Moroi

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A moroi (same form in plural) (sometimes spelled as moroii in modern fiction) 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 synonymous with these other figures in Romanian folklore: strigoi (another type of vampire), vârcolac (werewolf or goblin), or pricolici (werewolf).

They are also sometimes referred to in modern myth as the live-born offspring of two strigoi.

[edit] Fiction

In fiction, based on the folklore though with a number of modifications, the name moroi is sometimes spelled as moroii. Fictional treatments in general make a clear and consistent distinction between a strigoi and a moroi (or "moroii"), the former being an undead vampire, the latter a living vampire. However, in Romanian folklore the distinction is not always clear, and a moroi may also refer to a phantom-like figure.

[edit] References

• moroi in Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii Române, Academia Românǎ, 1998.
• Noul dicţionar explicativ al limbii Române, Editura Litera Internaţional, 2002.