January 31, 2018

Yesterday, January 30, people in Lerwick, Scotland, celebrated an annual Viking festival known as Up Helly Aa. Up Helly Aa is a variant of the Scottish Gaelic word Uphaliday, meaning end of holiday. Traditionally, the festival marks the end of the Yuletide (Christmas season), and its origins go back to the days of Viking rule in the Shetland Islands, the northernmost part of the United Kingdom. The festival is famous for its torch-lit procession and the ceremonial burning of a traditional Viking long ship (warship), referred to here as a galley.

Guizers (actors who perform in traditional plays) surround a traditional Viking long ship in the Shetland town of Lerwick during the Up Helly Aa festival. Credit: © Danny Lawson, PA/AP Photo

Lerwick is the main port of the Shetland Islands. Vikings from Norway conquered the islands in the A.D. 800’s. Scotland acquired the islands in 1469, but much Viking culture and tradition remained. Celebrations similar to Up Helly Aa have taken place in Lerwick and other parts of the Shetlands for hundreds of years. In the 1870′s, the hazardous festival practice of rolling burning tar barrels down town streets was banned, and Lerwegians (the people of Lerwick) introduced the official Up Helly Aa soon after. The burning of tar barrels was replaced by a torch-lit procession, and in 1882, the first burning of a Viking galley.

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Up Helly Aa takes place every January in Lerwick, the main port of Scotland’s far northern Shetland Islands. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Up Helly Aa takes place every year on the last Tuesday of January. The holiday begins with a large breakfast and a march of some 1,000 guizers (actors who perform in traditional plays) in a variety of costumes led by the Guizer Jarl (chieftain) and his select “squad” of Vikings. The procession includes bands and a float carrying a Viking galley built by local tradespeople. Vikings pose for photos, and the town mayor officially gives possession of Lerwick to the Guizer Jarl. The Vikings visit the town’s schools, hospitals, senior citizen homes, and the Shetland Museum.

As night falls, a torch-lit procession illuminates the darkened but crowded streets of Lerwick. The guizers accompany the galley to the local King George V Park, where ceremonial rites precede the literal torching of the ship. After the flames die down, the guizers pass through a succession of halls (private parties) that host events such as dances, comedy acts, and music performances. Vikings and revelers also conquer and overflow local public establishments. The Wednesday after Up Helly Aa is a public holiday in Lerwick.

A competition of shop-window decorations accompanies the Viking festival each year, as does a Junior Up Helly Aa for boys complete with its own procession, galley, and galley burning. Women and girls participate in many Up Helly Aa activities, but they are not allowed to march in Lerwick’s official processions.

December 17, 2015

Seven pieces of Viking jewelry, 15 silver ingots, and 186 early medieval coins minted in England during the late 800’s—not a bad afternoon’s find for an amateur treasure hunter armed with a metal detector. James Mather, the hobbyist who made the discovery, has called it “every detectorist’s dream.”

Alfred the Great was king of the West Saxons in England from A.D. 871 to 899. This coin bears an image of Alfred and the words Aelfred Rex, which mean King Alfred in Latin. The coin is a silver penny made about A.D. 886. Courtesy of British Museum, London

Last week, the British Museum in London unveiled the Watlington hoard, as Mather’s discoveries are now known. Mather found the artifacts in October about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of London on farmland near the town of Watlington. He initially thought his equipment might have detected a silver ingot, but when he dug a small hole, he found a cache of coins. He quickly notified local authorities. The “icing on the cake,” he claimed, was getting to spend his 60^th birthday assisting with the excavation of the hoard. Clay soil with the artifacts embedded in it was scooped out and encased in cling wrap for delivery to the British Museum. If the hoard is officially declared a treasure under British law, Mather and the landowner will be entitled to split a reward equal to the market value of the items.

For the museum researchers, the reward will be the clues these objects supply about a pivotal time in English history—the reign of King Alfred the Great, who ruled the kingdom of Wessex in southwestern England from 871 to 899. Some coins in the hoard portray two emperors seated together. They were issued jointly during a brief alliance between Alfred and Ceolwulf II, the king in neighboring Mercia from 874 to 879. Both men ruled Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The Anglo-Saxons were descendants of Germanic tribes that had invaded southern and eastern Britain in the 400’s and 500’s and eventually established small kingdoms there.

The arm-band jewelry in the Watlington hoard is of Viking origin. In the 800’s, Scandinavian Vikings began raiding England. Deciding it was a nice place to visit and they did want to live there, some raiders became invaders who seized land for settlement. By the late 800’s, Danish Vikings had overwhelmed all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms except Wessex. In 878, Alfred managed to defeat a force led by the Viking leader Guthrum at the Battle of Edington. As a result, Guthrum agreed to be baptized a Christian and to stay north and east of the River Thames. His Viking force slowly retreated north through Mercia into East Anglia. Historians do not know who hid the Watlington hoard, or why, but they believe it was buried in the years just following this decisive battle.

Although the Vikings later broke the peace, Alfred again resisted successfully. He took London in 886. He built forts and a fleet. Eventually, all the English people not subject to Viking rule recognized him as their ruler. The formerly separate Anglo-Saxon kingdoms began to merge into one.

In the 21^st century, Alfred also has emerged as a television star. “The Last Kingdom,” which coincidentally premiered on BBC in October of this year, follows the story of Uhtred, a fictional Saxon child raised by Danes in the mid-800’s. Despite his conflicted loyalties, Uhtred becomes a follower of Alfred. The final episode of the season portrayed the climactic Battle at Edington.

Additional World Book articles:

• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
• Archaeology (2004) (a Back in Time article)