The Vikings Are Coming

The Vikings are coming and I'm quite excited about it. The 'Vikings: Life and Legend' exhibition opens at the British Museum on March 6th, I've been waiting for this for about 18 months (it's something D and I are both quite enthusiastic about). Vikings could have been designed to make history interesting to young children; treasure, violence, great myths - what's not to love? Growing up in Shetland Vikings were quite popular, it's one of those parts of the country where a Viking heritage is quite close to the surface. You can find it in place names, in archaeology, in boat design - the list could go on but I'll wrap it up with Up Helly Aa, the fire festivals which start in January to welcome back the return of the light.

Up Helly Aa (the main one takes place on the last Tuesday of January and it should be possible to watch it live on the web, though not for me - I'll be at work) in it's current form is only a little over a 100 years old but has appropriated it's own Viking mythology. However fanciful and inauthentic the imagery they use is I cannot stress enough how damn impressive the actual procession is. The chances of the last Tuesday in January being blessed with pleasant weather are insignificant but it doesn't deter the crowds. Lerwick is a small town so when you have hundreds of men marching with burning torches it's hard to ignore, only a few are dressed as Vikings but in the dark and from a distance you can't tell that, and naff as the galley they burn is it still looks awesome when it's alight.

The Up Helly Aa galley was my first idea of a Viking long ship - not necessarily one that would strike awe and fear into the onlooker, but still enough to capture the imagination. When I first saw pictures of something like the real thing I was definitely unimpressed, and then I actually saw something like the real thing The Skidbladner is a reproduction based on one of the Roskilde ships. She was abandoned in Shetland where I first saw her parked up in a boatyard - this boat really did have an air of menace about it. A few years later on a visit to Islay we were fortunate to coincide with the Sea Stallion on her journey to Dublin. Seeing a square sail on the horizon against a foreground of suitably dramatic rocks was enough to give me goosebumps but it wasn't until later when we saw it moored at a distillery that we realised it really was a Viking ship. After all this time the chance to see what's left of a real boat is going to be a treat.

Image by David Gifford, google him, there are some great pictures 

        

Shetland Ramblings

Homesickness appears to be an incurable ailment. It's quarter of a century (and far more than half my lifetime) since I lived in Shetland but it will always be where I'm from and looks like it will always be where I think of as home - it's not as if I have any illusions about island life, or if I'm even sure that it would still be for me (though give me the chance and I'd go back in a flash to try it out at least). The end of January always makes me want to head north (a desire that probably wouldn't survive first contact with the weather) mostly because of Up-Helly-Aa, although this year impressive Aurora displays are added to the siren call (I don't want to infringe anybody's copyright but have a look at some of the pictures and videos here at Burra Bears).

Up-Helly-Aa is a big deal (I think it might be the biggest fire festival in Europe) and although there are several burnings all across Shetland now the big one takes place in Lerwick on the last Tuesday of every January. When I was a child it was a hugely exciting day partly because school closed half day on the Tuesday and everything closed on Wednesday so that people could recover (this is still the case). Shetland is a small place, really large crowds are rare so the best part of a thousand men marching through town with flaming torches has quite an impact. It really is a sight to see and judging by the palpable excitement on my facebook page it's still as big (if not bigger) deal than ever. Excellent pictures here. 

It probably doesn't help that I'm currently reading Mairi Hedderwick's 'Shetland Rambles' - set in midsummer which is even more beguiling (there's a promise of sun and reasonable warmth). I had to put it to one side to finish a book group read but will have more to say about this one very soon. Also it's cold which makes me hanker after new knitwear, my favourite jumper is now over a decade old and has finally reached a point where repairs are ineffective. It's a long way to go for a jumper but there would be gloves and a scarf too... My Porch went to Hawaii for his island fix, arguably my parents didn't do me any favours imprinting Shetland on me - now if only I could bring myself to believe that.

Something to celebrate

I’ve managed to spend an awful lot of time procrastinating today which from past experience seems to be something I’m powerless to resist however much it frustrates me. I finally threw myself into action at about 9pm and have managed to make fudge (Drambuie scented, which is an improvement on the fish smell coming from the oven, and I wouldn’t even mind that except it’s an age since I’ve baked fish and there have been dozens of things through the oven since – why fish now?) and some brownies. The brownies are without doubt superfluous to need but I had bits that ‘needed’ using and I expect someone will eat them...

Tomorrow (25th January) is becoming one of my favourite days of the year – it’s Burns night which I think is a terrific occasion – it’s taken me a while to come round to the idea of Haggis but I’ve got there, and either way it’s worth eating to hear the Scottish one address it. It’s a chance to cook, dress up a bit, get some people together, drink one whisky to many, wash up for hours, celebrate a poet, and lighten the January gloom. I’m right behind (most of) those things and don’t understand why we have nothing comparable south of the border.

This year the 25th is also the last Tuesday in January which makes it Up Helly Aa (when the axe for what they want), this is a Shetland tradition that goes back about a hundred years in its present incarnation but has much older roots. It’s a weird, wonderful, fire festival which keeps on evolving. Growing up in Shetland it was a massive deal (and I judge still is) everything closed down at lunch time on Tuesday and reopened again on Thursday morning. Shetland only has a population of about 20,000 across the islands so the 800 or so that take part in the procession represent a real crowd, add to this that they are all dressed up (the chief squad as Vikings the rest as all sorts of things, some that you couldn’t imagine – and wouldn’t want to – without seeing them) it’s quite impressive and worth a google. If you’re feeling particularly broad minded then look on you tube for clips of what goes on for the rest of the night.

Over the years Up Hella Aa has expanded into a whole burning season that stretches from late January into March and I would love to do the lot one year (damn having to work for a living) but the important thing is having a celebration that marks the beginning of the end of winter – it’s discernibly lighter at night now, and things in the garden are showing signs of life (of the 50 odd snow drops I all but broke my back over planting 1, yes 1, has decided to do the business).

Up Helly Aa doesn’t really translate to Leicester, but if I’m not Scottish enough to claim Burns as a countryman, I feel as a book lover I can have him as a poet and take the occasion to celebrate the return of the light.