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Härjapea (Härjapea)
Literally, ox-head. Two main interpretations: 1) as reflected in its earlier German name, Kleestraβe (1881, clover street), after the copious clover covering the land the road was originally built on, both keskmine ristik, zigzag clover, Trifolium medium and valge ristik, white clover, T. repens, have the alternative names of härjapea or valge (white) härjapää. 2) More likely, the name of Tallinn’s main river that used to flow from Ülemiste lake to the sea at Tallinna bight, covered over in 1914 and converted into sewage canal in 1937 (see Jõe). The expression nomen est omen is commonly-used in onomastics, implying a name to be indicative of future events, often with exaggerated doses of wishful thinking. But it’s usually the other way round: apophenia is believing an association between unrelated phenomena (think Jesus toast, etc.) and what I call topophenia is believing one between a placename and an unrelated phenomenon, for example, Moscow’s ‘Red Square’ being named for ‘redness’, communist or otherwise, when the archaic or idiomatic meaning of красная in Красная площадь (Krasnaya ploshchad' [square]) was ‘beautiful’. Likewise, Красный угол (Krasnyy ugol), which can be translated ‘red corner’, but more commonly ‘icon corner’ or ‘sacred corner’, akin to a western ‘home altar’, is a sort of theologically up-market part of a house, almost the opposite of бабий кут (babiy kut, or ‘stove’ corner, see Saiakang). A place is named for its distinctive character (perceived or otherwise, as we’ve seen before: the Iron Gate, By the Riverbank, Church Street and so on. The earliest records of this name include Haryenpe (1283), Haryempe (1345), Haryenpe (1363). What do we have? If these are actual precursors of härjapea, which they may well be, what would ‘ox head’ have signified? A geographical feature? The site of a sacrifice? The question is open. One suggestion in DEPn is that a härjapea might also have been the name for a pulle (bull), or stone roller, used to haul ships over land, a technique used by the Varangians (with logs, not stone) on their way to the Black Sea and if the ancient Greeks could see a great bear in the shape of a saucepan, anything is possible. Notwithstanding the previous entry (see Härgmäe), härg is said to be a ‘Baltic’ loan word, with modern-day Lithuanian and Latvian being žirgas and zirgs respectively, and former Prussian sirgis. Drop the initial letter and the result is irg-, close enough to erg and ärg, the adding an ‘h’ to which is an Estonian evidence. Interestingly however, while the Lithuanian and Latvian meant horse, and the Prussian gelding, other neighboring Finnic languages (Finnish, Livonian, Veps, Votic, etc.) amble around ox, steer, bull, etc., which EES convincingly suggests is due to a perception of function (draft) rather than form (animal).
Hariduse (Haridus)
Education, training, schooling. After the Ministry of Education which has offices in this street although, with characteristic Estonian flair, the official address is Tõnismägi. Known in the mid-19th C as Vaestepatuste (poor sinners), or Ger. Armesündergasse (condemned man’s alley or ‘dead man walking’), for being the quickest (no pun intended) route from Toompea to Võllamägi (Gallows Hill, see Vana-Veerenni). Although this may be a myth or a legacy of local memory: public executions seem to have stopped by the mid-18th C. Later (1896), to prevent suspicious characters skulking about, the police asked it to be closed, earning it the name Suletud or Sperrgasse, Closed Street. However, that might have referred only to the section north of present-day Pärnu since the ‘Pharus-Plan Reval’ street map of Tallinn gives it as carrying on south, crossing Ahju as a T-junction and on to Liivalaia, a section which, interestingly, no longer exists.
