Legend says that once
upon a time the nobles of Tallinn decided to build the tallest church in the
world, in hopes of luring more merchants to the city. But where to find a
master builder capable of carrying out such a task? Suddenly, a large, quiet
stranger appeared out of nowhere and promised to build the church, but the
payment he asked was more than the city could pay. The man was willing to
forego payment, on just one condition - the city people had to guess his name.
The stranger worked fast and talked to no one. The church was nearly finished and the city fathers grew more anxious by the day. Finally, they sent a spy to sniff out the stranger's name. The spy found the builder's home, where a woman was singing a lullaby to a child: "Sleep, my baby, sleep, Olev will come home soon, with gold enough to buy the moon." Now the city people had the man's name! They called out to the builder, who was attaching a cross on the top of the steeple, "Olev, Olev, the cross is crooked!" Upon hearing this, Olev lost his balance and fell all the way down. Legend tells of a frog and a snake that crawled out of Olev's mouth as he lay there on the ground. Building the enormous structure had required the help of dark powers. Yet the builder's name was given to the church, named after St. Olav.
An additional intriguing detail about St. Olav's comes from the Chronicles of Russow. In 1547, a group of acrobats visited Tallinn and tied a rope from the top of St. Olav's steeple to the city wall. They performed dizzying tightrope tricks, to the delight and dismay of the city folk.
Source: http://www.squidoo.com/tallinn-legends
The stranger worked fast and talked to no one. The church was nearly finished and the city fathers grew more anxious by the day. Finally, they sent a spy to sniff out the stranger's name. The spy found the builder's home, where a woman was singing a lullaby to a child: "Sleep, my baby, sleep, Olev will come home soon, with gold enough to buy the moon." Now the city people had the man's name! They called out to the builder, who was attaching a cross on the top of the steeple, "Olev, Olev, the cross is crooked!" Upon hearing this, Olev lost his balance and fell all the way down. Legend tells of a frog and a snake that crawled out of Olev's mouth as he lay there on the ground. Building the enormous structure had required the help of dark powers. Yet the builder's name was given to the church, named after St. Olav.
An additional intriguing detail about St. Olav's comes from the Chronicles of Russow. In 1547, a group of acrobats visited Tallinn and tied a rope from the top of St. Olav's steeple to the city wall. They performed dizzying tightrope tricks, to the delight and dismay of the city folk.
Back in the days of yore, an archery contest was held
each spring to see who could shoot a wooden parrot off the top of a high pole.
It was a serious annual tradition, reserved exclusively for the men of noble
families. One year, so the legend goes, none of the contestants was able to hit
the target. A plucky boy called Thomas was in the crowd. He was from a poor
family, but had learned archery from a young age. Urged on by his friends, he
gave it a shot, hit the parrot, and immediately got into trouble. But instead
of having his ears boxed as his mother expected, he was made an apprentice
guard. Thomas eventually became an expert soldier, performing many heroic deeds
during the Livonian War and serving with distinction to a rife old age. Years
later locals noticed that Town Hall's weather vane, which is shaped like a
soldier with a bushy moustache, looked a lot like their hero guard and started
calling it Old Thomas in his honor. Nowadays Old Thomas, as legend and weather
vane, is a much loved symbol of Tallinn.