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Tallinn
is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It is situated on
the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of
Finland, 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki. In 1154 a town called
Qlwn or Qalaven (possible derivations of Kalevan or Kolyvan) was
put on the world map of the Almoravid by cartographer Muhammad
al-Idrisi who described it as a small town like a large castle
among the towns of Astlanda. It has been suggested that the
Quwri in Astlanda may have denoted the predecessor town of
today's Tallinn. The earliest names of Tallinn include Kolyvan (Russian:
Колывань) known from East Slavic chronicles, the name possibly
deriving from the Estonian mythical hero Kalev. Up to the 13th
century the Scandinavians and Henry of Livonia in his chronicle
called the town Lindanisa: Lyndanisse in Danish, Lindanäs in
Swedish, also mentioned as Ledenets in Old East Slavic.
According to some theories the name derived from mythical Linda,
the wife of Kalev and the mother of Kalevipoeg. Who in an
Estonian legend carried rocks to her husband's grave that formed
the Toompea hill. It has been also suggested that in the context
the meaning of linda in the archaic Estonian language, that is
similar to lidna in Votic, had the same meaning as linna or linn
later on meaning a castle or town in English. According to the
suggestion nisa would have had the same meaning as niemi (meaning
peninsula in English) in an old Finnish form of the name
Kesoniemi. Other than Kesoniemi known ancient historical names
of Tallinn in Finnish include Rääveli. The Icelandic Njálssaga
mentions Tallinn and calls it Rafala, which is a variant of the
name Raphael. The incident may have happened around year 1000.
After the Danish conquest in 1219 the town became known in the
German, Swedish and Danish languages as Reval (Latin: Revalia).
The name originated from (Latin) Revelia (Estonian) Revala or
Rävala, the adjacent ancient name of the surrounding Estonian
county. |
