A Light in the Darkest of Nights - Up Helly Aa

The orange glow of torchlight piercing the harsh darkness of northern winter nights. The roar of Vikings in full regalia and swathes of spectators taking to the streets. A longship engulfed in a blazing inferno - all of these have become familiar sights to communities across the Shetland Isles. Together, they represent just some of key events of Up Helly Aa - a community-run fire festival held in twelve locations across the Shetland Isles from January to March each year.

Up Helly Aa, which is believed to derive from a Norn phrase marking the Christian Twelve Days of Christmas (Brown 1998), is at its core a tremendous celebration of Shetland’s history, heritage and community spirit of the isles. 

FIERY ORIGINS

Up Helly Aa is, perhaps surprisingly to some, a relatively new spectacle. While the first official procession was held in 1881, the festival’s earliest origins can be attributed to the period following the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Freshly returned from the continent, young Shetlanders, who had fought in the wars and had witnessed both the horrors of combat and the wonder of new, extraordinary sights abroad alike, were adjusting to life back on the isles (Shetland Museum and Archives 2021). Perhaps as the result of boredom, a group of young working class men decided to liven up the darkened streets of Lerwick. In January 1824, a visiting Methodist minister, gazing out of his window onto the streets of Lerwick, penned this note (Up Helly Aa 2023):

‘the whole town was in an uproar from twelve o’clock last night until late this night: blowing of horns, beating of drums, tinkling of old tin kettles, firing of guns, shouting, bawling, fiddling, drinking, fighting. The street was thronged with people as at any fair I ever saw in England.’

By the 1840s, this taste for fiery lawlessness had evolved. Tar barrels, set ablaze and rolled through the narrow streets of Lerwick, along with the making of dynamite-charged bombs - placed on the doorsteps of a few unfortunate individuals - soon became a signature of the now growing number of young men involved. These acts of defiance and recklessness often, unsurprisingly, placed the participants of these events at odds with the police, the middle classes and, indeed, with each other - with rival groups often clashing in the middle of the streets (Shetland Museum and Archives 2021).

While the town council began to task  special constables to crack down on revellers, this tactic ultimately proved unsuccessful. In 1874, a ban imposed on tar-barrelling aimed to quash the danger and the dirt of the practice and while at face value this seems largely successful, the shift away from this practice has been largely noted to be due to the changing attitudes and interests of the young Lerwegians involved.

Lerwick, Shetland Isles
Image provided by VisitScotland/Luigi Di Pasquale

SO, WHERE DID THE VIKING THEME COME FROM?

Even before the tar-barrelling ban of 1874, and as early as 1870, new ideas were beginning to appear on the horizon that would shape the annual celebrations into the Up Helly Aa we now know today. In 1870, a group of young men with novel ideas began to refresh the procession, starting with a new name - Up Helly Aa. The festivities were postponed, in Lerwick, until the end of January each year and a new aspect was introduced in the form of ‘guizing’ or the act of disguise (Shetland Museum and Archives 2021; Brown 1998). The integration of a torchlit procession soon entered the fray.

The idea of the festival’s iconic Viking theme seemingly emerged slowly, although the elements that inspired this theme date back twelve centuries (Shetland Islands of Opportunity [no date]). The year 1899 saw the first appearance of a Viking galley which was dragged through the streets by guizers and burned with blazing torches. In 1906, the prestigious role of ‘Jarl’, the head of the guizers, was assigned to one J. W. Robertson, who would be the first in a long line to hold the title. After the First World War, a Viking guizer squad was introduced as the Jarl’s companions (Up Helly Aa 2023).

In 1922, each Jarl began to portray specific characters from Old Norse sagas or figures from the history of Shetland, which was under Viking rule for over 500 years. This began with Baldr, portrayed by George H. Burgess, who in Norse mythology is the son of Odin and Frigg and brother of the legendary Thor. Recently, Neil Moncrieff, Jarl of Lerwick’s 2023 Up Helly Aa, assumed the role of Njáll Þorgeirsson - a 10th century and early 11th century Icelandic lawyer and the protagonist of Njáls saga.

Lerwick, Shetland Isles
Image provided by VisitScotland/Luigi Di Pasquale

THE FESTIVAL TODAY

After a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year saw the fiery return of Up Helly Aa. The three month period of festivities began with Scalloway Fire Festival on the 13th of January followed by Lerwick Up Helly Aa, and Lerwick Junior Up Helly Aa, both held on the 31st of January, all met with great success and hundreds of revellers eager to soak up the atmosphere of this returned event. The celebrations continue with the next Up Helly Aa at Nesting & Girlsta on the 10th of February and conclude with the twelfth and final Up Helly Aa of the year at Delting on the 17th March.

Most notably, this year’s Lerwick Up Helly Aa saw women taking part in the festival for the first time (Carrell 2023). Until this year women and girls were not permitted to be an active part of the Jarl’s guizer squad or the step into the role of Jarl in the Lerwick festivities. This, however, has not been the case for all Up Helly Aa festivals in other communities on the Shetland Isles - with Angela Tait being appointed the first female Jarl in the Walls Junior Up Helly Aa of 1988 and Lesley Simpson the first adult woman to be elected Jarl at the South Mainland Up Helly Aa of 2015. Happily, these restrictions were lifted for Lerwick by the town’s 2022 Up Helly Aa Committee and the future looks bright for the inclusivity of the festival.

With every year that passes, Up Helly Aa continues to evolve while never losing sight of its roots in the 19th century. The festival today is the culmination of the hard work and skill of thousands of volunteers and a testament to the spirit of community on the Shetland Isles. Ultimately, this demonstration of togetherness, with orange torches aloft and battling against the darkest winter nights will continue to be a welcoming reminder of the coming of a brighter spring for years to come.

Lerwick, Shetland Isles
Image provided by VisitScotland/Luigi Di Pasquale

REFERENCES

Brown, C. 1998. Up-Helly-Aa: Custom, Community and Culture in Shetland. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Carrell, S. 2023. Lerwick holds Up Helly Aa fire festival with women taking part for the first time. The Guardian. [Online]. 31 January 2023. [Accessed 01 February 2023]. Available here.

Shetland Islands of Opportunity. No date. Lerwick Up Helly Aa. [Online]. [Accessed 01 February 2023]. Available here.

Shetland Museum and Archives. 2021. Up Helly Aa has a most interesting history. [Online]. [Accessed 01 February 2023]. Available here.

Up Helly Aa. 2023. Up Helly Aa Information Pack 2023. [Online]. [Accessed 01 February 2023]. Available here.

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