Roses are Red

7. Pricolici

Once I'm home I start working on the assignment, well I stare at the computer wondering if I should type in my name. My real name, or mums or dads.

Pricolici, I've spent so many years wondering if this could give me an answer, pressing what comes up makes my heart race, but leaves me feeling empty. The only thing that comes up is the translation, werewolf.

A Pricolici (pronounced /pri.koˈlit͡ʃʲ/) (same form in plural) is a fusion. Similar to a dead soul, although the latter sometimes symbolises an undead soul. Whereas the pricolici always has wolf-like characteristics.

Pricolici, similar to, are undead souls that have risen from the grave to harm living people. While a strigoi possesses qualities similar to the ones it had before death, a pricolici always resembles a wolf. Malicious, violent men are often said to become pricolici after death, in order to continue harming other humans.

Some Romanian folklore delineates that Pricolici are werewolves in life and after they die, return as vampires. This also gives rise to the legend of vampires that can turn into animals such as wolves, dogs, or owls and bats. The common theme of all these animals being that they are nocturnal hunters much like vampires.

Even as recently as modern times, many people living in rural areas of Romania have claimed to have been viciously attacked by abnormally large and fierce wolves. Apparently, these wolves attack silently, unexpectedly and only solitary targets. Victims of such attacks often claim that their aggressor wasn't an ordinary wolf, but a pricolici who has come back to life to continue wreaking havoc.

Wikipedia seems to be the most cliche and unreliable source so I click on the next source.

The Werewolf legends of Romania... cliche title that is quite amusing I read the first paragraph.

The belief that ill-mannered humans can metamorphose into werewolves is quite common in Central and Eastern European rural areas. Even Italians and Sicilians have, in their folk stories, a similar belief in, or the ability to assume the form and characteristics of a wolf. Furthermore, the werewolf legends of Romania are no less important for understanding folktales about such mythological creatures. The Romanian name for werewolf is vârcolac, later replaced by Priciolici. The former is more commonly used in popular culture and urban settings, while the later is used in folk studies and rural parts of Romania.

Romania, was never something I had on my mind, when I thought of my name, my mother never brought up our name in the memories I had of her, I scroll down.

The Werewolf Legends and the Vampire Connection

What werewolves and vampires have in common is the full moon. They both love darkness, and praising the moon is the werewolf's mythological role. Thus, the conventional explanation of moon eclipses comes about, at least in the Slavic folklore. Moreover, in the Slavic lore, the term, a word sounding more like the Romanian vârcolac, has been limited to the vampire meaning in its modern uses.

Besides the same etymology, the folklore, believes both werewolves and vampires emerge at a specific season of the year. According to the werewolf legends of Romania, these mythological creatures appear on Christmas, New Year, Easter and Pentecost.

Also, the legends tell of children conceived on Christmas Eve or Easter Eve or born on Easter, who eventually become werewolves. It so happens due to their parents' transgressions of religious canons or their curse. In the same time, vampire and witch behaviour predilection for occurrence begins on the eve of Saint Andrew's feast, that is November 30.

The Night Wolf

Notable is also the difference between werewolves and vampires, also known as strigoi or moroi. In the Romanian folk imagination, on the one hand, the werewolves are living beasts. On the other hand, vampires and strigoi are undead creatures or monsters that have risen from the dead. Haunting people, the is a mythical monster that brings illness to them and even sucks their blood.

All these creatures: the cursed wolf-man, the bloodsucking vampires, and the shape-shifting gather at once on the Night of the Wolf. Correspondingly, the eve of Saint Andrew's feast is the Night of the Wolf. Locals had been using this denomination in pagan times before Saint Andrew became the patron saint of Romania. To restore the orderliness of life on Earth and remain protected during the Night of the Wolf, people hang garlic on doors.

Debunking the Dracula Myth and the Importance of Werewolves

Romanian mythology does not focus on vampire legends or vampire facts. Sometimes it does not even mention the word vampir (Romanian for vampire). The vampire history began a lot later, in the18th century. Further, along with the publication of Bram Stoker's novel, in 1897, vampires became representative of Romania. Werewolves hold a more special place in Romanian folklore rather than vampires. Even more striking is the fact that the real, Vlad the Impaler, ruled in Wallachia and not in Transylvania, as one might believe.

As restless spirits of violent men, the Romanian werewolves are still prevalent in the folk imagination. Peasants still hold apotropaic rituals to ward off these mythical creatures. In a country that still has a large population of wolves, no wonder the werewolf legends exceed the prestige of the vampire stories.

Do Werewolves Exist?

No, they don't. Nobody transforms into a werewolf when the full moon lights the sky. Werewolves do not exist in reality. Besides, there are no monsters that suck blood and eat human flesh, so why the need for their presence in folk tales and legends?

Well, werewolf facts tell us there are human illnesses that make people look like lycanthropes. One of them is rabies, evidently. The bite of a rabies-infested wolf or wild animal used to be an explanation for werewolf transformations and the aftermath madness expressed by contaminated humans. is another one, and it is a widely spread justification for vampirism, as well. Excess facial and bodily hair also known as has been associated with the werewolf appearance.

The Romanian werewolf lore depicts the monstrous animal as a deathly ill person with pale and dry skin. In Romanian oral tales, the werewolf's weakness is the deathlike sleep it falls into whenever it sends its spirit to the moon through its mouth. They should not be moved for they will die. That is because the returning spirit will not be able to find the mouth out of which it came. Is it moon eating by werewolves or just natural space eclipses? The folk never stopped creating myths and legends to explain the surrounding world.

I wanted to read more, this was something that was linked to something I never thought would have been the least bit interesting. I was starting to think of reasons why my name was the direct translation of werewolf. I typed something in I never thought I would. Pricolici family name. Nothing came up. I became obsessed at that moment, to find answers, it was like my family were ghosts.

Then while on a site, a message bar comes up.

Hi, can I help?

I stare at it wondering if I should take the opportunity.

Hello, I'm trying to find out my family history for a uni project.

The Pricolici family?

Yes.

Elizabeth?

I stare at my screen and shut the computer. Oh my god, how do they know my name? I pace the room thoughts rushing through the head. A fit of rage controls me and I throw my computer across the room.

It doesn't smash or anything which I'm glad for as I regain my calmness and its again replaced with anxiety that I might have broken the only way I can write my essay, all my files for exams and any other work. I check it and it's all okay.

---------------------------------

Author's Note:

Any information I used I referenced back to the source like wiki and werewolf legends of Romania, they are really sites as you may know.