Varkolak

The varkolak or vyrkola or vrykolakas, also called vorvolakas or vourdoulakas, is a harmful undead creature in Slavic folklore. It has similarities to many different legendary creatures, but most of all with the vampire and lycanthropes of the Slavic and Balkan region. While the two are very similar, blood-drinking is only marginally associated with the vrykolakas.

The Greeks traditionally believed that a person could become a vrykolakas after death due to a sacrilegious way of life, an excommunication, a burial in unconsecrated ground, or eating the meat of a sheep which had been wounded by a wolf or a werewolf. Some believed that a werewolf itself could become a powerful vampire after being killed, and would retain the wolf-like fangs, hairy palms, and glowing eyes it formerly possessed.

The bodies of vrykolakas have the same distinctive characteristics as the bodies of vampires in Balkan folklore. They do not decay; instead, they swell and may even attain a "drum-like" form, being very large, they have a ruddy complexion, and are, according to one account, "fresh and gorged with new blood". People with red hair and gray eyes at this time in history were thought to be vampires according to accounts near the region of modern Serbia. The activities of the vrykolakas are nearly always harmful, verging from merely leaving their grave and "roaming about", through engaging in poltergeist-like activity, and up to causing epidemics in the community. Among other things, the creature is believed to knock on the doors of houses and call out the name of the residents. If it gets no reply the first time, it will pass without causing any harm. If someone does answer the door, he or she will die a few days later and become another vrykolakas. For this reason, there is a superstition present in certain Greek villages that one should not answer a door until the second knock. Legends also say that the vrykolakas crushes or suffocates the sleeping by sitting on them, much like a mara or incubus (cf. sleep paralysis) — as does a vampire in Bulgarian folklore.

Since the vrykolakas becomes more and more powerful if left alone, legends state that one should destroy its body. According to some accounts, this can only be done on Saturday, which is the only day when the vrykolakas rests in its grave (the same as with Bulgarian vampire legend) This may be done in various ways, the most common being exorcising, impaling, beheading, cutting into pieces, and especially cremating the suspected corpse, so that it may be freed from living death and its victims may be safe.

Apotropaics are objects or practices that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant, or to occupy a revenant sufficiently enough that he will not harm the living. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles,[8] near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the Ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld; it has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire. Other methods commonly practiced in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied by counting the fallen grains at the rate of one grain per year,[10] indicating an association of vampires with arithmomania. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampire-like being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.

The vârcolac is a fabulous being in the Romanian mythology, a demon who eats the Sun and the Moon, generating in this way the phases of the Moon and eclipses. The multiple representations of this creature, from real animals (wolves, dogs) to fantastic (kites, balls), led to a mystery over the form of the demon. Werewolf is the representation of evil that disturbs the natural order of the world, and any deviation from the order established by the community can generate a vârcolac. Thus, vârcolacs, like ghosts or moroii, can come from many sources, such as: unbidden children, anomalies, people who have killed a brother or sister, or even an act contrary to a tradition can generate a vârcolac. The vârcolac man will turn into an eclipse, and most of the time, his soul is the one who will climb to heaven and eat the Sun or the Moon. If the bond of the soul with the body is interrupted during transformation, the soul is lost forever.

The Serbian vukodlak (also known as the lycanthropist or the man-wolf ) is a mythological being, and it represents a man who turns into a wolf in the night of full moon. It is believed to have the ability to quickly heal the wounds and that it can only kill him alive (the famous myth of silver is a translation error since the former was sometimes called "quick silver"). Still in shamanism, there is a tendency to create spiritual relationships between man and different animals. All nations had an animal for a totem, for which they believed to be from it. To many nations, the wolf was a totem animal: Neuri, Serbs, etc. Greek poet Ovidius, in his book Metamorphosis , recorded the legend of the Arcadian king Likaon who makes a feast in honor of Zeus, but prepared from human flesh, and therefore Zeus turns him into a wolf. According to the name of King likaon, and the legend of King Lycaon and Zeus, and is formed term lycanthropy.

According to Greek historian Herodotus, there was a Neuri people who lived near Skit (approximately on the territory of today's Poland), and Skita was scared because they believed they were inmates. For psoglav, race of people with a head of the dog, it is believed that they were cannibals. Saint Christopher also comes from this people.

In the Nordic folklore there are still legends about the berzerker warriors . Before they went into battle, the warriors dressed in bears and wolves, and they got their name, which in the old Nordic language precisely meant - people dressed like bears . When a warrior dressed in a bear or a wolf's skin, he believed that the spirit of that animal entered him and that that animal was becoming. During the battle, they fell into a trance during which nobody was afraid, they did not feel any pain, they received supernatural power, and never wanted to teach. One Byzantine emperor described Berzerkeri fighting in the battle as a wild, fearless beast.

The Lithuanian vilkolakis (werewolf, vilktakas ; international term likantropas)—a mythical creature, man, pasiverčiantis wolf. Of the various European nations in folklore and mythology (Germ. Werwolf, Eng. Werewolf, sp. Hombre lobo). The man's wolf was voluntary, using magical things (eg, a belt), or forced by a curse. Vilkolakises have a supernatural force, a white stain behind their necks (in the place where the scarf was locked when they were human). Medieval chroniclers linked the transformation with the fullness of the moon, but this concept was rarely associated with the wolfhound until it was used by modern fiction writers. Writer's description of wallet is almost invulnerable, it can only be killed by silverbullet or other silver guns. After killing a wolf, it turns out that the former man was wearing fur. Most of the writers of the wallet-painting elements are taken from the authentic folklore, not their own inventions. The hawks of wolves also occur in Lithuanian mythology and folklore. Often, the outside does not say anything, although sometimes it's a tail (usually short), sometimes teeth.

There are stories when a vilkolakis has managed to throw a wolf's fur and become a man . The wound done to him remains and turns into a human being. It was believed that witches (usually wreaths) made witches or could have turned into somebody who turned over through the willow stump, and so on. Vilkolakises have a human mind, but can not speak. Do not mix with true wolves, often stay close to living places, even settle in livestock. In order not to be, you must feed like real wolves, attack animals. In some stories, the vilkolakises are peaceful, do nothing wrong. The more dangerous are those who became one voluntarily.

Etymology
The word vrykolakas (Greek βρυκόλακας, pronounced [vriˈkolakas]) is derived from the Slavic word vǎrkolak. The term is attested in other South Slavic languages such as Serbian vukodlak, ultimately derived from Proto-Slavic vьlkolakъ, see Polish wilkołak, and cognates can be found in other languages such as Lithuanian vilkolakis and Romanian vârcolac. The term is a compound word derived from вълк (vâlk)/вук (vuk), meaning "wolf" and dlaka, meaning "(strand of) hair" (i.e. having the hair, or fur, of a wolf), and originally meant "werewolf" (it still has that meaning in the modern Slavic languages, and a similar one in Romanian: see vârcolac). It is also noteworthy that in the eighteenth century story Vrykolokas by Pitton de Tournefort, he refers to the revenant as a "werewolf" (loups-garous) which may have also been translated as bug-bears, a strange word that has nothing to do with bugs nor bears, but is related to the word bogey, which means spook, spirit, hobgoblin, etc. However, the same word (in the form vukodlak) has come to be used in the sense of "vampire" in the folklore of Western Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro (while the term "vampir" is more common in Eastern Serbia, and in Bulgaria). Apparently, the two concepts have become mixed. Even in Bulgaria, original folklore generally describes the vârkolak as a sub-species of the vampire without any wolf-like features.

The etymology of the word vârcolac in Romanian seems to come from Bulgarian or Serbian, from vylx + dlaka meaning wolf hair . The mythology of the Dacian-Gothic ancestors also seems to have influenced the Romanian mythology, especially through the cult of the wolf, which was also linked to the werewolf creature . It was often enough for the Moon to have a reddish color, so the Romanian would conclude that the werewolf eats the moon, and the blood of the astronaut flows through the flesh of the creature. The ways of chasing are numerous and usually involve metal noises, such as pulling bells, beating the beasts with each other.