Profile picture
Peter Sandham @HKSandham
, 10 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
So much Eastern European folklore around forest dwelling revenants who wait for the unwary traveler beyond the treeline or beside the crossroads. So much richer & more specific than the generic post-Stoker vampire.
The moroi steal not just blood but also youth and beauty & also target chickens and bees. Gather as covens for orgiastic rituals in graveyards. They can shape shift and have power over the weather & animals. You can spot them by their chicken-claw feet.
Also from Wallachia, the dschuma, a night-haunting hag whose appearance signals cholera epidemic. She prowls the forests naked & wailing & can only be assuaged by the offering of a red shirt, woven in silence in 1 night by 7 old women, then hung out before dawn for her to collect
Another Wallachian creature, the muroni, can change shape & appear as a cat or toad, spider or blood-sucking insect. Long fingernails and blood seeping from its eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The only way to kill it was a stake of whitehorn driven through the forehead.
The nosferatu from Transylvania. Sucks blood of sleepers but also does mischief as incubus or succabus. It is the still-born bastard child of 2 similarly illegitimates. Visits at night in the form of a black cat, black dog or butterfly. When it impregnates women they bear moroi.
I mean this is very specific!
Elsewhere in the Balkans: The streghoi is a version of the lamia that seeks babes in their cradles. Varcolac (wolf-coats): the souls of unbaptised kids, taking the form of wolves / dogs / dragons & leave the grave on a full moon to haunt crossroads & suck the blood of young girls
In Bulgaria the krvoijac vampire rests in the grave for forty days. In Bosnia, the vampire is active during typhus outbreaks. In Hungary the kiderc nadaly can only be killed by a nail drive through the temple.
In Albania the kulkutha are specifically dead Turks with huge nails who devour whatever they find but fear the wolf.
Lastly, if you were in Serbia you might call upon the service of a dhampir. These odd people were the offspring of a woman & a vampire & had the ability to detect vampires. A handy early warning system for those determined to walk the old Roman Dacian forest roads.
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Peter Sandham
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!