Names
Vaagi (Vaak)
Not ‘weighing-scales’ as originally thought (vaag:vae or vaag:vaaki), but flowering-plants of the Inula genus, with three species growing in Estonia: aedvaak, the elecampane of multiple medico-mythical properties named after Helen of Troy from whose tears it sprung (botanists remain sceptical) and used in making absinthe, Inula helenium; pajuvaak (willow/osier vaak), the Irish fleabane or willowleaf yellowhead, I. salicina; and inglise vaak, the British yellowhead, I. britannica.
Vaalu (Vaal)
Swathe, bank and windrow. Varied: multiple conflicting definitions and translations found. A common interpretation is ‘windrow’ (see Loo), but this concerns hay and doesn’t tally with its use in reference to cabbages, or trees, or sand or snow, where ‘bank’ is more appropriate. The common feature seems to be largely organic (farm or swidden) materials pushed to one side in a row either manually or by the wind. Other dialect and long-past acceptions include: a notch made in a tree by an axe, a single-roller mangle for drying or smoothing clothes, or the wing of a seine net. Given its neighbors, a swathe or a windrow. Mini hay-related group. See Kahlu.
