Tradition / Region: Romanian Mythology
Alternate Names: Prikulitsch; The Stolzenberg Dog Fiend
Category: Dog
The Myth
One night, a villager was walking along the path near the clay pit known as the Leimkel. As he paused beside one of the deep holes, something suddenly tumbled out into the path. It was a thick, black creature, as large as a wolf, rolling from the pit and plunging into the ditch beside the road.
Terrified, the man folded his hands and began to pray the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer protected him, and the creature did not approach. Later he learned what it had been — a Prikulich.
He saw the being again in Stolzenberg itself, once more around midnight. He had just come from his mother’s house when a dark shape slipped out of a courtyard and crossed the street only a few steps in front of him. Its large, dark eyes rolled strangely in its head as it passed.
People in the village said the creature was none other than a Galician Jewish tradesman who had settled there. At night he wandered in the form of a beast, and many claimed to have seen him fighting with the village dogs. They said this was why the man’s face was often torn and scratched.
Once, the gendarmes seized him and stabbed him until he bled. At that moment the creature’s power broke, and he stood before them again in human form. Instead of cursing them, he spoke with relief:
“Thank you for doing this to me. Now I am redeemed.”
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Der Prikulitsch in Stolzenberg. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/stolzenberg.html
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive