Hell Yeah, Up Helly Aa!

Guizer Ryan Leith & The Shetland Viking Fire-Festival

You may have seen the posts on instagram; bearded, torch wielding men screaming and shaking axes, while a Dragon-headed Ship burns in the night . . . but don't let the Viking motif fool you - it's not the Norse - it's the burly, most northernly Scotsman celebrating Up Helly Aa.

The Shetland Islands' Up Helly Night is a local, 150+ year old annual tradition, (one of several Scottish fire-festivals & the largest fire-festival in all Europe.)

It's become a bit of a international surprise sensation, thanks to the amazing pyro images on social media, drawing visitors from all over the world to the previously mostly isolated isles.

"From grand old Viking centuries Up Helly A' has come,

Then light the torch and form the march, and sound the rolling drum:

And wake the mighty memories of heroes that are dumb;

The waves are rolling on..."

- Up Helly Aa Song 🎶: J.J. Haldane Burgess

Up Helly Aa

UP-hel-ee-AHith - /ˌʌp hɛli ˈɑː/

The Shetland fire festivals are held between January - March each year. Eleven communities* hosts a Torch Procession👇, Galley Burning👇, and all night Hall after-parties👇, (with folk dancing and themed performances by the participating squads,) followed by a second night of drinking and costume parties, called Hop Night. The celebration, including the all-night keggers, are so integral to the community that the day after Up Helly Aa is a Public Holiday so everyone can recover!

Up Helly Aa loosely translates to

End of the Holy[days], All.

It technically marks the end of Norse Yuletide^ - though festivities have never had much to do with Yule.

[ Up, from Old Norse uppi, (still used in Icelandic,) is a modifier denoting being at the end of a thing. Helly, likely from Old Norse helgr/ helgi, is holiday in the traditional sense of a Holy Day(s) Festival & Aa, sometimes rendered A' = all. ]

➿➰➿

The largest Torch Procession is in Lerwick, Shetland's capital, where it is carefully planned and executed every year by the Up Helly Aa Committee, (run by a non-profit and funded with donations from local businesses.)

My friend Jenny and I were lucky enough to celebrate Lerwick's Up Helly Aa with senior committee member Ryan Leith👇 in 2025 who shared with us some history, as well as his enthusiasm & connection to the uniquely Shetland tradition.

* There are no 'cities🔍' in Shetland and what would be called 'towns' in most places are referred to as 'communities"

A Surprising Backstory . . .

Up Helly Aa is a relatively recent festival. There's evidence of Antonmas  (St. Anthony's Day),

Uphelli a' or Up Helly Night^ being celebrated by rural Shetlanders on the 24th day after Christmas

prior to the modern conception of the festival. But the version that exist today didn't come about

until the 19th century, and it was quite literally "invented" by the Scots, nearly from whole-cloth, simply to distract & occupy bored, drunk young men that were otherwise causing havoc! 

After the Napoleonic Wars, when soldiers, who'd become used to action & big city life, returned

to their quiet, small-town Shetland homes there was an epidemic of intoxicated tom-foolery

so wide spread it became a public safety issue.

By the 1840's the young men had adopted the old Yule tradition of tar-barrelling at Christmas, where squads would drag messy barrels of burning tar through town on sledges.

Special constables had to be assigned to control the revellers, but they were not very effective;

rival gangs of barrellers would often clash in the narrow streets.

Eventually the respectable town folk complained enough that barrelling was outlawed.

Then, looking to channel that energy into something less destructive, Shetlanders drew inspiration

from those past Antonmas/ Up Helly Night celebrations.

Up Helly Aa is the biggest, most beloved festival of the Islands, surpassing even Christmas as the favorite holiday for most. The festival's fame has spread and it's so popular now that the Committee are often invited to visit Scottish towns outside Shetland, and have even brought Up Helly Aa all the way to New York City.*

Visitors these days are warmly welcomed,** (and becoming more frequent,) but the festival is truly a local affair at heart. In Lerwick, all parade participants are required to have been Shetland residents for a minimum of five years. Part of what makes it special is that the entire, mulit-generational community celebrates together, from primary  school children to pensioners.

Everyone comes out to view the processions and everyone, both your teen daughter & your grandmother, can be found dancing till dawn, draught in hand, at the Hall Parties.

It's an integral part of local life, the social highlight of the year and, like many Shetland youth, Ryan Leith long dreamt of wearing the traditional winged silver Viking Warrior helmet and carrying the raven shield on the deck of the grand Dragon Galley.

The Viking longship, star of Up Helly, and all the Hessian-sack Torches used are hand-made by volunteers. (The torch volunteers are called torch boys.)

Boat construction in the Galley Shed, Committee headquarters, begins in October, the year prior. It follows the same basic ship form & dimension as that of former Committee member, Boatie Jeemie’s 1949 design, ( ~10m long with a 6m mast) though the color schemes and decretive details are altered to fit each year's theme.

But wait, this is Scotland... Why Vikings & not Highlanders in Kilts?

The Northern Isles (Shetland & Orkney) are unique among Scottish lands. While today's populations are a mix of heritages, the Islands were raided & settled by Norse Vikings in the 8th century. They displaced the

native Pictish populations (ancestors of the Scotts) and the Isles were

under Norwegian rule from the 9th century on.

The Islands weren't returned to Scotland until 1472 when Christian I of Norway/ Denmark pledged them as collateral for his daughter Margaret's dowry in her marriage to James III of Scotland.

When the dowry payment 'check bounced' so to speak, Scotland annexed the archipelagos🔍 and

re-integrated them with the mainland - however the population was then almost entirely

Norwegian/ Danish and the Norse culture has lingered ever since.

My friend Jenny & I met up with Ryan at the Lerwick Galley Shed, looking smart in his Committee suit. The engaging Scotsman, just past 50, might best be described as jovial, with his ruddy round cheeks and matching ginger beard (which he's nurturing into long, bushy Viking whiskers.) He's tall and intelligent, his eyes sparkle when he speaks and his love for Up Helly Aa is obvious and contagious.

Ryan also has an understated but sharp sense of humor, laughs easily at himself and his fellow members, and somehow manages to take both takes his duties/ and the Committee both seriously and simultaneously, not too seriously; proudly honoring the traditions without a trace of stuffiness or condescension.

It was a casual, family night of sorts, the eve of Up Helly Aa, with galley builders putting the finishing touches on their masterpiece, while one's young child climbed about on the longship, dreaming of the days he'd be old enough to join in procession.

Ryan was still officially on Shed Duty, but he and his Committee friends, like Jon Pulley, the Painter's Forman, (scheduled to Jarl in 2036,) kindly took a break from their last minute tasks to show us the torches & galley, tour the shed 📸 and share stories and pictures of past Up Helly's (including some rather embarrassing Hop Night photo's of Jon in a Tim Curry, Rocky Horror 🥚 inspired look🥚that I will graciously not post!)

Ryan has served as a galley builder since 2008, (and foreman 2014-2023,) but tonight he wasn't painting, instead he treated Jenny to her first Irn-Bru as we watched the traditional Bloody Hand, hoisted high on a pole . . .

. . . And Jon gave told us the legend behind the macabre hand:

There was once a fierce competition between two Viking Chiefs battling to rule an archipelago🔍

- whichever chief touched the shores of an island first claimed it for his clan.

One day their galleys were both racing toward the same beach.

The first chief, the wind at his back, was gaining ground and it was clear he would make landfall soon. In desperation, the second chief pulled out his axe and chopped off his own hand chucking it onto the shore, and thus, having touched the sands first, he was able to claim the island.

So, in honor of the chief's quick thinking & sheer guts, a Bloody Hand is raised on the deck of many a Viking longship in Norse tradition.

. . . @ the GALLEY SHED

Community Donations Log

Up Helly Aa Hessian-Sack Torch

The Bloody Hand

* The Torch Procession is now broadcast live, not just in Scotland but internationally. While we attended Jenny's whole family watched in real-time, with coverage playing at her sister's small town Iowa hardware store - so an entirely new, equally remote community, was introduced to the Lerwick tradition half way across the world!

** I was greeted by strangers on the street, offered directions and had locals on street corners give me their phone number 'in case I needed anything' while I was visiting. I've heard that it's even common for tourist in need of a bathroom break to knock on strangers doors during the procession and be allowed to use the WC - though I didn't try it. But when my rental car wouldn't start one cold morning my Airb'n'b host kindly offered to get her husband from work to come home and jump it!

The Squads 🎭

Up Helly Aa participants are organized into Guizer Squads, (similar to Mardi Gras' Krewes,) long standing local groups where membership is mostly hereditary. A squad can range in size from 16 - 25 guizers and there are 47 squads in Lerwick alone. Competition to join a squad, if you aren't born into one, is stiff (and the wait time for approval to create a new squad is 20 years!)

Past Guizer Squads - Shetland Museum & Archives

Past Guizer Squads - Shetland Museum & Archives

Past Guizer Squads - Shetland Museum & Archives

Past Guizer Squads - Shetland Museum & Archives

Past Guizer Squads - Shetland Museum & Archives

Past Guizer Squads - Shetland Museum & Archives

The Guizers are in costumes because each squad will preform a themed, humorous skit at the Hall Parties👇, after the Torch Procession👇. The guizer squads are each led by a squad leader chosen for that year, and assisted by fiddlebox carriers,  boys too young yet to be guizers, who carry, and help set up, the squads skit props from Hall to Hall.

Eager to participate, Ryan was a fiddlebox carrier when he was 12 before becoming a full guizer in 1989, and has frequently served as squad leader.

Collectively, the guizers elect from their ranks 17 Committee Members, (one every year, at the Mass Meeting of guizers at the end of October, as a previous member retires.)* The squads and Committee are a big deal in the community and a serious responsibility. Ryan was elected in 2009 ,(by a wide margin of 157 votes to his two opponents mere 49 & 37 votes!) and to serve he had to commit to a 16 year term, during which time he must essentially stay in Lerwick to help organize and produce the festival each year.

(A college student from Aberdeen I spoke to, Even Moncrieff, home for the festival, was from a family that's been part of Up Helly for generations, but he was hesitant to join the committee, believing his future career would likely take keep him on the Scottish mainland.**)

Ironically, the festival now famous for drinking till literally dawn, was first established

in Lerwick by the Total Abstinence Society in the 1870's.

After some politicking, a group of intellectually minded young men got permission to hold a unified

Yule Torch Parade to satisfy the fire lust of, and serve as a substitute for, the old rival

squad processions of tar-barrellers (that so often lead to street fights.) And they introduced

the full guizing element seen today, (inspired by the tradition of Christmas Mummers,) rather than

just the simple masks of the barrellers. Their first Torch Procession took place in 1876.

They also shifted the celebration from Christmas Eve to the later, end of Norse Yuletide^ / the old

Uphelli a' or Up Helly Night date at the end of January, and adopted the Up Helly Aa name.

The first parade held on Up Helly Day was in 1881. Lead by an elected Worthy Chief Guizer; it quickly

became more elaborate the following year in honor of a visit from the Duke of Edinburgh.

Funnily enough, the abstinence that spawned it didn't last long, and while the fighting eventually subsided

the "blowing of horns, beating of drums... [&] shouting" that the 1824 missionary originally complained of

became essential parts of the new celebration.

* Traditionally guizers have been male, but some females have been participating ( in actual disguise as men!) as early as 1901, and the official restriction on females was lifted in 2023. (In 2024 the Lerwick Jarl squad included the Jarl's daughter and three nieces and there was even a female Jarl in South Mainland in 2015.)

   Non-family legacy guizers can join through a recommendation process, and the Committee elections include campaigning, interviews and formal speeches to gather support.

** Evan's uncle is Neil Moncrieff, Guizer Jarl of 2023, and his father Mark will be in Ryan's Jarl Squad in 2027.

Morning Procession 🎞️

Held on the last Tuesday of January, Lerwick's Up Helly starts at the crack of dawn with a Morning Parade that visit various organizations like the British Legion, Council Convener, the Shetland Museum, local schools and hospitals throughout the day.

The procession includes the Viking Jarl Squad, lead by the Guizer Jarl; the year's honorary Viking Chief & head of all guizers - trailed by a full Pipe Band* playing SCOTLAND THE BRAVE.

The Jarl Squad march all day, armor clad, from stop-to-stop through the Lerwick streets - with manly howls, rams' horns blaring and lots of enthusiastic axe brandishing.

 Today, the festival's Viking theme is it's central feature, but it was actually a late addition to the tradition.

The galley wasn't instituted until 1889 and the role of Guizer Jarl wasn't introduced until 1906,

when the Worthy Chief Guizer was re-titled and donned the first Viking suit of silver mail-armor

with silver raven-winged helmet to go along with the new longship theme.

The now classic heraldic black raven on a blood red

background was designed in 1932 and the

Viking Jarl Squad did not become a recurring part of

the procession until after WWI, making the festival,

as we see it today, less than 100 years old. 

Jarl Squad consists of 50 - 70 members and is not a consistent squad from year to year, but is specific to each year's Guizer Jarl, a position that rotates down through the Committee by seniority; each member leading as Jarl in his 15th/ penultimate year of service.

The Jarl Squad includes the entirety of the Jarl's home guizer squad plus hand chosen guest guizers of friends & family. (Being chosen to be part of Jarl squad is a high honor.) Only Jarl Squad march in the Morning parade.

The Guizer Jarl is also responsible for the unique look of the years' Up Helly Aa - designing the galley decor, the weapons and the costumes for that year's Viking clansman. Since 1936** each Jarl also has also chosen a figure from Norse legend or history to portray as he leads the processions.

Guizer Jarl of 2025, Calum Grains, choose to embody King Eystein Magnusson, known as the

"peace king," an early 12th century ruler of Norway***

- An apt choice, as despite Calum's tall stature and period appropriate beard, his apple cheeks & smiling cherub face are not that of a blood-thirsty warrior, 🤣 -

He wore the traditional striking silver scaled breastplate, feather winged helmet, shield & weaponry, that are passed from Jarl to Jarl each year, with a marigold kirtle and royal blue cloak, lined in scarlet, that he designed for his Jarl squad.

It was the very first time Calum's home squad, the West🔍 Shetland Whiteness & Weisdale, has ever lead the procession and he dressed his 61 member squad in intricate, articulated, fur trimmed leather armor with winged & feather-plumed helmets.

(Preparations & Design for the hand worked leather, shields and weaponry can begin as early as 2 years before each festival!)

After a committee member's turn as Jarl he serves one final year as Up Helly Aa Marshal  (in charge of running the whole festival) before retiring from the committee.

Ryan is in his 13th (official ) Committee year. He'll be 2027's Jarl and Marshal in 2028.

He was scheduled to be Guizer Jarl this year, 2025, but the festival was shut down for covid for 2 years.

As a Committee member, Ryan helps wrangle the Morning Procession. I ran into him, and fellow Committee member Jon, at first light directing the crowds; they weren't dressed as a Vikings yet, that comes later in the evening. Instead, Ryan wore a fabulous fire-colored knit beanie against the cold morning air (featuring a dragon prow silhouette pattern! - I later learned it was knit by his beautiful & talented wife, Sara, to whom he's been married 25+ years.)

Jarl Squad visits are private events, but the town still gets up at sunrise to either watch from balconies or follow the march through the streets (and getting a jump on the obligatory alcohol inbibement.)

At the Town Hall reception (also invite only) the Guizer Jarl is officially given 'freedom of the town' for the next 24 hours.

* Scottish bagpipe & brass marching band - the juxtaposition of plaid kilts & leather clad clansman is an amusing sight.

**  Before 1937 a few Jarls chose specific figures, like Olaf Tryggveson in 1927, but most chose a broad group, like the Helgeland Vikings, Jorsalafarers or King Sverre's Birkbeiners to portray for the whole squad's theme.

*** King Eystein Magnusson encouraged domestic development in his reign; building churches & fishing

facilities and enabling economic & cultural progress. He co-reigned with his brother, Sigurd, the "warrior king."

The Proclamation Bill

On the way to Town Hall, the Squad stops at the Up Helly Aa Bill, set up at the Market Cross. The Bill is a two story placard on which instructions for guizers and a satirical overview of the year's events has been painted. (A hold over from as far back as 1899, when information was regularly communicated via proclamations at the Market Cross. The public would check the posting to know when the festival was taking place, before it was standardized.)

Today, the proclamation is filled essentially with town inside-jokes, and good natured ribbing of local leaders and happenings.*

It's topped by a Bill-Head painting, specially commissioned  from a local artist chosen by the Jarl. After loudly praising the Bill, and a round of fierce battle cries and applause, the Jarl Squad sings the Up Helly Aa & Galley Songs for the gathered public.**

Jenny & I witnessed some of the Bill's final preparations at the Galley Shed the night before. A special slit had been built in the Galley Shed common room ceiling, and the floor of the meeting room above, to accommodate the immense height of the placard!

It was a solemn, and usually private process, so we didn't stay long, so as

to not disturb the men's concentration.

The Galley, Bill Head Painting & Bill are kept secret until the Bill is officially sealed & signed by the Jarl & Committee in the Galley Shed on Up Helly Aa Eve, (open to invited guests only.)

The public will not get to see them until the following day, when they are displayed in town.

Many of the previous years' Bill Head Paintings cover the walls and ceiling of the Galley Shed,** which serves in summer as an Up Helly Aa museum, the Exhibition 📸.

It houses archival photo's of past Committees, old Galley Prow Drake or Dragon-heads, and even past Viking costumes. 

"Floats the raven banner o'er us, round our Dragon Ship we stand.

Voices joined in gladsome chorus, raised aloft the flaming brand..."

-.The Galley Song 🎶: John Nickolson

* The original festival was overwhelming working class, and a tradition of the Committee poking fun at the upper classes in the Proclamation Bill, (in a far less friendly manner than today) and later with the squad skits, quickly became established.

** There is also a Junior Jarl squad for boys as young as seven. They have their own Junior Galley that is on display in town and then burned in the early evening before the main parade.

*** Officially the painting belongs to that years Guizer Jarl, who hosts a gathering prior to Hop Night for specially invited guests to admire it displayed at his home, but most chose to donate it back to Galley Shed museum afterwards for public display.

Torch-lit Galley Procession 🎞️

The climax of the festival is, of course, is the dramatic Galley Torch Procession just after dark, when all the guizer squads come together, everyone fully decked out in elaborate costumes, to join the Viking Jarl squad. In total it's around a thousand men, filling the dark streets brandishing flaming torches,* culminating in the massive bonfire burning of Galley.

And then the real fun starts:

Squads line up in formation in the night . . .

City street lights all go out & darkness falls . . .

A firework signals for the torches to be lit . . .

Thanks to a hot tip from Ryan, Jenny & I had a great front row spot to watch the Procession.

We made fast friends during the wait; like Evan, the Aberdeen student guizer, who let me wear his helmet, and excited international visitors

(who'd clearly been participating in the local all-day drink-a thon.)

 . . . hundreds of guizers begin to parade the Viking galley through the fire-filled streets, as the band plays the years theme anthem. Block after block of flickering torch light dancing on the long ship and the brightly colored costumes of masquerading men marching in two long rows, up King Herald's Street, around and back down St. Olaf's . . .

The year's Bearded Dragon Galley, which Guizer Jarl Calum named Byssen,*  was white, navy & gold, adorned with obligatory Bloody Hand & a cutwater, or forward rake, on the prow, (the first time the cutwater style has been used in over a decade.)

A surprising number of guizer squads had American cultural themes; I recognized Karate Kid,

the Beach Boys, Umpa - Loompas, Beetlejuice, Deadpool, Wicked, the Pink Lady's from Grease

& Kiss band, to name just a few 📸 . . .

. . .plus animal themed squads like monkeys, penguins, and even a Big Top Circus squad. All of them outfitted for their later, respective Hall skits.

Many squads also bring their own band to the Halls, like Ryan's squad, whose 2025 performance had a Western/ Cowboy theme.

For the Parade the Procession Band plays the Jarl's theme song; this year Anchors Aweigh. † 

  . . . and when the longship reaches the middle of the parade route the whole, endless procession pauses to perform a "switch-back" choreographed routine, while the Guizer Jarl stands tall, on the deck of the Dragon Galley, waving to the cheering crowd.

The procession is so long it takes nearly an hour for everyone to circumnavigate the burning field, before finally crossing over the stone King Eric Street bridge to reach the square . . .

. . . where the Galley is lead into King George V's Park. The squads fully encircle it, singing out the traditional The Norseman's Home song.

"The Norseman's home in days gone by was the rolling sea...

Then us all in harmony, give honour to the brave - the noble, hardy, northern men, who ruled the stormy wave..."

--The Norseman's Home 🎶: William Morris

[Based on THE HARDY NORSEMAN 1863]

Then the band goes quiet, and on a silent command, the guizers each hurl their fiery torch onto the hull: a thousand burning brands burry the ship, engulfing the dragonhead in flames and sending the galley off to a Scottish Valhalla - a truly spectacular site.

* 2025's Procession included 981 guizers, 864 of whom carried torches. Considering there are only around 2,800 adult males total in Lerwick this is over a third of all Lerwick men, a huge percentage of the population!

** Byssen has several possible meanings, in Norwegian it is a galley, in the sense of a ship's kitchen. In Swedish a Bysen is an aggressive, axe wielding, gnome-like creature that haunts the Island of Gotland as punishment for a past crime, said to lure people into getting lost in woods. In Old English Bysen means a pattern, model, example or illustration, and in modern English (UK) it can also mean either a monstrous/ shocking sight, a sorry/pitiful thing or a ludicrous spectacle. In Old Norse Býsn means a wonder, a strange and portentous thing and the Old Norse root byss is a type of fine cloth or sail. I am not entirely sure which meaning Calum was referencing with his name, and didn't get the chance to ask, but I suspect the last. I did hear that the larger guizers in his Jarl squad were joking called Bison (the massive animal) by the other men, in a homophonic play on the name.

† Usually assumed to be an archaic spelling of "Away" - but "Aweigh" is actually a nautucal term used to describe the lifting of the anchor off the seabed. It's the traditional sailors cry that the ship is free and about to sail  [ a = prefix meaning no/ a negation + weigh; as in the weight of the anchor]

The Halls 🎞️

When the ship is reduced to embers the guizers disperse and all the locals head to their respective Hall Parties, where, between squad skits and pints, the house bands play traditional Shetland tunes like The Boston Two Step 🎶.*

The Hall gatherings are private affairs; of the eleven Halls only two offer a small handful of tickets for non-members, (and be prepared if you're hoping to attend, they aren't cheap, are very limited, and can be tricky to get a hold of.)**

Originally squads visited open-houses in people's homes throughout town, like many European parade

 traditions, but soon the event was too large to be hosted in private homes and they switched to

public Halls (and still, they must visit in smaller groups, on rotation, for everyone to fit.)

The squads rotate Halls all night from around 9pm to 8am the next morning; drinking, performing & dancing with Hall guests, so that each squad and their skit is seen at every Hall. Rather than a skit, the Jarls Squad will sing the Up Helly Aa song as well as the Jarl's chosen theme songs of the year.

Jenny & I were fortunate to get to attend the Gilbertson Park Games Hall,

 (which we're told  throws the best party.)

Jarl Squad happened to be visiting Gilbertson's first, and we joined the in the singing of the 2025 theme song; John Denver's COUTRY ROADS 📸.

Some skits were well planned and displayed talent, many poked fun of local people, events or organizations, like the Lerwick Ferry Service,  and a few were exactly what you'd expect from a drunken frat boy 'talent show' - but all were entertaining :)

We'd been lucky enough to get last minute tickets with help from the wife of a Committee member. When we met our 'contact' and new pal Loraine, to pick them up were surprised to find that tickets come with assigned Kitchen Duty shifts, serving Reest Mutton Tattie Soup*** with the local woman at the party.

But it turned out to to be one of my favorite memories of the whole night, getting to know the volunteers, trying to learn a few steps and watching from the side-lines as Loraine bogeyed down on the Hall stage between announcing each squad! And considering the food service didn't end until 6am we were extremely thankful to have pulled a 10-11pm shift!

* A few locals tried to show me how to Two-Step, both at the Hall and on the ferry ride to Shetland, so I would be prepared, but my two left feet weren't cooperating! I never did get an answer as to why it was named for Boston, and no one other than me seemed the least bit curious to it's origin - even the internet is unsure of the connection!

** The best way to go about getting tickets is to ask at the establishment you're stay at (your air'b'nb host or hotel concierge,) to see if they know anyone with extras. Once in Lerwick you can also just ask around, we checked with locals on the ferry, people we met on the streets, and eventual hit pay dirt with a wife of a Committee member who made some calls and discovered some last minute tickets available due to storm cancelations of a group's ferry plans.

*** A local specialty stew of tatties (potatoes), mutton (meat from mature sheep) neeps (turnips) carrots & onion. The traditional Shetland stew uses reesit mutton; a preserving method where mutton is soaked in a salt brine then hung hung to dry (historically in the 'reest' or eaves of a house - original Shetland homes were heated by burning peat-moss and the peat smoke absorbed by the mutton, is what gave traditional reest mutton its distinct flavor.)

The Life-long Guizer

Ryan Leith is an Up Helly legacy; his late father, Peter, (who could be his twin!) was Guizer Jarl in 1978, portraying Bjorn of Mousa. Ryan's first Helly Night

as part of the procession, was riding on his father's galley, named Thora,* as an honored Jarl Squad member when he was just five.

Ryan, like his father before him, is a proud members of Tolls Squad. 2027, Ryan's year to be Jarl, will be only the second time the Toll's have lead the Lerwick Procession, (the first being Peter's Jarl year,) and Ryan is already starting to think about his Guizer Jarl plans. (His themes and Viking character are TOP SECRET though - so be sure check back in 2027 for the the rest of the story! )

Born in Shetland, after a brief stint away at Strathclyde University | Glasgow (earning his Bachelor of Technology in Naval Architecture & Offshore Engineering) Ryan returned to Lerwick to settle down.

As one might expect on an Island, he has always worked around the sea🔍; he started his career as a fish buyer/ sales exec. for Shetland Catch and then briefly worked for the Shetland Shellfish Management Org. before making landfall with Lerwick Port Authority in 2008, where he's now Port Controller - in charge of directing Lerwick Port's sea-traffic. (The way he describes it makes it sound like air-traffic control, only with ferries and at a slower, much less stressful pace.)

Outside of work and Committee duties, Ryan is an adventurer - an avid mountain biker, diver, talented photographer, nature enthusiast, and ink artist. A man of many interests, over the years he's been a member of Shetland Archery Club, Sub Aqua Club, the Lerwick Boating Club, a trustee with the Shetland Charitable Trust & a lifeboat volunteer.

Needless to say Ryan is never far from the water. In his free time he and his wife, and sometimes their golden retriever Kali, will often take out his small boat, KATLA, to paddle-board, explore sea-caves, dive and get amazing sea-life portraits.

Ryan has a YouTube channel were he posts his wildlife encounters and he has even worked as a Marine consultant for the BBC's SHETLAND series. But amongst all his amazing skills and fascinatingly full life, what I was most impressed with was his kindness, sense of fun and his generosity with his time.

We hadn't met before, when I reached out to him through social media about my trip, and he didn't know me from Adam (or perhaps Eve is more appropriate...) This website was barely up and there was no reason to take me or my request to meet seriously.

I'd already tried to get in touch with the Committee through official channels, but they were understandably occupied with Procession preparations and I was just one of dozens of media, and thousands, of tourist who would soon be invading their small island - and yet Ryan not only responded to me, he took time out of the busiest season of his year to meet me (and Jenny.)

He happily adopted us for our short visit, showed us around behind the scenes, included us in invites to events like the Bill signing, and Hop Night, answered all my questions, offered advice and helped us track down Hall tickets. He even found time the next day (when he could have been getting much needed rest between the two all-nighters!) to meet us again for coffee and an interview and then drove us to the ferry station, saving us from dragging our luggage on a bus.

A s much as I enjoyed Up Helly Aa, (& it really was mesmerizing,) my new friend Ryan was by far the highlight of the experience - and I can't wait to return to see him as Guizer Jarl in a few years!

Unmoored's Profiles @ a glance . . . 

What does Ryan wish more people understood about Up Helly Aa? As the festival's fame has spread beyond Scotland, you will sometimes hear criticism of the Viking portrayals, particularly their outfits. Some people like to point out the inaccuracy of the clothing and weapons.

Ryan wishes people would take the time to learn about the context of the festival before commenting on it - the Procession comes from guizing traditions like Mummering and Halloween, and it's not meant to be a historical reenactment of any kind. It is, at it's heart, a costumed parade, and the clothes are just that- costumes, not museum pieces, created purely for their sense of fun and drama.

Ryan's favorite part of Up Helly Aa?  The earthy smells of the burning sack-torches - And I can understand why; the bitterness of the singed oil soaked sack mixed with the rich scent of wood & lacquer catching flame is like a summer camp fire-pit taken to it's most primal-ancestral extreme - the deep, invigorating and overwhelming aroma is enough to bring out the ancient berserker warrior spirit of anyone whose nostrils it invests, (which, when combined with drink & the boisterous nature of Scots, may help explain Up Helly Aa's past notoriety for brawls, 🤣 )

Ryan's favorite Local Shetland Expression?  "I'm Spaegied " (pronounced SPAY-gheed, from stem (n.) spaegi - ′spe:gi) - a complaint which means to ache or be particularly sore, especially in the context of post physical exertion. (The word originated as a term referring to stiffness specifically in the back of the legs due to rheumatism.)

An appropriate favorite for man who's spent nearly 48 hours with very little sleep, parading through town in costume by day & partying all night! It's no surprise when he tells me the heeled Cowboy boots in have left his calfs spaegied.

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What will Ryan do after handing over his Galley Shed keys to the newest Committee member, in October 2028, fulfilling his nearly two decade long commitment?

Shave off the Viking beard, I suspect (possibly even before Hop Night!)

Maybe travel somewhere distant with Sara, with no limit on the length of the trip . . . though he'll no doubt return to the Isles in time to see his now young niece & nephew participate in, and maybe lead, their own Up Helly Aa's in the future.

* The names are a reference to a tale told in the Norse Egil’s Saga, c 900 AD of Bjorn Brynjulfsson, who eloped with his love, Thora. While fleeing from King Harald Finehair, their ship ran aground on the Shetland Island of Mousa 📸. It's said they married and wintered at Mousa's famous, and still extant, Iron Age Broch (a thick drystone, hollow tower, common in Iron Age Scotland - Mousa's dates from aprx 300 BC, is over 13 m. high and is one of the best preserved in Europe) before finally escaping to Iceland in the spring.

** From a 2023 interview with Neil Riddell for Promoting Shetland | Shetland.org

If you ever find yourself near Shetland in January hop on the Northlink Ferry,

celebrate Up Helly Aa  & keep an eye out for my new  Friend from the Road, 

Ryan Leith (Be sure to say 'hiya,' I guarantee he'll be happy to chat!)

Have you ever been to Up Helly Aa, or an other Fire Festival? What was your favorite part? Tell us all about it in the comments below . . .

ATTRACTIONS NEARBY to LERWICK | SHETLAND:

• Muckle Flugga Lighthouse & Jarlshof Archeological site near Sumbrugh 📸

• 79 Brochs  📸 in Lerwick & Mousa Island eg.

• Most Northernly UK Castle 📸 & most Northernly Victorian Tearoom, in Unst 📸

• Shetland Ponies Galore! 📸! 📸!

For more checkout the Up Helly Committee website

For Ryan's photography visit YouTube; @selkie72

or Instagram; @draatsi

 ^ YULETIDE - a general term for a midwinter festival celebrated by Germanic peoples. It later became associated with the Christmas season. The season of Yuletide typically starts on Yule Day, the date of the winter solstice, around December 21 or 22 , and it generally lasted 12 days. The Christian tradition appropriated the 12 days of Yule into the 12 days of Christmas, with "Christmas Yuletide" usually considered to end on Epiphany/ the 12th night, Jan 6th. (Though there is a tradition that celebrates Antonmas, or St. Antony's Day, Jan 17th, as the last day of Yule/ Uphelli a'.) But the Old Norse version, Jól, was based on lunar and seasonal cues, so some Norse Yuletide traditions ended earlier, around Dec 31st, while others, like on Foula, in Shetland, where they still follow the old Julian calendar, celebrate Yule Day as late as Jan 6th, and Newerday (New Years) on the 13th.

      In Shetland Jól , The Yules, or ‘atween the Yules, was a celebration inherited from old Norse Viking Settlers who honored Freyr, the Norse God of Yule & fertility in this season. It was originally similar to a feast for the dead, like the Celtic Samhain  📸, (ancestor of Halloween, which coincidentally, was the source of the tradition of guising; as people would dress in animal skins or costumes to ward off evil spirits - though the feasts' thematic connections had nothing to do with the eventual addition of guizing to Up Helly Aa.) At Jól time the dead were said to have left their grave and returned as Trow; spirits that could inhabit human forms, and while the exact dates varied it was longer than the normal 12 days, lasting for around a month in mid winter, with distinct days honored in the period leading up to Yule Day as well as the now familiar Yuletide season after Yule Day.

    Like everywhere else, it soon melded with Christian traditions and the Yuletide would officially began on Tulya's E'en (seven days before Yule Day) - the night when trows were given permission to leave the grave mounds. It included Helya's (or Mother's) Night  - when Midder Mary (a combo of Christian Mother Mary & a Norse goddess the Disir) protected the children from the trow, Tammasmas E'en (five nights before Yule) - where no work was allowed after dusk, Sow Day -when you'd slaughter your pig (originally a boar for the Norse) for Yule, Byanna's Sunday (the Sunday before Yule) - where a 1/2 cows head was boiled for dinner and then the skull eye socket used as a candle holder for the Yule Candle, Yule Eve - where sun-shaped Yule Cakes were prepared & the house and family were thoroughly cleaned and a lamp left in the window in preparation of the trows return, and finally Yule Day where an extra place was left at breakfast for the returning dead and that skull candle lit and used to singe the livestocks hair to ensure their thriving.

     The whole season was celebrated with music and community dances, with a feast on Yule Day, and bonfires on hilltops to dispel the evil spirts back to their grave mounds. In Shetland the young men would also play a rough sort of mass football or rugby game on Yule Day. Orkney, (which celebrates Sow's day on the 17th, and has an additional Walking Stones of the Yule tradition where the standing stones are said to walk to the water to drink,) still has a distant version of the ancient Yule game in it's Kirkwall's Ba.)