Moroi

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A moroi (sometimes moroii in modern fiction; pl. moroi) 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. It may signify an infant who died before being baptised.

The origins of the term moroi are unclear, but it is thought by the Romanian Academy^[1][2] to have possibly originated from the Old Slavonic word mora ("nightmare").

[edit] Fiction

In fiction, based on the folklore of Romania, though with a number of modifications, the name moroi is sometimes spelled as moroii. Which can be simply explained by the particular use of the definite and indefinite articles in the Romanian language ("moroi", with the indefinite article, translates as "some moroi"; "moroii", with the definite article, translates as "the moroi").Fictional treatments in general make a clear and consistent distinction between a strigoi and a moroi), 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.

In popular culture: a

• In the movie Dracula (2000), Count Dracula calls his wolf pet by the names strigoi and moroi.
• Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series features Moroi as the protagonists and Strigoi as the antagonists.

[edit] References