Strigoi
In Romanian folklore, a strigoi is the evil soul of the dead, or living, who rises up from the grave or from the person it belongs to, with the sole purpose of doing them harm. The singular feminine form of the word is strigoaică, and it means “witch.” The strigoi are closer in relation to werewolves, as they can be spirits that resembles animals, while at the same time, also look like goblins. The names and terms are derived from the older Romanian word “strigă” which means barn owl, or witch. That also cognates with the Italian term for a witch, that was strega. The Italian strega descended from the Latin “strix” which was a term for a shrieking vampiric bird. Strigoi viu is the term for a living vampiric witch, whereas strigoi mort, means undead or dead vampire. They are usually closely associated to zombies and vampires. According to Romanian legends the strigoi have ginger colored hair, blue eyes, and two hearts. From Slovenian and Istrian mythology, the “štriga” is usually a woman, and the only way to stop her evil powers is to publicly expose her after she’s used them. Other superstitions say she cannot be killed at all unless she’s killed while she is busy feeding off of the life force of her prey.
In the book series “The Hunt” strigoi is the term used to describe the vampires, by Susan Sizemore. Other books that use the term for strigoi playing major character roles are The Descendant, by Graham Masterson, and Children of the Night, by Dan Simmons. In a somewhat short show from the Disney channel “American Dragon: Jake Long”, a group of strigoi appeared in one episode, entitled “Bite Father, Bite Son.” One of the vampires in the hit film, 30 Days Of Night was shown as being named Strigoi in the credits. Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald wrote a story that was featured in the February 2008 issue of the magazine, ” Fantasy and Science Fiction” entitled, “Philologos; or, A Murder in Bistritia” in which a strigoi appeared.