Topic
Vampires & Revenants
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Adze
The adze is a vampire spirit of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo. It slips into homes as a firefly, drinks children’s blood,…
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Strigoi
The strigoi is the vampire figure of Romanian folk tradition. It exists both as a living person with dangerous powers and as a dead…
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Striga
The striga (Polish strzyga) comes from Polish folk belief: a person born with two souls, one of which lives on after death and haunts…
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Bruxa
The bruxa is the night witch of Portugal and Galicia. She turns into a bird, slips through any crack, and is a threat above…
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Lamia
Lamia is one of Europe’s oldest bogeys: a Greek queen whose children Hera took from her and who became a child killer herself. Her…
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Nachzehrer
A dead man who chews on his shroud or his own body in the grave and drags his relatives after him: the nachzehrer is…
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Aswang
In the Philippines, aswang is the umbrella term for a whole family of feared beings: vampires, shapeshifters, witches and ghouls who live like ordinary…
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The Bruxa – The Monster With a Thousand Names (The Witcher: 4 monsters and their origin, part 4/4)
The grand finale of our four-part series on the real myths behind the monsters of “The Witcher” takes us away from the Slavic forests…
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Strzyga: From Roman Owl-Demon to Cursed Princess (The Witcher: 4 monsters and their origin, part 3/4)
It’s the very first monster of the Witcher saga – and the moment Geralt became a hero: the striga, a cursed princess who rises…
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This German Vampire Doesn’t Bite. It Chews. From Inside the Grave: The Nachzehrer
In 1576, a gravedigger on a plague island in the Venetian lagoon reopened a mass grave. One of the corpses — a woman —…