This source publication brings to the public a little-known instance of Marju Lepajõe’s mischief in the field of the history of Estonian literature and culture, namely her activity in organising and making sense of gatherings of her fellow students in her university days.

The Estonian religious historian, classical philologist, and translator Marju Lepajõe (28 October 1962–4 July 2019) studied Estonian philology at the University of Tartu Faculty of Philology in 1980–1985 (she additionally studied classical philology on the basis of a special programme). Fifty undergraduate students embarked on the study Estonian philology in 1980. Her fellow students elected Marju Lepajõe to serve as their ‘course elder’ (to represent the members of that course of study and to stand for their interests in relations with the university authorities) in their first semester. Tiiu Ojanurme, a teacher of Estonian at the University of Tartu, was appointed as curator of their course. Marju knew how to bring people together. She became the heart and soul of the course of Estonian philologists who began their studies in 1980. After graduating from university, this tight-knit group began organising get-togethers starting from 1986 at the initiative of Marju Lepajõe. They gathered in various places in Estonia, often in places where course-mates had been sent to work for their three compulsory years of work, mostly as teachers of the Estonian mother tongue. These gatherings initially took place annually for about eight years consecutively in 1986–1993. Thereafter they gathered again in 1995 and 2005 to commemorate decennial anniversaries of their graduation from university. Their last gathering where Marju Lepajõe participated was on 3 November 2012, when her course-mates organised a surprise party for her on the occasion of her 50th birthday and published a book of memoirs entitled Tartu lõhnad [Smells of Tartu], which was dedicated to her. These gatherings were not the usual gatherings in Estonian cultural space for endless discussion and overindulging in food and drink. At the initiative of Marju Lepajõe, they were given a broader meaning: they gathered for conferences, symposiums, etc., which were dedicated to some author or phenomenon that had attracted less attention in Estonian literary history. The group paid particular attention to Baltic German cultural figures. Hence, A. W. Hupel, P. A. F. von Mannteuffel, true enough, the gathering was dedicated to the 175th anniversary of the death of the Shepherd Girl from Thuringia, who was the mother of his three daughters, J. K. S. Morgenstern, the Parnassus of Väike-Maarja, etc. were the topics of discussion. Marju came up with and suggested themes for the presentations, which always afforded the opportunity to approach the author who was under consideration from an unexpected viewpoint. She herself mostly delivered an introductory presentation where the subject matter under discussion was often turned upside down altogether. In 1995, she christened their course the Ojanurme school of thought after the name of Tiiu Ojanurme, the curator of their course.

Marju Lepajõe delivered the presentation published here, entitled ‘On the Problem of the Eurasian Hoopoe in Persian Mysticism’, at the surprise party dedicated to her 50th birthday, which was held at the Institute of German Culture in Tartu. This party was proclaimed as the conference entitled ‘The Philologist in a Changing World, 2: Mid-Term Reviews and Visions of the Future at the Threshold of the New Age’ dedicated to the 32nd anniversary of the launching of the process of forming the Ojanurme school of thought. Even though it was intended as a joke, she dealt with serious problems in this presentation which are topical to this day, such as linguistic debasement, conformation to fashion trends in (linguistic and literary) scholarship, etc.