duminică, 3 aprilie 2011

Vampires in Romania

The folklore of vampires is of special interest from the light it throws on primitive ideas about body and soul, and about the relation of the body and soul after death.
In this section we present a selection of vampire stories from Romania gathered by Tudor Pamfile (one of the most competent folklorists Romania has ever had) in the Ion Creanga, and cite by Agnes Murgoci in "The Vampire in Romania".

The Girl and the Vampire.

(Story from Ramnicul Sarat.)

Once in a village there were a girl and a youth who were deeply in love, their parents did not know, and when the relations of the youth approached the parents of the girl with a proposal of marriage they were repulsed because the youth was poor. So the young man hanged himself on a tree, and became a vampire. As such he was able to come and visit the girl. But, although the girl had loved the man, she did not much like to have to do with an evil spirit. What could she do to escape from danger and sin? She went to a wise woman, and this wise woman advised her what to do.
The vampire came one evening to make love to the girl and stayed late. When he knew that it was about time to leave, he said,
- "Good night," and made ready to go.

The girl, following the advice of the wise old woman, fixed into the back of his coat a needle, to which was attached one end of the thread from a large ball of thread. The vampire went away, and the ball unrolled and unrolled for some time and then, all at once, it stopped. The girl understood what had happened, and followed the clue given by the thread. She traced it along the road, and found that it entered into the churchyard, and went straight to a grave. There it entered the earth, and that was the end.
She came home, but the next night, as twilight came on, she hastened to the churchyard, and stood some distance from the grave to see what would happen. It was not long before she saw the vampire coming out, going to another grave, opening it, eating the heart of the dead man buried there, and then setting out towards the village to visit her. She followed him as he left the churchyard.
- "Where were you this evening, and what did you see?" asked the vampire after he had greeted her.
- "Where was I? Nowhere, I saw nothing," said the girl.

The vampire continued,
- "I warn you that, if you do not tell me, your father will die."
- "Let him die, I know nothing, I've seen nothing, and I can say nothing."
- "Very well," said the vampire, and indeed in two days the girl's father was dead. He was buried with all due rites, and it was some time before the vampire again came to the girl.

One night, however, he came and made love to her as usual, but before leaving he said,
- "T ell me where you were that evening, because, if you will not, your mother will die."
- "She may die nine times. How can I speak when I know nothing?" answered the girl.
After two days the mother died. She was duly buried. Again some time passed, and the vampire reappeared, and now he said,
- "If you do not tell me what you saw that evening, you shall die too."
- "What if I do?" said she, "it will be no great loss. How can I invent a story, if I know nothing and have seen nothing?"
- "That is all very well, but what are you going to do now, for you are about to die?" replied the vampire.

On the advice of the wise old woman the girl called all her relations together and told them that she was going to die soon. When she was dead they were not to take her out by the door or by the window, but to break an opening in the walls of the house. They were not to bury her in the churchyard, but in the forest, and they were not to take her by the road but to go right across the fields until they came to a little hollow among the trees of the forest and here her grave was to be. And so it happened. The girl died, the wall of the house was broken down, and she was carried out on a bier across the fields to the margin of the forest.
After some time a wonderful flower, such as has never been seen, either before or after, grew up on her grave. One day the son of the emperor passed by and saw this flower, and immediately gave orders that it should be dug up well below the roots, brought to the castle, and put by his window. The flower flourished, and was more beautiful than ever, but the son of the emperor pined. He himself did not know what was the matter, he could neither eat nor drink. What was the matter? At night the flower became again the maiden, as beautiful as before. She entered in at the window, and passed the night with the emperor's son without his knowing it. However, one night she could contain herself no longer, and kissed him, and he awoke and saw her. After that, they pledged troth to each other, they told the emperor and empress, they were married, and they lived very happily together. There was only one drawback to their happiness. The wife would never go out of the house. She was afraid of the vampire.
One day, however, her husband took her with him in a carriage to go to church, when there, at a corner, who should there be but the vampire. She jumped out of the carriage and rushed to the church. She ran, the vampire ran, and just had his hand on her as they both reached the church together. She hid behind a holy picture. The vampire stretched out his hand to seize her, when all at once the holy picture fell on his head, and he disappeared in smoke. And the wife lived with the emperor's son free from all danger and sin for the rest of her life.

Romanian Folk Tales
Tudor Pamfile, "Ion Creanga" 1914



Vampire Stories from Botosani


Vampire Story from Botosani (I)

A girl and a young man were once in love, but the youth died and became a vampire. The girl knew nothing of this. She happened to be alone in her parents' house, and she put out all the lights and went to bed as usual. Now vampires can enter into empty houses or into unclean houses, but the girl's house was clean and holy, so he could not come in.
Instead of coming in he called at the window, speaking in the same tone and using the same words as he did when alive.
- "Stupid girl, come with me," he said, and took her hand and led her, undressed as she was, to his tomb.

- "Go in," he said.
- "No, friend, I'm afraid," she said.

He went in first, and called,
- "Come quicker."
- "Wait," she said, "I've lost my beads. They must have fallen hereabouts."

And she ran and ran until she saw a house with a light. She went in and found a dead man called Avram on a bench. She drew the bolts of the door and lay down in hiding behind the oven. The vampire came after her with true vampire persistency.
He knocked at the window, saying,
- "Avram, open the door."

Avram was himself a vampire, and was going to obey and open the door. But the hen saw what was happening, and said to the cock,
- "Crow, so as to save the poor girl."
- "No, you crow. It is not my turn."

So the hen crowed quickly before Avram could get to the door, and the girl escaped, because she was clean and holy, and vampires do not easily get hold of clean souls.

Vampire Story from Botosani (II)

There was once 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 there were many young people together, the vampires could carry out their habit of inspiring fear, and sucking human blood like leeches. Once, when an evening gathering was in full swing, in came an uninvited guest, the vampire. But no one knew that he was a vampire. He was in the form of a handsome youth, full of fun.
He said "Good day" very politely, sat down on a bank beside the girls, and began to talk, and all the girls imagined that he was a youth from another part of the village. Then the vampire began to tell stories and jokes, so that the girls did not know what to do for laughter. He played and jested and bandied words with them without ceasing.
But there was one girl to whom he paid special attention, and teased unmercifully.
- "Keep still, friend. Have I done anything to annoy you?" said she.

But he still kept on pinching her, till she was black and blue.
- "What is it, friend? You go too far with your joke. Do you want to make an end of me?" said the poor girl.
At the moment her distaff fell. When she stooped to pick it up, what did she see? The tail of the vampire. Then she said to the girl next to her,
- "Let's go. Run away. The creature is a vampire."

The other girl was laughing so much that she did not understand. So the girl who knew the dreadful secret went out alone into the yard, on the pretext that she had to take some lengths of woven linen to the attic. Frightened out of her wits, she ran away with the linen, she ran into a forest, old as the world and black as her fear.
Her companions at the gathering awaited her return. They looked and waited until they saw that she was not coming back. Where could she be?
- "You must fetch her wherever she is," roared the vampire, with bloodshot eyes and hair standing on end.

As the girl could not be found, the vampire killed all the rest of the merrymakers. He sucked their blood, he threw their flesh and bones under the bed, cut off their lips, and put their heads in a row in the window. They looked as if they were laughing. He strung up their intestines on a nail, saying they were strings of beads, and then he fled away. He arrived at the forest where the girl had taken refuge, and found her under a beech-tree.
- "Why did you come here, little girl? Why did you run away from the gathering?"
The girl, poor thing, was so frightened that her tongue clove to her mouth, and she could say nothing.
- "You are afraid, little girl. Come home with me. You will feel better there."
Then, involuntarily, she asked,
-"Where?" "Here in the forest. Come quicker," said the vampire.

They arrived at a hole in the depth of the forest, and she saw that this was the home of the vampire. He pressed her to enter first.
- "No, no. I don't want to. You go first."
So the vampire went in, and began to sweep and clear up. The girl, however, stopped up the hole with the lengths of linen, and fled quickly towards the east. In her flight she saw a little light a long way off. She ran towards the light, came to a house, and found it empty, except for a dead man, who was lying stretched out on a table, with a torch at his head, and his hands crossed on his breast. What was she to do? She entered the house, climbed up on to the stove, and went to sleep, worn out by suffering and fear. And she would have rested well, had not the terrible vampire pursued her. He had thrown aside the linen, and rushed after her, mad with rage. He came into the house, and the dead man rose, and they fought and wrestled till the cock crew and the girl awoke. Now the light was out, the dead man was gone, and the only sound was the song of the little cricket. The girl was left alone with her guardian angel. The dead man and the vampire both vanished at cockcrow, for both were vampires. Waking up in the darkness, the girl looked round the house three times, thought she was at home and had had a horrible dream, and then fell asleep again calmly and fearlessly. When she woke again, and saw all the beauties of the forest, and heard all the songs of the birds, she was amazed and thought herself in heaven. She did not stop long in wonder, but set out for her parents' house, hoping to bring them back with her.
She reached her home, and began to tell about the vampire and how he had gone, and what beautiful things she had seen in the woods of paradise. The parents looked at her, and, full of amazement and doubt, made the sign of the cross. The girl sank into the ground, deeper and deeper, for she too had become a vampire, poor thing. The vampire had bewitched her, and the beauty of the dwelling in the wood had enchanted her too much.

Vampire Story from Botosani (III)

There was an evening gathering in the village, as is the custom. But the youths and maidens present were not the children of well-to-do peasants. The gathering was held in a deserted house; the youths were a noisy, laughing, mocking crowd who made themselves heard from one end of the village to the other, and the girls were just like them. They made a great fire, the girls started spinning, the boys told all kinds of jokes, and the girls shook with laughter.
After it had grown late, three young men, unknown to the company, entered the house.
- "Good evening, good evening," was said, and they joined in the general conversation. While everyone was talking, one of the girls dropped her distaff. The distafffell under the strangers' feet, and the girl stooped to pick it up.

When she went back to her seat she was as white as chalk. "What is it?" asked one of those near her. And the girl murmured that the three strangers had horses' hooves instead of feet. What was to be done? They whispered to one another, and to the boys, that the three strangers were vampires, not men. Then one by one, one by one, they slipped out of the door, and wended their ways homewards. The three vampires remained as vampires, but they did not remain alone in the house, for there was a girl asleep on the oven.
With the dawn of the next day, the sister of the sleeping girl, together with some friends, came to see what had happened to her. When they were still some distance from the house they saw a grinning face looking out of the window
- "Oh, oh," they said, "our sister is laughing."
They drew nearer, and, entering into the house, were horror-struck and made the sign of the cross. It was the head only which was in the window; the lips were cut off, and so the face seemed to smile. Her intestines were stretched out on the nails and on shelves, and the whole house was stained with blood. Poor girl!
Romanian Folk Tales
Tudor Pamfile, "Ion Creanga" 1914




Vampire Stories from Siret


In the two following vampire stories from Siret, vampires are thought of as wizardlike beings, being men or women capable of projecting their soul from their body at will.


Vampires story from Siret (I)

A woman from Siret tells the following:
Vampires are just like other folk, only that God has ordained that they should wander over the country and kill people. There was one that wandered through ten villages, killing their inhabitants. He had a little house in the plain, which was always empty except when he himself was there. One day he thought of going on a journey, and baked bread in preparation. He made ten loaves and put them on the table.

Twelve men who were going to work passed the cottage, and noticed that there was a light. One of the men said,
- "I'11 just go in and light my pipe."

They all entered, and the vampire became a cat. The men saw that there was no human being in the house, so they took all the loaves, except one, which they left because they had seen the cat. This was lucky for them, for otherwise they would all have been bewitched and died.
The vampire went round the villages, taking with him the one loaf.
When the men returned from work, they again passed the cottage and again saw a light. They entered, and this time saw the vampire, who told them of their escape. Their luck was great, for in all the villages where the vampire had wandered he had killed men and torn them to bits.

 

Vampires story from Siret (II)

An old man with some soldiers was driving in a cart in Transilvania, trying to find where he could get some hay. Night came on during their journey, so they stopped at a lonely house in a plain. The woman of the house received them, put maize porridge ( mamaliga ) and milk on the table for them, and then went away.
The soldiers ate the maize porridge, and after their meal looked for the old woman to thank her, but were unable to find her. Climbing up to the attic to see if she was there, they found seven bodies lying down, one of which was the woman's. They were frightened and fled, and, as they looked back, they saw seven little lights descending on the house.
These were the souls of the vampires. Had the soldiers turned the bodies with their faces downwards, the souls would never have been able to enter the bodies again.
Romanian Folk Tales
Tudor Pamfile, "Ion Creanga" 1914



The Vampire in Romania

(by Agnes Murgoci - selections)

In Russia, Roumania, and the Balkan states there is an idea - sometimes vague, sometimes fairly definite - that the soul does not finally leave the body and enter into Paradise until forty days after death. It is supposed that it may even linger for years, and when this is the case decomposition is delayed. In Roumania, bodies are disinterred at an interval of three years after death in the case of a child, of four or five years in the case of young folk, and of seven years in the case of elderly people. If decomposition is not then complete, it is supposed that the corpse is a vampire; if it is complete, and the bones are white and clean, it is a sign that the soul has entered into eternal rest. The bones are washed in water and wine and put in clean linen, a religious service is held, and they are reinterred.
In Bukovina and the surrounding districts there was an orgy of burials and reburials in the years 1919 and 1920, for not only were people dying of epidemics and hardships, but also the people who had died in the early years of the war had to be disinterred.
It is now considered to be exceptional that a spirit should reanimate its body and walk as a vampire, but, in a vampire story quoted below, it is said that they were once as common as blades of grass. It would seem that the most primitive phase of the vampire belief was that all departed spirits wished evil to those left, and that special means had to be taken in all cases to prevent their return. The most typical vampire is therefore the reanimated corpse. We may call this the dead-vampire type.
People destined to become vampires after death may be able in life to send out their souls, and even their bodies, to wander at crossroads with reanimated corpses. This type may be called the live-vampire type. It merges into the ordinary witch or wizard, who can meet other witches or wizards either in the body or as a spirit.
A third type of vampire is the vârcolac , which eats the sun and moon during eclipses.
A typical vampire of the reanimated-corpse type may have the attributes of a lover, as in Scott's William and Helen. The zmeu may also be such a lover.
The strigele (sing. striga ) are not really vampires, but are sometimes confused with them. They are spirits either of living witches, which these send out as a little light, or of dead witches who can find no resting place. These strigele come together in uneven numbers, seven or nine. They meet on rocky mountains, and dance and say:
Nup, Cuisnup,
In cas a cu ustoroi nu ma duc.

[Nup, Cuisnup, I won't enter any
house where there is garlic.]
They are seen as little points of light floating in the air. Their dances are exquisitely beautiful. Seven or nine lights start in a line, and then form into various figures, ending up in a circle. After they break off their dance, they may do mischief to human beings.
As regards the names used for vampires, dead and alive, strigoi (fem. strigoica ) is the most common Roumanian term, and moroii is perhaps the next most usual. Moroii is less often used alone than strigoi . Usually we have strigoi and moroii consorting together, but the moroii are subject to the strigoi . We find also strigoi , moroii , and vârcolaci , and strigoi and pricolici used as if all were birds of the same feather. A Transilvanian term is siscoi . Vârcolaci ( svârcolaci ) and pricolici are sometimes dead vampires, and sometimes animals which eat the moon. Oper is the Ruthenian word for dead vampire. In Bukovina, vidme is used for a witch; it covers much the same ground as strigoi (used for a live vampire), but it is never used for a dead vampire. Diavoloace, beings with two horns and spurs on their sides and feet, are much the same as vidme.
The nature spirits (ielele and dansele) usually have disenchantments of their own, for they work apart from vampires and wizards, who are beings of human origin. While the peasant groups nature spirits apart from the more human workers of evil, he groups the living and the dead together, for the caster of the evil eye and the bewitcher are living men, though prospective vampires. The vampire, in fact, forms a convenient transition between human workers of evil and the devil, who resembles the dead vampire in not being alive in the flesh.
The vampire (a reanimated corpse) and the devil (a spirit) ought not, strictly speaking, to be alike, but the peasant, finding it difficult to imagine a spirit without a body, thinks of the devil in the form of a crow or a cat, or even in a quasi-human form. The devil is a target for the thunderbolts of St. Elijah, and can be transfixed by one. Even the spirit of a living man, if separated from his body, must have some body or form. In Transilvania it is thought that many people can project their soul as a butterfly. In Valcea souls of vampires are considered to be incarnated in death's-head moths, which, when caught, should be impaled on a pin and stuck to a wall to prevent their flying further. A small, graceful thing which flutters in the air like a butterfly or a moth is as near as these peasants can get to the idea of pure spirit. The peasant in Siret goes a step further when he conceives of the soul as a little light. He has got beyond what is tangible.
The belief in vampires has often caused trouble to the rulers of Roumania. Ureche, in his History of Roumania, quotes the following:
In 1801, on July the 12th, the Bishop of Siges sends a petition to the ruler of Wallachia, that he should order his rulers of provinces to permit no longer that the peasants of Stroesti should dig up dead people, who had already been dug up twice under the idea that they were vârcolaci [term here used instead of strigoi].
In the Biserica Orthodoxa Romana (an 28) there is the following:
The Archbishop Nectarie (1813-19) sent round a circular to his higher clergy (protopopes) exhorting them to find out in what districts it was thought that the dead became vampires. If they came on a case of vampirism they were not to take it upon themselves to burn the corpse, but to teach the people how to proceed according to the written roll of the church.

The tests to determine whether any dead man is a vampire, or not, are as follows:
  1. His household, his family, and his live stock, and possibly even the live stock of the whole village, die off rapidly.
  2. He comes back in the night and speaks with the family. He may eat what he finds in dishes and knock things about, or he may help with the housework and cut wood. Female vampires also come back to their children. There was a Hungarian vampire which could not be kept away, even by the priest and holy water.
  3. The priest reads a service at the grave. If the evil which is occurring does not cease, it is a bad sign.
  4. A hole about the size of a serpent may be found near the tombstone of the dead man. If so, it is a sign of a vampire, because vampires come out of graves by just such holes.
  5. Even in the daytime a white horse will not walk over the grave of a vampire, but stands still and snorts and neighs.
  6. A gander, similarly, will not walk over the grave of a vampire.
  7. On exhuming the corpse, if it is a vampire it will be found to be:
    1. red in the face, even for months and years after burial,
    2. with the face turned downwards,
    3. with a foot retracted and forced into a corner of the grave or coffin.
    4. If relations have died, the mouth will be red with blood. If it has only spoilt and ruined   things at home, and eaten what it could find, the mouth will be covered with maize meal.
Agnes Murgoci - The Vampire in Roumanie 1926

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