Saaremaa

• 1. Introduction

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  Saaremaa sits in the Baltic Sea, a roughly 2,673-square-kilometer island that holds within it the ghost of a name most of the world once used instead. For centuries the island was called Ösel, a name derived from the Old Norse Eysýsla, meaning 'the island district.' That older name sticks to everything from Danish maps to German chronicles, and understanding why requires tracing a place that was, at different moments, a pirate stronghold, a crusader prize, a Danish possession, a Swedish territory, and then a Soviet restricted zone. What kind of island accumulates that many identities? The questions this documentary will answer range from how a small island terrorized medieval Scandinavia to why a meteorite crater here inspired legends gathered by a former head of state.

• 2. Pirates and Vikings

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  Njáls saga places Gunnar Hámundarson on the shores of Eysýsla around the year 1000, where he came ashore to meet a man named Tófi and learned of two brothers whose weapons were forged with seething-spells. That encounter gave Gunnar his famous atgeir, a weapon the saga says was so charged that it sang aloud whenever someone was about to be killed with it. The saga's depiction of the island as a place one stumbles into seeking extraordinary things reflects a broader medieval reputation. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a fleet of sixteen ships and five hundred Osilians ravaging the coast of what is now southern Sweden, territory that then belonged to Denmark. Saxo Grammaticus, writing in Gesta Danorum, describes a subsequent battle on Öland in 1170 in which the Danish king Valdemar I mobilized his entire fleet to push back raiders from Courland and Saaremaa. The most striking raid attributed to the islanders came in 1187, when Saaremaa men were among those who attacked the Swedish town of Sigtuna. The Swedish archbishop Johannes died in that raid. Archaeological work at Sigtuna has not confirmed the full scale of destruction the legends describe, and normal life there continued into the 13th century, when post-glacial rebound gradually made the town's waterways harder to navigate. Long before the crusaders arrived, the island's maritime culture was already writing its name into the sagas of neighboring peoples.

• 3. Crusade and Castle

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  In 1227, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword conquered Saaremaa during the Livonian Crusade, founding the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek on the island. Local resistance did not simply dissolve. When the Sword-Brothers were crushed by a Lithuanian army at the Battle of Saule in 1236, the islanders rebelled. The conflict ended with a treaty signed between the Osilians and the Master of the Order; the following year the Sword-Brothers were absorbed into the Teutonic Order. As the new rulers consolidated their grip, Christianity took firmer root, and the island acquired a cluster of medieval churches that still stand today at Kaarma, Karja, Kihelkonna, Muhu, Pöide, Püha, and Valjala. The most durable piece of crusader architecture is Kuressaare Castle, known in German as Schloss Arensburg. Construction began in 1380, built by the Teutonic Order for the bishops of Ösel-Wiek. It remains one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Estonia. In 1559, the entire bishopric was sold to Denmark, beginning a period of Danish control. From 1570 until 1645 the whole island sat under Danish possession, before being ceded to Sweden by the Treaty of Brömsebro. Sweden held it until 1721, when the Treaty of Nystad transferred Saaremaa, along with the rest of Livonia, to the Russian Empire as part of the Governorate of Livonia.

• 4. The Meteorite and Its Legends

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  Kaali is a cluster of nine craters on the island, the result of a meteor that broke apart between 5 and 10 kilometers above the surface and struck the ground at a speed of 10-20 km/s. The largest crater measures 110 m in diameter, reaches a depth of 22 m, and holds a small lake called Lake Kaali. Eight smaller craters, with diameters ranging from 12 to 40 m, all lie within 1 km of the main impact site. The energy released was roughly 80 TJ, comparable to the Hiroshima bomb, and it burned forests within a 6-km radius. Estimates for when this happened range widely. The commonly accepted figure is 4000 ± 1000 BCE, though some researchers argue the explosion occurred as recently as 660 ± 85 BCE. The craters generated a body of legends, which former Estonian President Lennart Meri collected and examined in his book Hõbevalge. Saaremaa may also have been the historic Ultima Thule, the edge-of-the-world location referenced in ancient geographical writing, and the meteorite's dramatic presence on the landscape may have contributed to that reputation among those who encountered it.

• 5. Nature and Flora

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  More than 10,000 years ago, the first parts of Saaremaa emerged from the Baltic Ice Lake, and the land is still rising at a rate of 2 mm per year. The island's foundation is limestone, which has become exposed in cliffs and quarries at Mustjala, Ninase, Pulli, Üügu, and Kaugatuma. This geology, combined with a mild maritime climate and varied soils, supports a striking density of plant life: 80% of all plant species found in Estonia are present on Saaremaa, totaling 1,200 species of vascular plants. About 120 of those species carry special protection status. The most famous endemic species is Rhinanthus osiliensis, a rare flower that grows mainly in spring fens. Of the 36 orchid species found in Estonia, 35 grow on Saaremaa and its neighboring islands. Over 40% of the island is forested, with broad-leaved trees persisting in some areas as relicts of warmer past climates. Wooded meadows and alvars, the limestone plains covered with thin soil and stunted vegetation, were once hallmarks of the island's landscape, but both have been declining as forest encroaches. The coastal waters support populations of gray seals, which gather in three permanent resting areas on islets off the western and southern shores. The island also falls along the East Atlantic Flyway, a migration corridor connecting northeastern Europe with the Arctic. Each year, hundreds of thousands of waterfowl pass through, including barnacle geese, mute swans, whooper swans, and eiders.

• 6. War and Isolation

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  In October 1917, Imperial German forces seized the West Estonian Archipelago during Operation Albion, holding it until the end of hostilities in November 1918. Saaremaa then passed to the newly independent Republic of Estonia. After the August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact, most of the local Baltic German population was resettled to Germany. Soviet forces occupied the island in June 1940 and the USSR formally annexed it in August 1940. On the 8th of August 1941, Soviet Naval Aviation launched a bombing raid on Berlin, flying from Saaremaa. German forces then invaded during Operation Beowulf. Soviet forces returned in the Moonsund Landing Operation in October and November 1944. In 1946, Soviet military authorities declared Saaremaa a restricted zone, barring all non-local civilians, including mainland Estonians and foreigners. That closure lasted until 1989. Estonia regained full independence in August 1991, and Saaremaa with it. The population today is 97% Estonian, with Russians and Finns together comprising less than 3%. Kuressaare's spa tradition, which began in 1840 when the town was still called Arensburg, now anchors a tourism economy: 95% of domestic tourists who visit return, as do 35% of foreign visitors.

• 7. Sport and Notable Figures

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  FC Kuressaare competes in the Meistriliiga, the top tier of Estonian football. The Saaremaa Rally, which began as an amateur competition in 1974 and went professional in 1975, has drawn international competitors since 1993, taking place every October. The Saaremaa Velotuur, a road cycling stage race held since 1957, is the oldest such event in the Nordic countries and the only international one in the Baltic states. Since 1991, Saaremaa has competed in the biannual Island Games, accumulating 126 gold medals, 129 silver medals, and 101.5 bronze medals, for a total of 356.5 medals. Among those who came from the island, Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, born in 1778, led the second expedition to successfully cross the Antarctic Circle. Louis Isadore Kahn, born in 1901, became one of the most influential architects of the mid-20th century. Paul F. Saagpakk, born in 1910, authored the largest Estonian-English dictionary, published in 1982. Arnold Rüütel, born in 1928, served as President of Estonia from 2001 to 2006. Ott Tänak, born in 1987, became an international rally driver, a lineage that connects naturally to the Saaremaa Rally's own history going back to 1974.