Tradition and transformation: Cullivoe Up Helly Aa

Over the last weekend in February each year the Yell community comes together to celebrate their annual Viking festival, Cullivoe Up Helly Aa. And in 2025, for the first time in the festival’s history, the celebrations will be led by a female.

Alice Jamieson, a local health visitor and former Royal Navy nurse, has been chosen as the event’s Guizer Jarl (Viking chieftain). Along with her 22-strong Jarl's Squad of accompanying Vikings, Alice is leading the island in four days of festivities, which include community visits to schools and elderly residents, dances, concerts and – the highlight for many – a torchlit procession culminating in the burning of a replica Viking longship.

Alice is delighted to hold the honour of being the first female Jarl in the history of the Cullivoe Up Helly Aa. However, it is her love of the festival – and a long family connection – that’s motivated her to take on the role, rather than any desire to break with convention. She explains: “It doesn't matter that I'm a wife. I don't want it to be a big thing. It shouldn't be an issue and, so far, it hasn't been an issue.”

Having said this, Alice is happy that Up Helly Aa is evolving to reflect society, while remaining a real community festival.

She says: “Cullivoe Up Helly Aa has always changed and innovated as the years have rolled on. My Dad was the first Jarl to introduce his own personal shield design in 1981, and my brother was the first junior member of a Jarl Squad here. I feel so lucky to be attempting another first: the first woman Jarl in Cullivoe – but it’s also important to me that the spirit of this festival remains the same one that we all know and love.”

This year will be a festival of firsts, and not just because the Guizer Jarl is female. It’s the first time a couple (Alice’s brother and sister-in-law, Jack Jamieson and Brodie Lawson) have taken part in the Jarl’s Squad together. Also, two pregnant Vikings are taking part in the Jarl’s squad this year.

This year sees yet another change being rung. As Alice points out: “With so many Viking women have come another first: Jarl’s Squad partners who are men - and will be cheerfully helping with the cooking and cleaning and childcare as required over the weekend.”

A squad containing expectant and new mothers may have presented some extra challenges on the suit design front, but it’s a challenge which kirtle-maker, Norma Anderson has more than risen to, creating a range of maternity Viking outfits. Meanwhile, a breastfeeding squad member has added zips to her kirtle* so she can feed her baby and guise on the go.

*A kirtle is the cloth garment worn as part of the unique suit designed by each Jarl's Squad.

Alice has chosen to portray the mythological Scandinavian queen Aslaug Kráka, the daughter of a legendary ‘Valkyrie’ shield maiden and mother of famous Viking sons, such as Sigurd Snake Eye and Ivar the Boneless. Her choice reflects her career and her own identity as a mother. As she explains: “The Valkyries would collect the dead from the battlegrounds Vikings fought and I saw a connection between being a Valkyrie and a military nurse. And Aslaug was fearsome when it came to her sons and I am when it comes to mine.”

Aslaug Kráka was known for her wisdom and power, qualities which Alice admires in the women around her: “I can’t lay claim to any great wisdom or power, but all my life I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by women who are wise – and generous with their wisdom – and who take agency and power over their own lives and decisions. I suppose that Aslaug Kráka reminded me of all of them.

“If I can relate to Aslaug at all it’s through her family: she raised strong and famous Viking sons. Those fierce warriors still went in respect of their mother, though, and I can relate to the challenges of raising boys to be respectful of women and value their community – especially in the modern world.”

Alice’s six-year-old son Henry has been fully involved in Up Helly Aa preparations, even choosing the colour of the galley. This is a detail which is traditionally shrouded in secrecy until the day of Up Helly Aa. Not only has Henry thrown himself into helping with the preparations, but he has also proven himself to be a reliable secret-keeper.

Fundraising is always a central part of Cullivoe Up Helly Aa, and this year is no different. Each year the Jarl chooses charities to raise funds for. This was an easy choice for Alice.

She says: “The MS Society and the Meningitis Research Foundation are organisations without which not all of my Jarl’s Squad would be here or able to celebrate the weekend with me. I’m absolutely determined to do as much as I can to raise funds for them: including half-marathon running and charity headshaves, including for me!”

For Alice, the future of her beloved festival is bright. She says: “Our festival has great support in the community, and so I can only see it continuing to go from strength to strength: for as long as there’s young folk willing to take on the torch, there will be a vibrant, inclusive and community-led Up Helly Aa in Yell”.