The Vikings of Shetland

The Vikings were a collection of farming and seafaring people from modern-day Scandinavia whose economy was based on subsistence farming supplemented by annual raids. The word Viking comes from the old Norse word vik, meaning bay, which formed the root of vikingr or pirate/raider. At the time, the term viking was a verb, vikingr – so when a person said they were “going vikingr” they meant they were going raiding. Later, the term was shortened and used to describe the raiders. The people we know as vikings just called themselves by the region in which they lived – Norse, Danes, Norveigs, or Finns.

Raids

Initially, Shetland would probably have been raided as well. A hoard of Pictish treasure uncovered in 1958 on St Ninian’s Isle may well point to locals’ knowledge of such raids. However, the Vikings would also have identified good areas for future settlement, weighing up local resistance, arable farmland, potential markets, and raw materials for trade. Shetland’s landscape would have been attractive to the Norse in its similarity to western Norway, plus the climate would have been slightly warmer than today.

Politics and Climate

Though record-keeping was sporadic at best, and archaeology is sometimes educated guesswork, an expanding population in Norway meant that families needed new fertile lands to farm. Bad harvests said to have happened around 800 AD in Norway may have also prompted the migration.

Trade & Mining

Fur, fish, and timber were most likely traded, as wood was in short supply in the largely treeless Shetland. Steatite, or soapstone, was mined in Norway and occurs in large deposits in Shetland, too. Neolithic peoples also quarried soapstone, and archaeologists have uncovered their artefacts throughout Shetland.

The excavated mines visible today are on Unst, where steatite is still quarried commercially, and at Catpund on the Mainland, the largest of the Shetland Isles. The old Norse name for this stone, kelberg, also means loom weight, as these were commonly made from soapstone. Similarly, soapstone is called klebber in the Shetland dialect.

Basins, flat plates, and fishing weights have also been found. Large quantities of upcast spread across the area suggest the stone was mined from shafts of considerable depth and stretched over one kilometre from the coast. It is hard to trace artefacts back to their source quarry. However, given that these objects have been found in Orkney, Iceland, and Scotland, they were probably commercial products.

The original inhabitants of the far-flung Shetland Isles were a group of people now known as the Picts. Unfortunately, their culture mostly disappeared with the arrival of the Vikings. Remnants of Pictish culture do remain in Shetlands through a few indigenous placenames, such as Yell, Unst, and Pettadale.

Although there is little to no evidence of violence towards the local population by the Vikings, some Picts perhaps died of disease, famine, or simply left. However, the Vikings also had slaves, or thrall, for labour and to trade. As an aside, the word thrall is still used in English, for example, to be ‘in thrall’ to someone, meaning to be controlled by them.

In 995, Norwegian king Tryggvasson adopted Christianity for his whole kingdom, including Shetland. Given there were examples of Viking burials in the Christian tradition of an east-west axis before this date, the religion had already taken root locally.

Orkney earls had ruled Shetland from 875 until 1195 when they rebelled against the Norwegian king and forfeited their rule of Shetland to Norway. At this point, the rent and taxes were levied by local governors or fouds in the form of fish oil, wadmal (a woven wool cloth), and butter, which islanders often wrapped in a cloth and buried in a peat bog to keep it cool.

1307 is the first record of a lawthing, a meeting to resolve conflict and settle inheritance. Before this, feuds were a way of avenging honour.

Law Thing Holm is a small marshy promontory jutting into the freshwater Loch of Tingwall. The Norse built a causeway and a stone mound on it, and disputes were legislated here until the 1600s, when they shifted to Scalloway (meaning the bay with a large house). The Vikings had a Shetland Lawbook, which no longer exists but may have included records of local law as well as Norse.

Little has been found to suggest hoards. In Jarlshof, there were three silver finds dating from the 10th and 11th centuries: an Anglo-Saxon coin, a stick pin, and a silver bracelet used as ‘ring money’. Otherwise, rings and brooches have been found.

Artefacts are often found in sand dunes, so on your next visit to Shetland, watch out for combs, blue glass beads, and soapstone wares. For any would-be treasure hunters, do note that if you do happen to find something, by law, you are required to take it to the Shetland Museum.

Place Names

Papa Stour is a blend of the Pictish and Norse, meaning ‘great island of the priests.’ Names have different endings and can date from early in the settlement period, like Melby and Bousta, and, in later times, with suffixes (-bister, -setter) meaning farms, like Nesbister and Dalsetter.

Some names describe the landscape, like Hamar, which means steep slope. Other names offer a hint of their cultural beliefs at Troswick, or Trolls’ Bay, no doubt inspired by the Pictish standing stone there.

Shetland Population’s Viking Ancestry

Shetland is well known for its Viking connection, but studies have shown that, on average, only around 20% of their DNA shows Norwegian ancestry. The vast majority of the islanders’ DNA is actually Scottish, an interesting fact that some believe provides evidence of the colonising Norwegians’ integration, but could also be a result from other factors including immigration to the Shetlands from the mainland.

Up Helly Aa

The renowned Up Helly Aa fire festival in Lerwick dates back to the Napoleonic wars when rowdy soldiers returned, banging drums, firing guns, and setting off small explosions in the streets of Lerwick.

Over the years, this became an annual activity and progressed into rival teams clashing over tar barrels. However, this was deemed too dangerous, and by 1870, the festivities had a structure of a torchlight procession and guising (dressing up) as Jarls and Vikings, as they were romanticised at the time.

Today, the Lerwick Up Helly Aa has evolved into an elaborate all-day celebration at the end of January, starting with processions with pipe and brass bands and the Guisar Jarl, who is chosen each year with his squad and longship. Torches are lit around 7 pm to a rendition of the Up Helly Aa song, and, at the sound of a bugle, the torches are thrown into the galley, the boat is burned, and fireworks are set off.

The festivities continue through the night as guisers – those dressed up – tour various premises, performing and dancing. Other communities also organise their own Up Helly Aa, where women can also take part. They run from January to March. It is believed to mean Up Holy Day, marking an end to the Christmas celebrations.

Language

The distinctive Shetland dialect derives from Old Norse but also has a mix of Scots, for example, dreich (dreary) and bairn (child). Shetland dialect uses peerie for small and Simmer Dim for twilight. They use da for the and dis and dat for this and that. He is at da haaf, which means he is away deep-sea fishing.

Cuisine

Beremeal, an old barley cereal, would have been grown in the 8th century and is used in brewing and to make bannocks or soda bread baked on a griddle. It is hard to know what food is attributable to Viking times, but it is fun to try reestit mutton, salted and cured in the rafters of croft houses above a peat fire, and saat beef, salted to preserve it and eaten in stews or on bannocks.