Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland have touched a Viking nerve in Shetland
Shetland’s fire festival feels more poignant after the US President's threats to the High North
Winters in the Northern Isles are no gentle beast. The days are short, the winds are high, and the nights are dark. With that as the backdrop, it is little wonder we look for ways to bring a little light and more community spirit in the darker days of winter.
That effort is epitomised by the Viking-inspired fire festival Up Helly Aa, held across Shetland in the winter months and reaching its peak in Lerwick next Tuesday night.
This year, however, the festival will feel that little bit more poignant, as we see growing dangers around us in the High North, to our neighbours, friends and cousins in Greenland, Denmark and beyond.
Donald Trump’s threats to Nato allies may have receded slightly in recent days but it is hard to feel entirely at ease. It is no secret that the US President has a changeable nature (that would be putting it rather charitably) so what appears to be a concession and a cooling of tempers today may rapidly reverse if we are not careful.
A shared Norse legacy
Frayed nerves this week are not going to be easily smoothed over – though of course the prospect of a raucous torchlit party through the streets of Lerwick will do no harm to that end.
No one is a bystander when it comes to the risk of global conflict but that is doubly true of the Northern Isles in this particular diplomatic crisis. Shetland is the last UK stop on the path to the High North, and our history and infrastructure reflect this, down to the longstanding, still-operational radar station at Saxavord in Unst (which of course now sits alongside the soon-to-launch Saxavord Space Centre).
What happens across the North Atlantic matters to us. After all, Shetland’s history has always faced north, east and west, just as much as south towards the rest of the UK. Our links to our Scandinavian neighbours and our shared Norse legacy are felt deeply by people here.
Burning longships
From the outside, Up Helly Aa is often reduced to Viking helms and flaming torches. Having participated in a “Jarl Squad” in a small role previously, I can tell you that months of work go into a single night (and I am not just talking about the time needed to grow the requisite Viking-esque beard).
Building the galley, learning songs, making costumes, opening the halls – like any event that matters, it is done by the community, for the community, and that is why it endures.
The longships we burn at the culmination of Up Helly Aa are echoes of the vessels that carried people and culture across some of the harshest seas in the world, building links throughout the North Atlantic. It is a history of people going through what is to modern eyes almost unimaginable turmoil and risk, day by day – but coming out the other side, despite it all.
In a Shetland winter, the days are short, the winds are high, and the nights are dark – as good a metaphor as you might ask for the current state of international politics. As Up Helly Aa shows us, however, when people come together with a purpose, even the darkest days can be made brighter.
Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland
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