- Vârcolac
A vârcolac in
Romanian folklore may refer to several different figures. In some versions, a vârcolac is awolf demon , which, like the NorseFenris , occasionally swallows themoon and thesun and is thus responsible foreclipse s. 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 orvampire ("Strigoi ") while a third group of traditions say it is awerewolf (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 inBalkan Slavic folklore. Nevertheless, the idea that the "vârkolak" is a wolf that swallows the sun and the moon is also attested in North-WesternBulgaria . [ [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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