The New Shetlander, 258, 2011, p.7-9 1 Brydon Leslie Up Helly Aa: an ancient Viking festival? Each year on the last Tuesday of January the town of Lerwick is awash with Vikings. The day culminates with the burning of an ornate longship, complete with dragon head and tail, thus creating a striking image of a Norse sea-king’s funeral pyre. Afterwards modern day Vikings and guizers in colourful costume revel into the early morning with their feast, dance and song. These Up Helly Aa day rituals are described as ‘ancient’, representing a certain cultural continuum from the days of their Norse forefathers. In this paper I shall peel back the layers of history to reveal the true roots of this so-called Viking festival. Up Helly Aa is shown to be a purely local affair with more social connections to Scotland than to Norway, the homeland of the Norsemen. We discover that Up Helly Aa is not an archaic calendar custom of a bygone age; rather it is a concept that engenders a sense of identity within people very much alive today. When we consider Up Helly Aa it quickly becomes apparent that two quite different concepts are anticipated by this curious title; neither of which, dare I say, have anything in particular to do with Vikings. Before tackling the awkward legitimacy of these alleged ancestral celebrations, it is first necessary to broach both definitions of the festival. One is nostalgic, reminiscent, and overtly concerned with the revival of rural folk traditions; the other, rather, can be found ingrained in the streets and lanes of an industrial, nineteenth century, town. Twenty-fourth Night It was in January 1881 that the first organised torchlight procession took place in Lerwick. On that occasion the Shetland Times covered the event, stating that, ‘according to ancient custom, the festival of Uphelly a’ was observed’1. But just how ‘ancient’ was this custom? Ex-Jarl George H. Burgess considered Up Helly  The New Shetlander, 258, 2011, p.7-9 2 Brydon Leslie Aa as being linked to the twenty-fourth day of Yule, apparently a remnant surviving from the Norse occupation of Shetland2. This definition is still one of the most common assumptions made concerning the festival today. Shetland folklorist Jessie Saxby provides one of the few surviving pictures of how Twenty-fourth Night was celebrated. Writing in 1932 she used the name Up- helly-a’ to describe men in disguise, marching in procession with lighted torches. This was done in an effort to banish the ‘trows’ to their homes in the hillsides3. It is interesting to note that Saxby gave an earlier account in 1888, but the only consistent theme is the ‘dispersing of unseen creatures’4. She does not refer to the earlier event as Up Helly Aa, nor is there reference to any of the hallmarks that we would associate with the festival. The later version could be an attempt by Saxby to deliberately identify the Twenty-fourth Night celebrations of folklore with a quite separate Lerwick pageant. Such traditions were formerly practised throughout Scotland. Marion McNeill claims that ‘it has been customary from the earliest times to light great bonfires in the period of the winter solstice’5. The ritual of ‘burning the year out’ was at one time common in the fishing communities of the north coast6. In Burghead the local men continue the practice of ‘Burning the Clavie’ to ensure good luck for the coming year7. Dan Ralph, ‘The Clavie King’, tells how ‘old habits die hard, especially in close-knit fishing communities like this’8. Ernest Marwick may have been quite correct in stating that Twenty-fourth Night marked the end of Yule, but I dispute his claim that Lerwick’s fire festival emerged from these folkloric celebrations9. Rural Shetlanders perhaps did light bonfires on this night, but as Brian Smith has pointed out, they certainly didn’t get up to the elaborate tricks that the young men of Lerwick indulged in at yuletide10. Glorious mischief Lerwick was a rough town based on ‘misrule’11. In 1815 raucous young soldiers returned home from the Napoleonic wars with a love for firearms and other such  The New Shetlander, 258, 2011, p.7-9 3 Brydon Leslie noisy explosives. These hoodlums spent their yuletides parading the street and firing their guns off; evidently not due to any resurgent ancestral identity, but rather blatant mischief. This is what Smith has described as the ‘germ’ of Up Helly Aa12. As years progressed, such cacophonous revelry became an established institution in Lerwick, and in time developed into the ‘glorious’ tar-barrel. The scene of a tar-barrel has been depicted as one of ‘barbaric disorderliness’13. Thomas Manson described the ‘tense excitement of the crowd, the blaze, and the smoke, and the heat, the clank of the chains, and the free fights that took place’ when the tar-barrel was at large, all creating a scene akin to ‘Dante’s inferno’14. In, The Golden Bough, James G. Frazer lists Lerwick’s burning tar-barrels among other festivals of magical and religious significance15. I have yet to be convinced. The rites of Twenty-fourth Night described by Saxby may have been akin to the magical or religious, but what was going on in Lerwick at the time was something, I believe, entirely different. The lustre of the tar-barrel became tarnished, and in 1874 the practice was outlawed. The last and greatest of all the tar-barrels was sent hurtling down what is now Bank Lane at a ‘terrific pace’, to a ‘chorus of yells’; a spectacular end to that ‘glorious sport’16. But the spirit of this uproarious institution could not be quenched; the time-honoured custom revived again, but with a twist. Romantic Vikings As I have previously noted, January 1881 saw the first organised procession of torches through Lerwick. This new innovation had no apparent motif other than a continuation of the pyrophiliac tendencies formerly revered and propagated by the young men of the town. By the 1890s Shetland was in the embrace of a romantic cultural revival, and consequentially Norse imagery began to infiltrate the festival proceedings. The influence of Lerwick’s blind poet, J. J. Haldane  The New Shetlander, 258, 2011, p.7-9 4 Brydon Leslie Burgess, should not be underestimated. He was a prolific figure, involved in both exploring and asserting Shetland’s Norse identity17. My dissertation Borgar the Skald, considers Burgess and his lasting legacy, namely the Viking festival of Up Helly Aa18. The Norse iconographies which we associate with Up Helly Aa are seen to result from the vision and endeavour of Burgess, their true progenitor. Burgess was ‘steeped in Norse lore’ and considered an expert in mythology19. In this capacity the Up Helly Aa Committee took their advice from him, particularly during the early years of the festival’s development. The innovative and now familiar emblems of Up Helly Aa, namely the galley and Guizer Jarl, are both attributed to Burgess. Likewise, his moulding influence can later be traced through the details of the Viking costumes20. In 1922 it was decided that the Guizer Jarl and his squad should be dressed to represent Balder. The guizers had a sun motif emblazoned on their shields, and were kitted out with sprigs of mistletoe; typically emblematic of this particular Norse god. The following year a boar’s head was depicted on the shields of the Guizer Jarl’s squad. Burgess was familiar with the gods as they are described in Snorri’s Edda, where Gullinbursti is named as, Frey’s golden-bristled boar21. In 1924 the god Heimdall was represented with his horn, Giallarhorn. He had his hall by the rainbow bridge Biforst, and not surprisingly, a rainbow can be seen spanning the top of the shields22. Such Eddaic portrayals provide a clear indication of Burgess’s handiwork. It is unlikely that the industrial ‘dock’s boys’ of Lerwick would have been so well versed in Norse mythology. My research has shown how Burgess found these myths to be expressive of his own socialist ideals23. He ingeniously and successfully imbued the existing pageant with such themes, creating a drama resplendent with a message of hope and liberty. His first novel, The Viking Path (1894), is clearly a blueprint outlining his vision for Up Helly Aa. The spectacular way in which the story ends is no surprise; the champion Jarl fares to Valhalla in a ship of flame24. Another enduring part of Burgess’ legacy is the Up Helly Aa Song, which he wrote in  The New Shetlander, 258, 2011, p.7-9 5 Brydon Leslie 1897. The words, expressive of his Norse identity, are still sung today by the many modern ‘Vikings’ who follow his example. Authentically Shetland It is clear that Norse motifs were introduced to what was an established yet evolving ritual. The former motivation of disruption, devilment, and above all, flame, was in time replaced by the now iconic Viking pageant; institutionalised under what Smith calls the ‘bogus’ name of Up Helly Aa25. Indeed, ex-Jarl E. S. Reid Tait related that such Norse themes have nothing to do with the festival as we know it today26. So, given these facts, why support such a charade? A simple answer is provided by the incumbent Guizer Jarl, John Hunter: ‘Without fun, what is Up-Helly-A’?’27 That was also the sentiment of ex-Jarl McGowan Scott who hoped that the festival of 1913 would be, ‘for downright, genuine, whole-hearted enjoyment, the greatest of them all’28. From recent research Jenny Murray concludes that Shetland’s fire festivals are fun for both men and women, bringing communities together in the midst of the darkest winter months29. Up Helly Aa may not be authentic from a strictly historical perspective, but, authentically Shetland, it creates a sense of local identity. Callum Brown adds, ‘It is not a window onto the past, but a window on the present which hides within it the kernel of the community’30. Up Helly Aa is popularised today as a Viking fire festival, but it has little connection to authentic Norse heritage. Rather, communities throughout Shetland celebrate their own uniqueness, to some extent reviving memories of old yuletide festivities. In Lerwick, however, an institution born out of mischief still commands a central role today; its borrowed name, Up Helly Aa, is now legitimate and self defining - a festival of the people, by the people, and for the people.  The New Shetlander, 258, 2011, p.7-9 6 Brydon Leslie I presented this paper in April 2011 at the inaugural St Magnus Conference held in Kirkwall. The conference was organised by the Centre for Nordic Studies. 1 Shetland Times, 29 January 1881 2 G.H. Burgess in E.J.F. Clausen and H. Jamieson, eds., Back over the years: Up-Helly-A’ 1881- 1981, Lerwick, 1981, p.5. 3 J. Saxby, Shetland Traditional Lore, Edinburgh, 1932, p.86. 4 B. Edmonston and J. Saxby, The Home of a Naturalist, London, 1888, p.146. 5 F.M. McNeill, The Silver Bough Volume 4: the Local Festivals of Scotland, Glasgow, 1968, p.207. 6 G. Sutherland, Great Balls of Fire: a Year of Scottish Festivals, Edinburgh, 2009, pp.53, 207. 7 H. Prins, Fire-Raising: its Motivation and Management, London, 1994, p.8. 8 Sutherland, Great Balls of Fire, p.44. 9 E. Marwick, The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland, Edinburgh, 2000, p.105. 10 B. Smith, ‘Up-Helly-Aa: separating the facts from the fiction’, Shetland Times, 22 January 1993. 11 B. Smith, in New Shetlander, 207, 1999, p.36. 12 B. Smith, ‘Up-Helly-Aa’ 13 C.E Mitchell, Up-Helly-Aa: Tar-barrels and Guizing – Looking Back, Lerwick, 1948, p.66. 14 T. Manson, Lerwick during the last Half Century (1867-1917), Lerwick, 1991, p.14. 15 J.G. Frazer, Balder the Beautiful, vol. I., The Golden Bough, Part vii, [www.gutenberg.net], 2004 16 Manson, Lerwick during the last Half Century, p.203. 17 B.J. Cohen, Norse Imagery in Shetland, University of Manchester, unpublished Ph.D.,1983, p.349. 18 B. Leslie, Borgar the Skald: a Legacy of J. J. Haldane Burgess, UHI unpublished MLitt dissertation, 2011. 19 Mitchell, Up-Helly-Aa, p.116. 20 ibid., p.181. 21 S. Sturluson, Edda, London, 1995, p.75. 22 ibid., p. 25. 23 Leslie, Borgar the Skald. 24 J.J. Haldane Burgess, The Viking Path, Lerwick, 1894, p.351. 25 B. Smith, ‘Up-Helly-Aa’. 26 Shetland Times, 23 September 1933. 27 Shetland Times, 11 February 2011. 28 J.W. Irvine, Up-Helly-Aa: a Century of Festival, Lerwick, 1982, p.34. 29 J. Murray, Women and Up-Helly-Aa, UHI Millennium Institute unpublished dissertation, 2007, p.47. 30 C.G. Brown, Up-Helly-Aa: Custom, Culture and Community in Shetland, Manchester, 1998, p.198.