupid me.