There is a special little store in Tallinn’s vanalinn specialising in TINY – it sells miniature characters and everything they might need to live comfortably. The shop itself is also excruciatingly tilluke or pisike. The inhabitants of Nukupood at the corner of Raekoja plats (the Town Hall Square) and Vanaturu kael (the “neck” or street extending up from the Old Market below) are all hand-made locally, accounting for their friendly, maavillane (“earth-woolly”) aura.
Knitted finger puppet foxes, wolves and siilid (hedgehogs), all manner of dolls, including those in rahvarõivad (folk costumes), wooden farmyard animals, päkapikud (elves) and mini-versions one of the most famous characters in Estonian children’s literature, the rag doll Sipsik created by Eno Raud and artist Edgar Valter in the 1960s – they all reside here until adopted and seem to have an air of knowing far more about the mysteries and true spirit of vanalinn than any of us could ever hope to.
Where päkapikud tread
Archived Articles | 17 Dec 2007 | EWR
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