Community / Family at the forefront as Uyeasound Up Helly Aa gets underway
IT IS Unst’s turn to get in on the Up Helly Aa action as this year’s Uyeasound guizer jarl Duncan Johnson leads festivities in Shetland’s most northerly island.
For the 40-year-old care centre manager it is a true family affair – not just in the jarl squad itself but the name of the galley, and runes on the shields too.
As he worked on the final few jobs earlier this week, Johnson said it is a “big honour” to be asked by the committee to be guizer jarl for Uyeasound Up Helly Aa.
“I am looking forward to it,” he told Shetland News in advance of the weekend.
“I’m nervous, I think that’s perfectly natural – but I am looking forward to it. It’s been a good winter.
“Uyeasound Up Helly Aa is definitely a community event, and it really brings the community together.”
The first public event took yesterday afternoon (Thursday) at the Baltasound Junior High School.
Things will ramp up today though with a full day of engagements before the fiery procession and night-time revelry, which will see around 200 guizers involved.
Johnson’s squad features 17 adults and eight bairns, with the ages of the children ranging from 12 – his son – to around just seven months.
“The thing that I had said from the start […] was that I wanted it to be family themed throughout,” he said.
“I’ve got my family members present, both on my side and my in-laws, but we’ve also made sure that the younger bairns of the family are there.”
Children of other squad members have also been invited to get involved in preparations at the galley shed, generating plenty of excitement in the younger generation – with some even plotting when they might be jarl in the future.
There are also strong links to the past, with five ex-Uyeasound jarls in the squad who will be presented with gifts on Friday.
Johnson concedes that nothing resonated with him when looking at possible jarl names or sagas, so for this weekend folk can just keep it simple and call him Duncan – which will surely roll off the tongue easier after a few tins than the usual Viking monikers.
But his galley name may be a bit more of a struggle – Skuldalið, which harks back to Old Norse and is said to mean ‘family’.
Gina Ritch and daughter Luna have carved the galley head, with the former also creating the bill head.
Runes depicted on the squad’s shields also say ‘family’, while for the suit the squad are donning a blue and mustard theme.
Johnson is originally from Lerwick but moved to Unst, where his wife is from, in 2010.
Having been in a squad in Uyeasound since the early 2000s, he added that it is a “real honour” to be asked to be jarl.
Folk will get a chance to mingle with the squad at the Uyeasound Hall today from 2.30pm to 4pm.
Guizers will muster at the galley shed at night at 7pm for the procession, which kicks off at half seven.
Squads will perform their acts in the Uyeasound Hall at night, while a guizer’s hop is planned on Saturday night with the Alan Nicolson Band set to provide music.
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