Jenna Moar will win a small place in history next week, marked by the sizzling sound and heat of her flare being lit in the darkness of a January night in Lerwick, Shetland. Jenna, 16, wearing her handmade Viking warrior’s uniform, will be among the first female participants, alongside three cousins, at the heart of one of Scotland’s most famous cultural events, Lerwick’s Up Helly Aa fire festival.
After decades of quiet complaints, covert attempts at subversion and then open rebellion from feminist Shetlanders, she and her cousins are full members of the jarl squad, the axe-wielding Viking-dressed celebrants who will lead Up Helly Aa on Tuesday.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Jenna Moar will win a small place in history next week, marked by the sizzling sound and heat of her flare being lit in the darkness of a January night in Lerwick, Shetland.
Jenna, 16, wearing her handmade Viking warrior’s uniform, will be among the first female participants, alongside three cousins, at the heart of one of Scotland’s most famous cultural events, Lerwick’s Up Helly Aa fire festival.
After decades of quiet complaints, covert attempts at subversion and then open rebellion from feminist Shetlanders, she and her cousins are full members of the jarl squad, the axe-wielding Viking-dressed celebrants who will lead Up Helly Aa on Tuesday.
After parading through the town alongside the boat, all four girls will join Moar and the rest of the squad in throwing their blazing torches in an arc of fire on to the longship.
Instead, women were expected to look after the Up Helly Aa reception halls, run by different families and social groups, that the jarl squad visits throughout the night after the longship is burned, operating as hostesses.
Andrea Manson became convener, or provost, and Emma Macdonald became the political leader, joining Maggie Sandison, who was the council’s female chief executive.
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