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Kalevi (Kalev)
Estonia’s epic hero of uncertain identity, the same name sometimes used to describe the man and his son. Kalev stories are thought to pre-date the separation of Finns and Estonians. Possibly also related to an early name for Tallinn, which the Eastern Slavs knew as Kolyvan, and Al Idrisi, aka Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti (أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي), Arab cartographer*, apparently included a town called Qlwny (قلوري or قلوني or قلون?... original untraced) – which, adding the absent vowels, does resemble Kolyvan – in the geography he completed for Roger II of Sicily in 1154, Nuzhat al-muštāq fī iḫtirāq al-āfāq, better known as Tabula Rogeriana or, simpler still, Roger’s Book. Questions obviously arise as to the accuracy of the name with transliterations hopping from Qlwr to Qlwry and Qlwn to Qalaven, this being considered by some as an approprite approximation of Kallavere, a possible harbor 18-odd km east of Tallinn, along with suggestions that the initial Q should be a T and could be read as Arabic thalž (ثلج), meaning ice, and whether even the town referred to is Tallinn and not, for example, Pärnu. (The entire question needs to be analyzed by a specialist in medieval Arabic script.) See Kalevipoja below.
* His determination of the source of the Nile eliminated the then theory that it was on a hill on the moon.
Kalevala (Kalevala)
Finnish creation myth cum ancestor epic poem compiled by Elias Lönnrot (1802-84), physician, botanist and linguist who, as an intrepid collector of folklore seemed almost as interested in reciting the poems he’d memorized as listening to those of his ministering minstrels. The epic is a mixed bag of approximately-connected stories sharing several features with, and lending to the superficial structure of, Estonia’s Kalevipoeg, and ending with an interesting form of virgin birth where the heroine – plain old (or rather young) shepherd-girl Marjatta (named Neitsy Maaria, or Virgin Mary, by one of Lönnrot’s sources, the Karelian folk singer Arhippa Perttunen [1769-1841(?)]) – becomes pregnant by swallowing a berry, and a berry in Finnish (and Estonian genitive) is Marja. This closing canto hints at Lönnrot’s irritation at Christian elements interfering in tales he preferred to imagine pagan, and very old, as indeed the source material may well be: one point of evidence raised is the lack of mention of obvious neighbors such as Russians, Germans or Swedes. Stories predating Lönnrot’s poem, collected by himself or other folklorists such as Kristfrid (Cristfried?) Ganander (1741-90), include 12 sons of Kaleva, of whom Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Hiisi. Another son is suggested by Kullervo, sometimes known as Kalevanpoika (cf. Estonia’s Kalevipoeg), tragic (or “hapless” according to J.R.R. Tolkien) hero of the book’s second half. Recent years have seen an exploration of the Kalevala as stolen or culturally appropriated from Karelian. To be followed…
Sõjakooli (Sõjakool)
Military school, academy. After the military barracks established in Tondi in the early 20th C under Nicholas II to house the personnel of his Merekindlus, or Naval Fortress. Used as barracks by the Imperial German army in 1918, by the Soviet army during the Soviet occupation, as Defense Forces Academy from 1920-1940 after its removal from the former railway technical school in Tehnika. Part of the Tondi military school group, see Talli.
Rästa (Rästas)
- Thrush. Breeding in Estonia:
- Hallrästas aka paskrästas, fieldfare, Turdus pilaris
- Hoburästas, mistle thrush, T. viscivorus
- Kaelusrästas, ring ouzel, T. torquatus
- Kivirästas, rufous-tailed rock thrush, Monticola saxatilis
- Laulurästas, song thrush, T. philomelos
- Mustpugu-rästas, dark-throated thrush, T. ruficollis
- Musträstas, common blackbird, T. merula
- Vainurästas, redwing, T. iliacus.
Part of the Lilleküla bird-name group of streets. See also Räägu.
