Excerpts :
Princess Marthe Bibesco
Ana Blandiana
Smaranda Braescu
Madelene “Madi” Cancicov
Nina Cassian
Elena Ceausescu
Ioana Celibidache
Queen Elisabeth of Romania
Princess Gregoire Ghica
Princess Ileana of Romania
Dora D’Istria
Monica Lovinescu
Ileana Malancioiu
Queen Marie of Romania
Dr. Agnes Kelly Murgoci
Mabel Nandris
Countess Anna de Noailles
Ana Novac
Oana Orlea
Ana Pauker
Marta Petreu
Elisabeta Rizea of Nucsoara
Sanda Stolojan
Leontina Vaduva
Anca Visdei
Sabina Wurmbrand
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Dr Agnes Kelly Murgoci
Scientist, Ethnographer, wife of Professor
G. Murgoci (b. Fullarton, South Australia, 1875 – d. Isle
of White, England,1929)
Romanian Vampire:
"If the vampire is not recognized as such, and rendered
innocuous [i.e.: if it is not recognized that a person dead
and buried has become a vampire, and steps such as exhuming
the corpse and driving a stake through its heart or cremating
it are not taken], it goes on with its evil ways for seven years.
First it destroys its relations, then it destroys men and animals
in its village and in its country, next it passes into another
country, or to where another language is spoken, and becomes
a man again. He marries, and has children, and the children,
after they die, all become vampires and eat the relations of
their mother."
"There was a time when vampires were as common as leaves
of grass, or berries in a pail, and they never kept still, but
wandered round at night among the people. They walked about
and joined the evening gatherings in the villages, and, when
their were many young people together, the vampires could carry
out their habit of inspiring fear, and sucking human blood like
leeches." "The Vampire in Roumania", ”FOLK-LORE”,
vol. xxvii,
Biography:
Agnes Murgoci, née Kelly studied
Zollogy at Bedford College London and subsequently at the University
of Munich where she was the first woman to take a doctorate
in Zoology. She met and married her future geologist husband
Gheorghe Murgoci, in London and from then on Agnes Murgoci devoted
her life to the research of Romanian folklore and customs. She
became fascinated by the philosophy of the fairy tales and the
relation between body and soul, issued from traditions embedded
in very ancient and primitive pre-Christian cultures. In her
quest for such tales Murgoci learned that the soul would not
leave the body for fourty days after death and sometimes even
years. Such phenomena were linked to the existence of vampires.
The findings of Agnes Murgoci Kelly published in English are
to this day a classic reference on the subject of traditions
relating to vampires.
Agnes Murgoci papers are deposited by her family at the Royal
Holloway College, London. These contain off prints and manuscripts
on Romanian Folklore and Customs, papers on Mineralogy (her
husband’s field) and correspondence.
Bibliography:
Murgoci, Agnes Kelly "The
Vampire in Roumania", ”FOLK-LORE”, vol. xxvii,
no. 5, p. 320-349,1926)
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