Legends of Tallinn
Encyclopedia
Like any other medieval city, Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...

(known historically as Reval) has gathered legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...

s regarding and around itself.

Origin of the name Reval

One of the defensive tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....

s in the town wall that surrounds old Tallinn is called Kiek in de Kök
Kiek in de Kök
Kiek in de Kök is an old German language nickname for towers, mainly those which were parts of town fortifications...

(Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...

: "peek into the kitchen"). There is a sculpture on its wall which depicts a deerhunt in Toompea
Toompea
Toompea is a limestone hill in the central part of the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The hill is an oblong tableland, which measures about 400 by 250 metres, has an area of and is about 20–30 metres higher than the surrounding areas...

 , a district of old Reval. The deerhunt is said to have given the town its old name, Reval.

According to legend the Danish king Valdemar II was hunting for deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 in Toompea when he spotted a beautiful stag. The king liked the animal much and so he ordered it to be caught alive. Unfortunately, the deer escaped, fell from a high limestone bank and broke its neck. In German, Reh-fall means "fall of a deer", and so that is where the name Reval was derived from.

However, the "deer-fall" legend is not supported by any documentary evidence. More likely Reval is derived from the name of the adjacent ancient Estonian county of Revalia (Rävala), and in fact the first recorded occurrences of that name predate the Danish king
Valdemar II of Denmark
Valdemar II , called Valdemar the Victorious or Valdemar the Conqueror , was the King of Denmark from 1202 until his death in 1241. The nickname Sejr is a later invention and was not used during the King's own lifetime...

's first visit
Battle of Lyndanisse
The Battle of Lyndanisse was a battle which helped King Valdemar II of Denmark establish the territory of Danish Estonia during the Northern Crusades. Valdemar II defeated the Estonians at Lyndanisse , during the Northern Crusades, by orders from the Pope...

 to Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

 in 1219 by several years.

Legend of Lake Ülemiste

In the Lake Ülemiste
Lake Ülemiste
Lake Ülemiste is the largest of the lakes surrounding Tallinn, Estonia. Ülemiste is where most of the city gets its drinking water from. The lake is fed mostly by Kurna stream and Pirita River ....

, the largest lake surrounding Tallinn, there is boulder called Lindakivi ("Linda's rock"). In Estonian mythology, it is believed to be one of the boulders Linda
Linda (Estonian mythology)
In the Estonian mythology and Kreutzwald's epic "Kalevipoeg", Linda was the mother of Kalevipoeg and the wife of Kalev.She has given the name to several Estonian locations, including the Lindakivi in Lake Ülemiste...

 was supposed to carry to Kalev's
Kalev (mythology)
In Estonian mythology and Kreutzwald's epic poem "Kalevipoeg", King Kalev was the father of King Kalevipoeg and the husband of Linda.Toompea, a hill in the centre of Tallinn, was said to be the tumulus over his grave, erected by Linda in memory of him. It is now Estonia's centre of government.In an...

 grave at Toompea
Toompea
Toompea is a limestone hill in the central part of the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The hill is an oblong tableland, which measures about 400 by 250 metres, has an area of and is about 20–30 metres higher than the surrounding areas...

, but which fell off her apron. She sat on the boulder and cried, thus creating the lake.

The semi-legendary-mythological "Ülemiste Elder" (Estonian: Ülemiste vanake) is believed to live in the lake. If anyone should meet him, then he is believed to ask: "Is Tallinn ready yet?". If then the other person answered "yes", then he would flood the city. Thus, the correct answer would be: "No, there is much to be done yet". This tale is sometimes viewed as an explanation why Tallinn is building/growing all the time.
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