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Kanuti (Kanut)
Confusion in the Danish House of Knut (Canute). Canute’s Guild, Kanuti Gild, was a Hanseatic merchant guild involving the more complex crafts: mainly goldsmiths, watchmakers, milliners, but also bakers, shoemakers and painters. First recorded 1326, probably founded 13th C, disbanded 1920. Name comes from Knut Lavard (1090ish-1131), Duke of Schleswig and sovereign over the Western Wends, canonized 1171, feast day January 7, the day on which he was assassinated. Knut Lavard was nephew of Knut IV (1043ish-1086), aka Canute the Saint / the Holy, great-nephew of Knut the Great (985ish-1035). Knut IV’s official Catholic feast-day is January 19, but celebrated on January 13 in Estonia, Sweden and Finland, apparently for his decreeing that Christmas last 20 days. Since both were saints, both were nephews of a King Knud, both had feast days in January, confusion seems inevitable. Some of the more fervent Estonians still celebrate Canute’s day, Nuudipäev, (any date ranging from January 13 to January 7) by drinking. Both street and park/garden, see Kanuti Aed.
Dunkri
(Hans Dunker, 16th C)
Although Dunker is an old Germanic name for someone who lived near a swamp – historically, pretty much applicable to anyone in Estonia – it seems this was a 16th‑C merchant, originally from Lübeck, prime city of the Hanseatic League, as well as Tafelbruder (see Eppingi torn) and/or alderman. Having been the street’s name for the past 400-odd years, it has inevitably been wrangled into cosier interpretations: Drunckerstraße (1528), possibly, but not 100% sure, ‘drunkard’s street’, the word was sometimes used for ‘drunk’ at about that time, along with drunkener (1400-50), drunkerner (1501) and drunck (±1600); then Dunkelstraße or Темная ул. (Temnaya), dark street (1701, etc.), and whatever the Estonian frontal cortex believed Tunkle ulits (1732) to be. Renamed during the Soviet occupation as Vilde E. (1950-1963) then Vana Tooma (1963-1987). Prior to all this, things get a bit muddled, causing many a sleepless night... Its earliest date (1378) is given by Kivi who says it was known as platea qua itur ad sanctum Nicolaum in opposito putei, or road which goes to Saint Nicholas’, passing by the well (möödudes kaevust) but this looks like a mistake. The main source material here is Nottbeck III II, and my take on this, and I could be wrong, is that Nottbeck was describing the location of a property “opposite the well on the road to Saint Nicholas’”, a point he emphasizes by his comment in the appendix, vielleicht derselbe (perhaps the same one), presumably the Rataskaev well. In which case the platea would refer to Rataskaevu, not Dunkri. In 1439, it was recorded as klene strate bi den sc(h)oboden, alse men geit na deme sternssode, little street near the shoeshops (for more on these, see Raekoja plats) by which you go to the sternssode, and in 1443 as (lutke) strate achter der munte, (little) street behind the mint, logical since by then the mint was at Niguliste 6, stretching north to abut onto Dunkri. However, in the 2nd half of the 15th C, the name started shifting again, and now it seems definitely along the lines of Sternestrate achter munte (1463), sternestrate (1469 & 1489), and strate achter der munte (1478), all variations of sterne street behind the mint, the sterne coming from the name of the well in Rataskaevu.
Falgi
(Hans Heinrich Falck, 1791-1874)
Cabinet-maker, clavier manufacturer, Toompea craftsman’s guild elder, alderman and land-owner. Important agent in Tallinn urban development, involved in planting thousands of trees in the mid-1800s to stabilize the sandy earth, building Toompea tänav, and other incentives. First known as Falckensteg (Falck [foot-]bridge) in 1882 and moving through a variety of Russian names including, first, Фалькенштегская ул. (Falkenstegskaya), Фалькскій подъемъ (Falkiy ascent) and Соколиный спуск (Falcon descent, date uncertain, poss. a misinterpretation of the above Falkensteg [i.e. without the ‘c’] or typical Soviet repression), but also, in part, Балтийскопортский подъем (Baltiyskoportsky Rise), this being during the building of what is now Paldiski maantee. Collectivized (1948-1989) along with Komandandi under the name of Nõukogude during the days of wine and roses.
Komandandi (Komandant)
Commandant. In 1856, Hans Heinrich Falck (see Falgi) bet Tallinn governor Baron Alexander Woldemar von Saltza (1801-1884, oddly, seemingly unrelated to Hermann von Salza [c. 1165-1239], fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights) that he could build a road from Toompea to Paldiski within a month (which he paid for largely out of his own pocket). Falck won. Having lost the bet, Salza built this one at his own expense in 1860-61, earning its name of Kommandanten-Steg (commandant [foot-]bridge, 1882, see above-mentioned Toompea for details), later (1948-1989) purged and merged with Falgi into Nõukogude during the Soviet occupation, and renamed as Kominterni for a couple of months in 1941.
