Lerwick Up Helly Aa 1965
| Up Helly Aa Fact File | |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2nd February (postponed due to death of Winston Churchill) |
| Jarl: Portraying: |
Thomas (Tom) Moncrieff Ottar the Explorer |
| Galley Name: | Loki |
| Jarl's Squad Members: | 24 |
| Number of Squads: | 40 |
| Total Guizers: | 589 |
| Number carrying torches: | |
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The Jarl's Squad
Thomas (Tom) Moncrieff was the 1965 Guizer Jarl for the Lerwick Up Helly Aa, and represented Ottar the Explorer. Ottar was subsequently represented again for the 2009 Up Helly Aa.
About the Jarl's Guizer Name:
The Guizer Jarl's Squad this year represents not a Norse king or god but a Norwegian explorer. He was Ottar the "Discoverer of the North Cape," whose story is told in Longfellow's poem of that name. His information was of great value to King Alfred of England in writing, about 894, a geography of northern and central Europe as part of his scheme of education for his people, whom he also led in the fight against Danish invaders. Alfred added this geography to his own translation of the Latin author Orosius's "History of the Ancient World." Ottar was a rich Norwegian living within the Arctic circle. Using an Anglo Saxon spelling of his name, Longfellow describes how—
Othere, the old sea captain,
To King Alfred, the Lover of Truth
Brought a snow white walrus tooth,
Which he held in his brown right hand.
And Alfred, King of the Saxons
Had a book upon his knees
And wrote down the wondrous tale
Of him who was first to sail
Into the Arctic seas.
"So far I live to the northward
No man lives north of me.
To the east are wild mountain chains
And beyond them meres and plains;
To the westward all is sea.
"I own six hundred reindeer
With sheep and swine beside,
I have tribute from the Finns
Whalebone and reindeer skins
And rope of walrus hide.
"To the northward stretched the ocean,
How far I fain would know,
So at last I sallied forth
And three days sailed due north
As far as the whale ships go.
"To the west of me was the ocean
To the right the desolate shore
But I did not slacken sail
For the walrus or the whale
Till after three days more.
"The days grow longer and longer
Till they became as one,
And southward through the haze
I saw the sullen blaze
Of the red midnight sun
"And then uprose before me
Upon the waters edge
The huge and haggard shape
Of that unkown North Cape
Whose form is like a wedge.
"Four days I steered to wastward
Four days without a night,
Round in a fiery ring
Went the great sun, O King,
With red and lurid light.
"And now the land," said Othere
"Rent southward suddently,
And I followed the curbing shore
And ever southward bore
Into a nameless sea.
"And there we hunted the walrus
The narwhal and the seal.
Ha! 'twas a noble game
And the lightning's flame
Flew our harpoons of steel".
And to the King of the Saxons
In witness of the truth
He stretched his brown right hand and said
"Behold this walrus tooth".
The Galley
This years galley was named Loki (like the Jarl's yacht), after the norse god of mischief. She was painted with dark blue stripes, also due to the characteristic blue colour of the yacht Loki.
Trivia
A popular innovation this year was the playing of the 'Norseman's Home' on the Town Hall chimes by A.R.M. Mathewson, the Lerwick Up Helly Aa 1933 Guizer Jarl.
See Also
