As Up Helly Aa looms, a song about the Norse from a parochial point of view, and news about what I’m up to on the big day itself (Tuesday 30 January) Live shows! commentary! Women vikings!
Apologies for the lack of Beatcrofting recently, but I’m getting ready, with the Shetland Webcams team, for the frenzy of fire and feasting that is the world’s premier winter festival (arguably) Up Helly Aa. or in this case, the Lerwick version, the biggest of many Up Helly Aas happening in Shetland until March.
And for your delectation and delight, in homage to the recent spate of “what I look like as a viking” social media postings…
As usual, we’re webcasting the whole thing live on the evening of 30 January, and I’m doing the commentary. But if you’re interested, I’ll be talking, interviewing and playing music live from Lerwick all day. We’ll have coverage of the Junior Up Helly Aa and it will be beyond exciting. Or really quite interesting. Here’s a wee taster, along with the link for watching on the day/night:
www.shetlandwebcams.com/uphellyaa
Oh, and this is a song originally written for The Holy Waters Songbook, a kind of one-person show performed to mark the launch of my book Holy Waters – Searching for the Sacred in a Glass
It’s called Vikings From a Scottish Point of View (Remember 1263!) . 1263 is the date of the Battle of Largs, during which would-be viking invaders were repelled, or at least retreated in disarray, from west central Scotland
Vikings were largely unattractive
They ate mushrooms that were psychoactive
They conquered towns and villages and nations
Their beards were full of nasty infestations
Vikings, sailed from Norway to Newfoundland
It said so in a book I bought in Poundland
They didn’t really have much use for money
Drank a kind of superlager made from honey
With their hatchets and their helmets, they think they are so tough
They’ve done their share of pillaging, but now, they’re looking rough
With our broken Buckfast bottles, I think we’ll call their bluff
So come and have a go boys if you think you’re hard enough
Vikings they were full of great ideas
gave us Danish bacon, Volvos and Ikea
Their gods had names like Odin, Thor and Frigg
And Baldr who had to wear a wig
And so led by Haakon Haakonson in 1263
The vikings came to Scotland to assert their sovereignty
On mead and magic mushrooms they were so, severely wasted
Between Millport and Largs they got completely pasted
Despite it all in Shetland they still celebrate the Norse
Maybe they were defeated but in the end of course
They retreated to the Northlands and developed and endured
Now they make us all assemble their flat pack furniture…
With their hatchets and their helmets, they think they are so tough
They’ve done their share of pillaging, but now, they’re looking rough
With our broken Buckfast bottles, I think we’ll call their bluff
So come and have a go boys if you think you’re hard enough
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