Vârcolac

Vârcolac

A vârcolac in Romanian folklore may refer to several different figures. In some versions, a vârcolac is a wolf demon, which, like the Norse Fenris, occasionally swallows the moon and the sun and is thus responsible for eclipses. It may also refer to a wizard that has the power to turn into a wolf for camouflage. This so-called vârcolac had magical powers that made him be feared by local men and thus calling him a demon.

Other legends say it is a ghost or vampire ("Strigoi") while a third group of traditions say it is a werewolf (in some versions, a werewolf that emerges from the corpses of babies Fact|date=February 2007). In Romanian, "vârcolac" commonly means "werewolf". It can occasionally mean "goblin".

The word "vârcolac" is a loan from Slavic (cf. Bulgarian "vǎlkolak", Serbian "vukodlak"), originally meaning "werewolf" (etymologically "Wolf's Fur"). However, the term has come to denote mostly vampires in Balkan Slavic folklore. Nevertheless, the idea that the "vârkolak" is a wolf that swallows the sun and the moon is also attested in North-Western Bulgaria. [ [http://bgrod.org/Vjara/index.php?p=bogove&page=vrkolak Иваничка Димитрова. Българска народна митология. С.1983.стр. 163-164] ] See also "Vrykolakas" for more details about the word.

The "pricolici" is another form of vârcolac, also resembling a werewolf.

References

*"Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii Române", Academia Românǎ, 1998.

ee also

* vǎrkolak
* vrykolakas


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