![]() "These people achieved remarkable things, but there was always a price to be paid in blood." "They were a bit psychopathic," said Brian Smith, archivist and historian of Up Helly Aa. Not everyone on Shetland likes either the carnival or the Vikings. Up Helly Aa is the biggest tourist event in the Shetland calendar, doubling the population of Lerwick in the islands' long winter, and bringing visitors in to the towns and villages which hold fire festivals flanking the main event. "To me the Vikings stand for strength, comradeship and honour," Grant said. The parade was led by the elite Jarl's Squad of heavily bearded, costumed Vikings, headed by the Jarl himself, offshore oil worker Kenny Grant boasting a raven-winged helmet.Īs they bellowed the Up Helly Aa song – "Our galley is the people's right! the dragon of the free the right that rising in its might brings tyrants to its knee" – Jarl's Squad, knew it was part of a carnival tradition invented in the late 19th century, and yet felt the lyrics to be true. Half of Scalloway, the ancient Viking capital before power shifted south to Lerwick, marched with blazing torches in the procession – joined by rare invitation by the curators and journalists – while the rest lined the narrow Main Street. There, a replica at Cullivoe is almost complete, one at Lerwick is ready to be paraded through Shetland's capital on 28 January, and the galley at Scalloway is already a slick of ash on the harbour, having been pushed blazing into the sea last weekend by a bellowing squad of men in helmets, cloaks and mail shirts, battle axes slung on their backs. The curators have just returned from Shetland where shipbuilders making replica vessels regard themselves as the living inheritors of Viking genes and traditions: DNA tests show many to have Norwegian blood. Shetland connectionįlames engulf a Viking longboat at the Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, last year. Included among them will be many swords, axes and loot, including the spectacular Vale of York hoard of silver from across the Viking world, found packed into a pot which was once a liturgical vessel. It will be seen among treasures illustrating the territory that such ships opened up to the Vikings, from the Arctic to north Africa, and east into Russia and Byzantium. ![]() Known as Roskilde VI but too large to exhibit at the site, it spent years in tanks of water, before being conserved for this exhibition, a collaboration between the national museums of Britain, Germany and Denmark. It was found in 1996 during construction work for an extension to the Viking ship museum at Roskilde. The ship may have been built for Canute, the Viking king who ruled over large parts of Scandinavia and England. At almost 37 metres, it is longer than ships built centuries later, including Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose. ![]() Williams said the ship, which will launch the museum's new exhibition space in March, was "a war machine", a troop carrier which would have spread terror wherever it sailed.Īlthough most of its timbers rotted over the centuries it was sunk in the silty water of the harbour at Roskilde, Denmark, the entire length of the keel survived.
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