Vlkodlak

(Va-COD-lic)

Variations: Volkodlak, Volkoslak

A vampiric REVENANT from Serbia, the vlkodlak is created by one of two ways. The first method is when a man under 20 years of age who was a murderer, perjurer, or had sexual intercourse with his mother dies. The other way a young man can become a vlkodlak is if he was killed by a werewolf or ate meat from an animal that was slain by a werewolf. No matter how it is that the vlkodlak came into being, it will rise from its grave as a blood-covered, animated corpse, acting the part of a shameless drunkard. It has the power to cause eclipses.

To prevent a potential corpse from rising as a vlkodlak, its thumbs and toes must be cut off and nail driven into its neck. A vlkodlak, unless it is killed, will wander the earth for exactly seven years. At the end of that time, the vampire dies and its soul is reborn into a human, and the cycle begins again in a different part of the country. To destroy one, the vlkodlak must be stabbed through the stomach with a stake made of HAWTHORN and the HAIR on its body covered with tar. Then the vampire must be set ablaze with a candle that was used during its wake. The fire must be hot enough and burn long enough to render the corpse to ash.

Source: Alexander, Mythology of All Races, 299; Mac-Culloch, Celtic Mythology, 229; Mercatante, Good and Evil, 98; Turner, Dictionary of Ancient Deities, 500