Kalevi (Kalev)

Estonia’s epic hero of uncertain identity, the same name sometimes used to describe the man and his son. Kalev stories are thought to pre-date the separation of Finns and Estonians. Possibly also related to an early name for Tallinn, which the Eastern Slavs knew as Kolyvan, and Al Idrisi, aka Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti (أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي), Arab cartographer*, apparently included a town called Qlwny (قلوري or قلوني or قلون?... original untraced) – which, adding the absent vowels, does resemble Kolyvan – in the geography he completed for Roger II of Sicily in 1154, Nuzhat al-muštāq fī iḫtirāq al-āfāq, better known as Tabula Rogeriana or, simpler still, Roger’s Book. Questions obviously arise as to the accuracy of the name with transliterations hopping from Qlwr to Qlwry and Qlwn to Qalaven, this being considered by some as an approprite approximation of Kallavere, a possible harbor 18-odd km east of Tallinn, along with suggestions that the initial Q should be a T and could be read as Arabic thalž (ثلج), meaning ice, and whether even the town referred to is Tallinn and not, for example, Pärnu. (The entire question needs to be analyzed by a specialist in medieval Arabic script.) See Kalevipoja below.

* His determination of the source of the Nile eliminated the then theory that it was on a hill on the moon.