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Varre (Vars)
Stalk, stem; handle, stock, pole. Aka vart or koot also meaning shinbone, suggesting the more rudimentary tools available to our first agronomists.
Vana-Veerenni (Vana-Veerenn)
Old Channel. Between this and Liivalaia, close to the present-day Sõprus Cinema, was one of Tallinn’s earlier outdoor entertainment parks, the Kivivõllaste paik (lit. place of the stone-built gallows) aka Hukkamispaik (execution square) where guests were hung, drawn, gouached and quartered then their heads and other body parts impaled and displayed in the Timukaaed (hangman’s garden) to encourage a belated sense of civic behavior. During the course of its history, Tallinn has had a variety of places of execution. Raekoja Plats and Toompea (which may have been called Jeruusalemma Mägi [Mount Jerusalem] but where?) and may have been among the earliest, along with another (until 16th C?) in front of Viru Värav (executions inside the city were prohibited by 17-18th C). The main one, however, identified as Võllamägi (gallows hill), was built here at the turn of the 14/15th C, some 50-odd m S of Liivalaia. Archaeology has confirmed the remains of the above-mentioned ‘stone-built gallows’ to be located beneath Swedbank at approx. ///delivers.dogs.organs. But the Karte der Gouvernements-Stadt Reval of 1876 shows a Galgen Berg (also gallows hill) some 600 m further south approximately within the Vana-Lõuna / Pille triangle, also apparently known as Jeruusalemma Mägi or Kolgata (Golgotha). They both seem to share the same dates (14-17th C), and some kind of overlap is suspected, perhaps more for exhibition / warning purposes closer to town and disposal of decaying corpses further away. With topics like this, prurient and anecdotal information abounds. Add salt.
Vana-Lõuna (Vana-Lõuna)
Old South, Southern, Southerly. Runs NE-SW... ‘Old Lunch’, one hopes (see Lõuna), is less likely. Renamed (1959-1991) as Sihveri J. during the Soviet occupation. Street approximately on land once known as Galgen Berg (Gallows Hill), but see Vana-Veerenni.
Tartu (Tartu)
University town in southern central Estonia, settled since 5th C CE, known previously as Dorpat, Tharbata, Yuryev. Ruled by the Poles in the 16th century, the city received its red and white flag from Stephen Bathory (István Báthory), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, one-time Prince of Transylvania, and uncle of Erzsébet Báthory, sometimes known as Countess Dracula for her extremely questionable employment of girls whose blood was said to provide her with eternal youth (possibly, like France’s Gilles de Rais, framed for financial reasons). Happily, Tartoons are given to gentler occupations such as grammar.
