Pricoliciul
Strigoi, moroi, svârcolac, tricolici and other spirited beings
This is part of a yearlong series on the second edition of Colière, the Euclidian Non-Isochronous Rhythms card deck. Each card is a pretext to gloss over one item of Romanian mythology, anthropomorphize it, all aimed at easier visualizing and audiating one particular rhythm.
Today it’s about “Pricolici”.
What do Gabriele D’Annunzio, Lord Byron, Sigmund Freud, Liberace, Joseph Smith and King James VI have in common? They were 'born with the caul'. One in 80000 children are born with this piece of membrane covering their head or their face. Noting to worry about, it is removed by the midwife and in some parts of the world it was collected and considered a lucky charm, even sold to sailors for good money. Most of the world treats these kids as special in a good way, destined for greatness even. Not in Romania. Here they are susceptible to becoming strigoi. Not a good thing. This is just one of the many ways people can become strigoi, but it’s worth mentioning. They were discussed in passing here:
Now, strigoi come in two varieties. Living and dead. Pricolici are living strigoi that can turn into animals. Could be anybody. People seemingly just like you and me, living their normal lives, but they roll over three times1 at night and transform in some unholy animal. It can be a wolf, a dog, a pig, a cat, a snake or a frog, but never a holy one like a hedgehog, a lamb, a stag, a bee or a swallow or a dove. Then they go around and do animal things. People sometimes recognize these animals as being known people from the village by their behavior. Once a woman recognized her husband as being the dog that bit her the other day by some stuff stuck between his teeth. On the night of November 29th, the living strigoi, get to meet the dead ones. The dead ones are another story. People have to be careful how they manage the dead body until and after it is buried. For example, one should prevent animals to jump over the dead body or over the empty grave as those animals could mess with the ghost and turn into strigoi. But that’s concerning the dead ones, let’s return to the living.
Other ways to detect a potential pricolici. Children born in the bushes. Children that return to breastfeeding after they have been already weaned. The ones bitten by a mosquito the night of St. George. The seventh son. The ones that don’t eat onions or garlic. The ones with the evil eye2. A pricolici will be the ninth son born in the same month as the others. One will be pricolici if he gets married to a relative. Allegedly, when a basic living strigoi dies and it does not receive the obligatory spike through the heart gets to eat his relatives for nine years, and then he turns into a Hound Pricolici and goes to hang with the wolves. So, long story short, werewolves. Sometimes conflated with vârcolaci, the wolf-men that devour the moon, causing the eclipses.
Herodotus mentioned the Neuri tribe north of the Scythians, once forced to leave their lands because of an invasion of snakes. Maybe these were not snakes-snakes, but some people somehow related to ..whatever.. the Neuri were said to be turning into wolves for some days each year, and also to worship the wolf, so this might be something.
Werewolves. Many stories of husbands travelling with their wives advising them to hit any wolf or hound that will attack them. Then somehow he disappears into the forest, sheds his clothes, turns into said beast, attacks and gets away a bloodied ear or leg. He returns to his wife (played by Lily-Rose Depp) as a man but she recognizes the wound and finds out this way that he is a pricolici. He needs to shed some blood in order to turn back into a human. Sometimes the dogs bite him, other times the wife or some shepherd cuts him.
Cor (Choir) in the old deck. E(11,16). Picture a choir of wolves howling.
Wer-wulf. Wer-wulf. Wer-wulf. Wer-wulf. Pre-ko-leach.
1-2! 1-2! 1-2! 1-2! 1-2-3!
In hindsight, maybe they should have beaten an iron stake in Freud’s heart to prevent him haunting us.
The physical act of rolling over three times ("s-a dat de trei ori peste cap") in Romanian folklore is a somatic, ritualistic gesture rooted in archaic Indo-European shamanism and pagan transformation practices. It shares deep conceptual and functional roots with ecstatic warrior traditions like the Norse Berserkers and Ulfhéðnar ("wolf-coats").
In shamanic and archaic folk practices worldwide, controlled physical dizziness or circular rotation is one of the oldest methods used to disrupt normal waking consciousness.
It could be a micro trance induced by a somersault or a ritual axis a la Sufi dervishes and mirrors the ecstatic warrior traditions of Northern and Eastern Europe. Outcomes being ego dissolution and using the animal body as a weapon.
It is done over a liminal symbol and it involves “turning one’s world upside down”. One turn destabilizes human form; the second clears the threshold; the third locks in the new identity (and repeating it backwards restores human form). More here.
Also touched on in the Primordial Truth series on the Chthonic Dance of the Titans.
AI Folklorist is naming things like this:
The “Somersault Transformation” Motif: In motif indexes of folk literature (such as the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index), this physical act is classified under Motif D630 (Transformation at Will) via physical movement.
Voluntary Lycanthropy / Therianthropy: When a hero or sorcerer transforms specifically into a wolf or animal by choice (as opposed to being cursed), folklorists call it voluntary therianthropy.
Kinetic Trigger: Scholars describe the rolling motion as a kinetic catalyst or somatic ritual trigger—a physical action required to activate magic.
As a side note, around these parts, evil eye is the black colored eye. Gypsy eyes are often black. So they are most likely to give the evil eye. Resulting in the gypsies being lumped together with the strigoi in the big class of things that might give you the evil eye.