Strzyga

 

Slavic mythology is full of surprises, and by surprises I mean horrible monsters that will kill you painfully. This might be caused by the fact that Eastern Europe remained rather wild and unexplored deep into the medieval age and even into the Renaissance, allowing for far more horrible tales to develop. Keep in mind that Baba Yaga, a witch who has the reputation of a cranky and vindictive granny, is actually on the nicer end of the spectrum

Anyway, the entity that will interest us today is the Strzyga, a cursed woman who has returned as a scary, predatory creature that feasts on humans. Its nocturnal lifestyle and habit on eating humans had caused the Strzyga to be associated with vampires, which she definitely shares some resemblances with.  

As mentioned, Strzyga starts as a woman with a curse that gives them two souls, teeth rows and hearts. And since people are always welcoming to those looking slightly different from the masses, these women are always chased off into the forest, where they eventually die. Of course, this is actually the worst thing you can do with these cursed women, as dying by any means but a select few I will cover latter cause them to turn into the actually Strzyga, haunting the surrounding area.

Strzyga always have avian theme appearance, generally the common barn owl, which would explain why these animals aren’t particularly liked in Slavic lands. I mean, would you look at you pet kindly if you heard storied about how it could one day turn into a horrible monter ready to eat you? I don’t think so, and Strzygas aren’t particularly welcoming. Stalking the woodland at night, they wait for isolated travellers to pounce from the air and tear them to pieces while eating them. And it is very hard to see them coming because, well, firstly it is the middle of the night and humans aren’t known to see well in the dark. And secondly, the bloody thing can shapeshift, because everything in Eastern European myths can, so they don’t come at you in their dead-woman-half-owl form all the time.

Now as I mentioned earlier, while they are still humans, there are a couple of ways to kill these women without triggering the Strzyga’s transformations. You have the old classic of decapitation and cremation, in that order preferably. But this being once again Slavic Myths, you have a ton of wacky shits like burring them in strange positions or just slapping them with your left hand.... okay who came up with that?

So if you ever travel to Poland and run into a woman with two sets of teeth, be nice, you never know what could happen once night fall.

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