File No. 055 of 446
Strzyga
Also called: strzygoń, striga
The strzyga is a Polish revenant explained by a doubled nature: a person with two souls, of whom only one dies. The surviving soul drives the corpse out of the grave to feed on blood and viscera, usually in owl form. Folklorists recorded a long list of countermeasures, most of them physical restraints applied to the body. The figure overlaps heavily with the upiór, and the two names were long used interchangeably.12
First recorded
1863
Earliest dated source cited is Kornel Kozłowski's 1863 collection of Mazovian folkloreOrigin
Polish and Silesian
PolandWhat causes it
Other
A person born with two souls: at death one departs and the other reanimates the body.How you become one
Being born with two hearts, two souls and a second set of teeth; children born with teeth and sleepwalkers were suspected.
How it moves
Varies
Flies at night in the form of an owl and attacks travellers and people in the woods.Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
- beheading and burying the head separately
- burial face down with a sickle round the neck
- burning
- nails or stakes through the body
- a flint in the mouth
- church bells, which turn it to tar
- pinning the reburied body under a large rock
When did it first appear?
Ancient world
Middle Ages
1500 to 1899
1900 to 1967
1968 to 1999
2000 to 2009
2010 to today
1863Earliest dated source cited is Kornel Kozłowski's 1863 collection of Mazovian folklore
field notes
What the sources say
Could you outrun it?
Speed class from how the sources describe it (varies), not a measurement.
You, walking about 5 km/h
You, jogging about 10 km/h
Strzyga about 10 km/h
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at hello@zombiewiki.app.
Nachzehrer
Upiór
Pień padlocked burial
Shoemaker of Breslau
Vjesci
Jiangshi
Zombi (Haitian)
Strigoi
Vampir (South Slavic)
Abhartach
Arnold Paole