A moroi (sometimes moroii in modern fiction; pl. moroi) is a type of vampire or ghost in Romanian folklore. A female moroi is called a moroaică (pl. moroaice). In some versions, a moroi is a phantom of a dead person which leaves the grave to draw energy from the living.
Moroi are often associated with other figures in Romanian folklore, such as strigoi (another type of vampire), vârcolac (werewolf), or pricolici (werewolf). As with most concepts in folklore, the exact characteristics ascribed to moroi are variable from source to source. Wlislocki reported a belief that the child of a woman impregnated by a nosferat (a sort of incubus-vampire) would be extremely ugly and covered with thick hair, very quickly becoming a moroi.[1]
They are also sometimes referred to in modern stories as the living offspring of two strigoi. It may also signify an infant who died before being baptized. The origins of the term "moroi" are unclear, but it is thought by the Romanian Academy[2][3] to have possibly originated from the Old Slavonic word mora ("nightmare") – cf. Russian kikimora. Otila Hedeşan notes that moroi is formed using the same augmentative suffix as strigoi (along with the related bosorcoi) and considers this parallel derivation to indicate membership in the same "mythological micro-system." The "-oi" suffix notably converts feminine terms to the masculine gender as well as often investing it with a complex mixture of augmentation and pejoration.[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ von Wlislocki, Heinrich (1896). "Quälgeister im Volksglauben der Rumänen". Am Ur-Quell. 6: 108–109.
- ^ Noul dicţionar explicativ al limbii Române, Bucharest: Litera Internaţional, 2002. ISBN 973-8358-04-3
- ^ *moroi in Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii Române, Academia Română, 1998
- ^ Hedeşan, Otila (1998). Şapte eseuri despre strigoi. Timişoara: Marineasa. pp. 15–16.