Romanian Vampire Folklore Is Older Than Dracula
Romanian folklore has its own cast of the undead. The best-known Romanian vampire is the Strigoi, and it comes in two kinds. The living Strigoi is a witch born with two hearts or two souls. The dead Strigoi is a corpse that refuses to stay down.
Then there’s the Moroi. A Moroi is a ghostly form that feeds on the life force of sleepers and brings nightmares with it. The word may share roots with the Slavic mora, meaning to torment, and with the Germanic mare, which gave English the word “nightmare.” Folklore says Moroi can rise from people who died violent or unnatural deaths. They slip through keyholes and cracks, and they like to look like smoke.
In 1885 an Englishwoman named Emily Gerard wrote about Transylvanian beliefs in an essay that became one of the earliest English accounts of the nosferatu. Bram Stoker read her work. Real vampire folklore has been shaping fiction for a long time.
People also fought back. Folk protections include garlic over doorways, thorny wild rose branches, and iron. I gave Nia a few of those, and she is a little embarrassed about every one of them.
The vampires in this story are actually vampire-witches. Their magic is required in order to… well, I’ll leave that alone for now so as to avoid a spoiler.
Where Folklore Meets Fiction
Nia is a research librarian, so when something strange starts draining her, she does what researchers do. She looks it up. Her search leads straight into Romanian vampire folklore, and she finds the Moroi.
I took the legends seriously, then took a few liberties. I think the best vampire stories do the same. They respect the old tales and add something new.
Ancient Vampires: The Oldest Vampire in the Room
Ask Drake how old he is and you’ll get a very polite non-answer. He is an ancient vampire, and he carries time differently from the rest of us. A century is a long weekend. Grief doesn’t fade the way you’d hope.
He isn’t the only one. His uncle Ambrose is a scholar with visions and centuries of his own. Ancient vampires, in my book, aren’t just old. They’re tired, patient, and haunted in ways that make them very interesting company. When you’re the oldest vampire most people have ever met, you carry a lot.
A Supernatural World Hidden in Plain Sight
The vampires in The Waning don’t live in crypts. They live in Maine, in a 400-year old community tucked deep into the woods behind iron gates and carefully planted trees. The streets are lit by gas lamps. The shops include an apothecary, a butcher who deals in more than beef, and a tailor who understands that blood is hard to get out of silk.
From the outside it looks like a pretty, private place. That’s the point. A rule they call the Subterfuge keeps humans from finding out, and breaking it has serious consequences.
Found Family and Teachers
One of my favorite things about writing this world was the family. The people in Drake’s life aren’t related the way you’d expect. As he puts it, some family relationships don’t map neatly onto normal terms. You choose your family, and over centuries you build it.
That found family becomes important to Nia, who needs one. She also needs teachers. Someone has to show her what she’s up against, and the people with centuries of knowledge are willing to share it. She’s a fast learner. After all, she’s a researcher.
Step Inside
If you love folklore, hidden worlds, and found family, you’ll feel at home in The Waning. The characters page has the cover and full description, and newsletter signup is where I share release news and first looks.