Marija Stalbova Eglīte’s braid. Wheat-coloured hair, braided. The top of the braid is braided in a particular way, and is fastened with cotton yarn. RTMM 718887

Viktors Eglītis with Marija Stalbova–Eglīte, early 20th century. Photographer unknown. RTMM 692128

Marija Stalbova–Eglīte sitting on a rock at the edge of a forest, 1913. Photographer: Viktors Eglītis. RTMM 723386

Marija Eglīte with her son Vidvuds sitting in her lap. Viktors Eglītis and their other son, Anšlavs, are sitting in a hammock, 1913. Photographer unknown. RTMM 723388

Edvarts Virza’s letter to Marija Eglīte. Rīga, 25th August, 1919. RTMM 578273

Marija Stalbova-Eglīte (1878–1926), also known as “Golden-Haired Marija”, was at the centre of attention in Latvian society in the early 20th century for more than just her delicate beauty and unusual wheat-coloured hair. Well-educated, with a cultivated intelligence, and a gift for music and languages, she was irresistible and a source of inspiration to many famous men of that time – including Emīls Dārziņš, Edvarts Virza and Voldemārs Dambergs. However, a turning point in Marija’s life was getting married to poet Viktors Eglītis, whose beliefs she was willing to sacrifice anything for. Marija, who taught at the Voldemārs Maldonis and Irbe School, as well as translating works by Alfred de Musset, and other examples of French and German literature, became the companion and supporter of an ideological innovator who promoted change; a decadent spirit who wanted to bring Latvian literature closer to the currents of modern European literature.

May’s Artefact of the Month is Marija Stalbova-Eglīte’s braid, which introduces the theme of this discussion: “Can a golden-coloured braid change opinions of a woman’s place and role in society?” The most probable answer to this rhetorical question is that it is unlikely that it can, similar to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s unresolved idea about beauty being the saviour of the world. However, it is indisputably the case that many different cultures around the world believe that beautiful hair is a woman’s most magnificent adornment, as well as a symbol of magical attraction.

The first serious display of attention to Miss Marija was offered by the most loved representative of the world of music in Latvia – Forever Yours, Emīls Dārziņš. In a letter written in 1901 (see Emīls Dārziņš. Piemiņas krājums. Editor: V. Peņģerots, 1925), the composer expresses an unmistakable and passionate desire for Marija to consent to marry him, seeing the young woman as his future companion and greatest happiness. In this letter, he reflected on their first meeting in person, when “I had the opportunity to gaze into your bright eyes, and I could see your hair with its golden lustre, which reminds me so much of my mother when she was young and beautiful.” Emīls Dārziņš’s doomed love never found fruition in reality, but the image of Marija (a divine name which was also borne by other women who were important in his life) had a strong impact on the pure and delicate music written by this composer before he was prematurely taken from this world. The composition “Vēl tu rozes plūc” (words by R. Blaumanis), written in an Apollonian spirit, was dedicated to Marija Stalbova-Eglīte, whose spiritual purity, brightness and virginity, similar to the vernal image of Aphrodite, was blessed by the immortal gods, who gifted her flowers and golden locks of hair. It is well-known that Emīls Dārziņš was involved in Lutheranism and Vidzeme traditions of Hernhutism, which is why it is a little unusual that the melody of “Melanholiskais valsis” came to him in a daydream in which he saw the Virgin Mary. It is possible that the composer’s soulful longing for Marija’s unattainable love expressed itself in this way, in religious form.

Marija Stalbova-Eglīte’s heart was conquered by Viktors Eglītis, a friend of Emīls Dārziņš’s from his youth, and she gave him her hand in marriage. Marija and Viktors had two sons, Anšlavs and Vidvuds. All men who came into close contact with Marija saw beyond her undeniable beauty and sexual attraction and felt a spiritual connection with her. Marija, making the greatest choice of her life in deciding to marry Viktors Eglītis, wanted to be worthy of his liberal beliefs and dissolve the petty narrow-mindedness and possessive instincts which prevent wives from accepting other women in their husbands’ life. At the height of their love in 1907, the same year that Edvarts Virza published his collection of poems called Biķeris, Viktors Eglītis wrote a collection of poems entitled Elēģijas. In this poetry, in the light of satanic symbolism and through carnal, sensual, blind drunkenness, the poet saw his beloved wife, woman: “And the pure face under the ashes of hair, Glows, laughs and stiffens like rust.” (“Sieviete”/”Woman”). The same pages also contain one of the greatest pearls of Latvian love poetry, raising Marija to divine heights.

I love your golden hair,
Which wraps your flesh in sunlight;
The incredibly dear, blue gaze,
Which meets me like heaven pure.

I love your silent spirit,
Which loses itself in despair and aching;
Which is restless in endless thirst
To drown, to climb with force.

I love your madness,
To grasp, to hold me in your arms,
To sink twice into the abyss, into doubt, into torment,
And to bend me to your will.

(“Es mīlu”/”I love”)

Viktors Eglītis, a man of very high self-assurance, did not view physical fidelity as important, considering it to be irrelevant in cases of true love, and he encouraged his wife to explore sensations. It is possible that the poet’s boldness brought him disappointment, since Edvarts Virza, while walking a similar artistic path as Viktors Eglītis, achieved a lot more, and also became his friend’s competitor to his friend in matters of love. Under the spell of his feelings, Edvarts Virza wrote “Veltījums” (“A Dedication”) to his Dear Marīte (“Dievišķīgās rotaļas” – 1919), masterfully depicting her hair as pure gold:

You, made of fire and snow,
How days fly by while loving you!
You appear rosy and tender –
No more waking hours, no more sleep –
Only love alone.

Fame flies high above nations,
This destroyed, this built by her;
It’s your love that brings me that,
No sun, nor stars for me,
There’s only the gold of your hair.

Golden-haired Marija’s legendary braid connected Latvian creative giants to each other, and it has become immortal in the world of art. Its immortality turned out to be quite literal since it did not follow her into the afterlife. When Viktors Eglītis, Edvarts Virza and Voldemārs Tone gathered at the Inčukalns teachers’ sanitarium to bid their farewells to their beloved woman, they took a death mask of Marija and cut off her braid, which Marija’s youngest son, Vidvuds, afterwards kept in a family cupboard along with other keepsakes of his mother.

• The highlighted text in the excerpts from the letters and poems have been chosen by the author of this article.