Circo Vicioso

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keeles ) Few people know my big passion for toponymy, this etimological study of place-names. And when I explain my Iberian friends the word “Tallinn” comes from “Danish town”, they get surprised. Amazed. I even guess some of them had the secret fantasy “Tallinn” wasn’t more than an adulterated form of “Stalin”. Usually I go back to the Battle of Valdemar. Historical romantic ideas always work out. Especially such a powerful image like this: isn’t it lovely to imagine a red flag with a white cross descending from the Baltic skies? What a mighty picture! Actually, this warlike episode explains a lot. Flags are not only holy in Estonia, they are also mushrooming. There is no public holyday without them (unlike Portugal, here they are compulsory in the buildings). Hotels, bars and restaurants like to display proudly a colourful one. Foreigners can buy different shapes of tricolors in any of the multiplying souvenir shops of Tallinn. “But isn’t this a global t...