Names
Olevimägi (Olevimägi)
Olev’s mountain or hill. Street first identified as mons arenae, hill of sand (dated 1312 in TT, but 1332/3 in Arbusov?), then Zantberg, sand hill (1337), and possibly de isern doere, MLG for ‘iron door’, in the 15-16th C which may be a conflation with the same in Sulevimägi. Following this, few records until 1732 when the Brookus name appears: der Brocks-Berg in German and prooks mäggi in old-style Estonian. Variants of Broksmägi, Brokusmägi and Suur Brookusmägi (to differentiate it from Sulevimägi) occurred until the 1920s and switched definitively to its current name in 1935.
Oleviste (Olevist?)
Olev’s, after the church alongside which it runs (built by Olev the giant [no relation to Olevi] and/or fairytale stranger who promptly died upon completing the spire. Please do not doubt this, although some skeptics insist on claiming it was named for Saint Olaf, 995-1030, enslaved as a young lad on Saaremaa, later King Olaf II of Norway); church reputed to be (in other words, probably wasn’t) the tallest building in the world from 1549 to 1625, at which point (pun intended) the spire burnt down due to lightning. Interestingly, Ben Franklin was one of the first to write about the arrogance of putting lightning-conductors on church steeples. Since lightning was considered an ‘Act of God’, who are mortals to block His meteorological spam? Since the spire was struck by lightning about 10 times, kudos to the Estonians for trying. The –(i)ste ending may be from the old Norse.
Õllepruuli (Õllepruul)
Brewer. Pruul from MLG brūwer or brūere, brewer. Known as Brauereistraße or Пивоваренная (Pivovarennaya) in 1907, one year before its Estonian naming, then Brauereigasse in 1942 (due to a higher local Wort ratio…) In 1958, the street seems to have ceased to exist, although today it’s the road leading to Laidoneri Villa, named for Johan Laidoner (1884-1953), one of Estonia’s most notable military men, deported to Siberia in 1940, and died in the infamous Vladimir Central Prison used for political prisoners of the Soviet regime.
