Read Online Descendant by Graham Masterton - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Graham Masterton
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me all kinds of scary Romanian folk tales when I was little. None of my friends had been brought up on stories of
strigoi
and
strigoaica
, the creatures of the night, and none of my friends had researched Romanian legends as thoroughly as I had, and published a paper on them.
I have to admit that I decided to write a paper on
strigoi
out of perversity, almost as a joke. Everybody in my class thought that I was a clown, including myprofessors, and I guess I decided to live up to their expectations. It’s difficult to grow up normal when your father expects you to recite Edward Arlington Robinson to amuse his lunch guests when you’re only four years old, and your mother sings you Romanian lullabies about what will happen to you if you betray love. “If you betray love, you will squirm like a snake, walk like a beetle, and you will own nothing but the dust of the land.”
The Strigoi
Even though she told me so many stories about them, my mother never gave me the impression that she actually believed in the
strigoi
—and she was brought up in Tanacu, where they still cross themselves if a crow flies down their chimney, or a black dog urinates against their gatepost. As recently as the summer of 2005, a priest from the Holy Trinity monastery in Tanacu strangled and crucified a nun because he thought she was possessed by demons.
To begin with, I didn’t believe in the
strigoi
, either—but like I say, I thought it would be a terrific wheeze to write a paper that discussed them as if they
were
real. Only two or three weeks after I had started work on it, however, I began to come across credible documentary evidence that the
strigoi
might be more than imaginary—letters, newspaper reports, even some blurry old photographs. I couldn’t help asking myself: what if they
did
exist? Even more intriguing:
what if they still do
?
I studied the
strigoi
for nearly two years. I made scores of phone calls and talked in person to more than two hundred Romanian immigrants of all ages. I searched through private libraries and smelly old collections of rarebooks. Without realizing it, day by day, I was becoming one of the world’s greatest experts on
strigoi
.
One of the elderly Romanian immigrants I interviewed for my college paper talked to me about his cousin, who became a
strigoi mort
. “He was the handsomest man you ever met. Tall, witty and irresistible to women. But he could be very melancholy, too. Once when he came to visit us I saw him standing by the window and there were tears in his eyes. I asked him what was wrong and he said, ‘Look.’ He reached out his hand and it passed straight through the glass of the window pane without breaking it. I could actually see his hand outside the window, still with his gold wedding band on it. Then he drew his hand back in again, and the glass was completely intact. I felt a chill like nothing I had ever felt before. He said, ‘I am dead, Daniel, and I can never go home again, ever.’ ”
It was this man who first drew me a picture of the wheel which the
strigoi mortii
wear around their necks—a diagonal cross to symbolize a kiss, with a circle around it to represent endlessness. Usually, the
strigoi mortii
fashion the wheels themselves. They use gold from any rings they wore when they were still human, with copper to enhance its electrical conductivity. The wheel is much more than symbolic: it gives the
strigoi mortii
exceptional night vision, and it contains the protective power of absolute evil. Several respected academics suggest that J. R. R. Tolkien was inspired by the wheel when he wrote
The Lord of the Rings
, and that the physical and spiritual degeneration of Gollum is a close parallel to what happens to people when they become infected by
strigoi
. You’ll remember that Gollum’s eyes lit up, so that he could seebetter in the dark, just like the
strigoi mortii
when they wear the wheel.
By the time I had finished writing my paper, I still hadn’t conclusively
strigoi
and
strigoaica
, the creatures of the night, and none of my friends had researched Romanian legends as thoroughly as I had, and published a paper on them.
I have to admit that I decided to write a paper on
strigoi
out of perversity, almost as a joke. Everybody in my class thought that I was a clown, including myprofessors, and I guess I decided to live up to their expectations. It’s difficult to grow up normal when your father expects you to recite Edward Arlington Robinson to amuse his lunch guests when you’re only four years old, and your mother sings you Romanian lullabies about what will happen to you if you betray love. “If you betray love, you will squirm like a snake, walk like a beetle, and you will own nothing but the dust of the land.”
The Strigoi
Even though she told me so many stories about them, my mother never gave me the impression that she actually believed in the
strigoi
—and she was brought up in Tanacu, where they still cross themselves if a crow flies down their chimney, or a black dog urinates against their gatepost. As recently as the summer of 2005, a priest from the Holy Trinity monastery in Tanacu strangled and crucified a nun because he thought she was possessed by demons.
To begin with, I didn’t believe in the
strigoi
, either—but like I say, I thought it would be a terrific wheeze to write a paper that discussed them as if they
were
real. Only two or three weeks after I had started work on it, however, I began to come across credible documentary evidence that the
strigoi
might be more than imaginary—letters, newspaper reports, even some blurry old photographs. I couldn’t help asking myself: what if they
did
exist? Even more intriguing:
what if they still do
?
I studied the
strigoi
for nearly two years. I made scores of phone calls and talked in person to more than two hundred Romanian immigrants of all ages. I searched through private libraries and smelly old collections of rarebooks. Without realizing it, day by day, I was becoming one of the world’s greatest experts on
strigoi
.
One of the elderly Romanian immigrants I interviewed for my college paper talked to me about his cousin, who became a
strigoi mort
. “He was the handsomest man you ever met. Tall, witty and irresistible to women. But he could be very melancholy, too. Once when he came to visit us I saw him standing by the window and there were tears in his eyes. I asked him what was wrong and he said, ‘Look.’ He reached out his hand and it passed straight through the glass of the window pane without breaking it. I could actually see his hand outside the window, still with his gold wedding band on it. Then he drew his hand back in again, and the glass was completely intact. I felt a chill like nothing I had ever felt before. He said, ‘I am dead, Daniel, and I can never go home again, ever.’ ”
It was this man who first drew me a picture of the wheel which the
strigoi mortii
wear around their necks—a diagonal cross to symbolize a kiss, with a circle around it to represent endlessness. Usually, the
strigoi mortii
fashion the wheels themselves. They use gold from any rings they wore when they were still human, with copper to enhance its electrical conductivity. The wheel is much more than symbolic: it gives the
strigoi mortii
exceptional night vision, and it contains the protective power of absolute evil. Several respected academics suggest that J. R. R. Tolkien was inspired by the wheel when he wrote
The Lord of the Rings
, and that the physical and spiritual degeneration of Gollum is a close parallel to what happens to people when they become infected by
strigoi
. You’ll remember that Gollum’s eyes lit up, so that he could seebetter in the dark, just like the
strigoi mortii
when they wear the wheel.
By the time I had finished writing my paper, I still hadn’t conclusively
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