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Glossary of Carpathian Folklore

The words that appear in the Carpathian Chronicles — Romanian, as they are spoken in the villages, and explained without making them larger than they are.

Where a full article exists, the term leads to it. Where none does, we have not written it yet.

Beings

Strigoi also strigoiu, plural strigoi

The revenant proper. A dead man who leaves the grave and draws the strength out of the living — recognised not by teeth but by the cattle failing in the byre and the people in the house growing thin. The name goes back to the Latin strix, the night bird.

Moroi

Kin to the strigoi but differently born: often the spirit of a child who died unbaptised. In some districts the moroi is the earlier stage from which a strigoi only later becomes.

Pricolici

Between werewolf and revenant. Unlike the strigoi he never sheds the wolf shape. Tradition says a man becomes one by living violently — or by being put back to the breast after weaning as a child.

Stafii singular stafie

The Romanian word for ghosts and apparitions. Not a creature with a fixed form, but what is left when somebody was not buried properly.

Vârcolac roughly ver-co-lak

The being that swallows sun and moon — in the villages, the explanation for an eclipse. Its border with the pricolici has blurred over the centuries; in places they are two names for one thing.

Iele spoken yeh-leh

Dancing spirit women who appear on clearings at night. Whoever watches their dance or steps into their ring is struck lame, mute or mad. Their name is not spoken aloud; people say Dânsele instead — “those ones”.

Muma Pădurii “mother of the forest”

The old woman of the woods who takes children and draws the lost deeper in. Not a witch in the western sense — rather the forest itself, given a shape.

Solomonari

Weather-makers. Men who learned to read the clouds at a hidden school and ride dragons across the sky to send hail or turn it away.

Ursitoare from ursită, fate

The three fates who come to the cradle on the third night after a birth and settle the child's life. Bread, salt and wine are set out for them.

Zmeu

The dragon-giant of the folk tale — man-shaped, greedy, carrier-off of king's daughters. Not undead, but the hero's opponent.

Căpcăun literally “dog-head”

The man-eater of the old tales, with four eyes or the head of a dog. In many stories the older, darker brother of the zmeu.

Customs

Priveghi

The wake. The night when the house stays open, the dead man is never left alone, and in the next room people eat, talk and even play games — so that the crossing does not happen in silence.

Bocitoare

Wailing women. Paid singers who weep for the dead, because the weeping has to be done and the family cannot always do it.

Pomana

The funeral meal and the gift given for the soul. Held after the burial and repeated on fixed days — whoever eats of it does so expressly on the dead one's behalf.

Colac plural colaci

The braided bread of the dead. Baked, blessed and given away; the shape is never arbitrary, it belongs to the occasion.

The forty days Romanian cele patruzeci de zile

The span in which, by Orthodox belief, the soul is still travelling. Only afterwards is the road counted as finished — until then it is accompanied.

Dezgropare

The second burial. After seven years the grave is opened and the bones are washed and laid to rest again. What is found decides whether the dead one has come to rest.

Stâlpi funerari

Painted grave posts. Instead of a stone, a wooden post carrying signs, which weathers and in time gives way — like remembrance itself.

Furatul miresei “the stealing of the bride”

The wedding custom in which the bride is carried off during the feast and has to be ransomed back. A game with a very old and very serious core.

Nuntă mortuară

The wedding of the dead. Whoever dies unmarried is buried as a bride or a groom, so that the soul does not go incomplete.

Păzitul usturoiului “the guarding of the garlic”

On St Andrew's Night the girls lay their garlic together in one room and an older woman watches over it until morning. For the rest of the year it counts as medicine — the night it was guarded made it strong.

Cap de iarnă “the head of winter”

Winter's beginning in the farming calendar: St Andrew's Day, 30 November. From here the nights are long enough that whatever is abroad in them need not wait for morning.

Bobotează 6 January

Epiphany. The priest blesses the water, carries the cross through the village and throws a wooden cross into the river; whoever brings it out counts as free of guilt for the year. In many districts this is the day the strigoi's licence to walk runs out.

Moși “the old ones”

The masks of the twelve nights between Christmas and Boboteaza. They stand for the spirits of the dead, come home to sit at table with their descendants — the only days of the year when the dead are asked in rather than shut out.

Superstitions

Deochi spoken deh-ock

The evil eye. It strikes children and livestock above all, often without ill intent — admiration is enough. A red thread helps, or spitting over the shoulder, or a counter-charm made with water and coal.

Descântece singular descântec

Spoken charms. Half prayer, half formula, always whispered and never in front of strangers. Whoever knows them passes them on to one person only.

Vrăjitoare

The woman who can do it — healer and witch in the same person, depending who you ask. In many villages the first address, ahead of the doctor.

Sickle and thorn

The measures taken against a revenant: a sickle laid across the dead man's throat, a thorn in the mouth. Not magic — precaution.

Covered mirrors

In a house of mourning every mirror is veiled. So that the soul does not catch in it — and so that nobody sees twice what they saw once.

The evil hour ceasul rău

The hour after midnight when the border is thin. What is said in it holds; what knocks in it is not let in.

Knocking at night

Three blows at the door or the window with nobody standing there. The rule is simple and without exception: do not open.

Whoever answers is lost

If a voice calls your name at night, you do not answer and you do not turn round. To answer is to accept the visit.

Mărțișor spoken mar-tsi-shor

The red and white cord worn from the first of March. Red for life, white for winter — worn until the first tree blossoms, then hung in its branches.

Noaptea Sfântului Andrei St Andrew's Night, 30 November

The night the revenants are strongest. Garlic at doors and windows, the cattle shut in, and nobody goes outside.

Sânziene 24 June

Midsummer night. The heavens open, herbs are at their greatest power, and whoever picks the right ones sees more than is good for them.

Sâmbăta Morților Saturday of the Dead

The Saturdays in the church year set aside for the dead. Food is brought to the church and given on.

Apă neîncepută “unstarted water”

Water nobody has drunk from yet, drawn fresh from spring, well or river. No counter-charm works without it — only such water goes into the ember test against the evil eye.

Ața roșie “the red thread”

Tied around a child's wrist or neck and worn where it can be seen. It is meant to catch the gaze before the gaze reaches the child.

Places

Bran Castle

The customs fortress above the pass, sold as Dracula's castle. Vlad never lived in it, and Bram Stoker never saw it.

Poenari

The fortress above the Argeș that Vlad really did enlarge in 1459 — with boyars he drove there on foot. 1,480 steps lead up to it.

Hoia Baciu forest near Cluj

The wood where the trees grow crooked and visitors report lost time. To some a geological puzzle, to others no puzzle at all.

Ossuary Romanian osuar

The chamber where bones are kept after the second burial. At Neamț monastery the skulls carry names.

Ghost villages

Places that vanished from the map by decree or by departure — some under water, some only under grass.