SHETLAND SOCIETY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 5

SHETLAND SOCIETY

. . "UP lIELLY.A" FESTIVAL' .' The Shetland Society's "Up Holly A" Festival on Saturday evening was attended by a big gathering, amongst those present being Sir Robert' Stout and Mr. P. leaser, M.P. - After the manning of the model Viking ship, named "The Sinimerdim," Mr. J. Laurciißon/thc Saganian, traced the history of the Islands. He said that tho Orkneys and Shctlimds ' were -sighted by the' Greek explorer Pytheas in B.C. 340. In A.D. 390 the islands were, partly conquered by the 'Saxons, and settlements were formed; In SSO, King Acdan led an expedition of Dalradia Scots against them, and there was continual lighting for iO3 years, until in GB2 Boudc, the .son of Bile, King of the Northern Picts, was victorious. This great war laid the whole of tho .northern islands waste. About S7O the.Northmen conquered tho Orkneys and Shetlands, and shortly .afterwards conquered the Hebrides, the western islands of Scotland. ' Between 795 and 842 the .Norsemen1 conquered half of Ireland, which was called the Cons half, and Olaf the White became King of the Scandinavian Settlements. The Norse ruled over Orkney and Shetland from 870 to 1468, the' Norse Jarls from 876 to 1231, the first 361 years of the Scottish Earls,, from 1231 to 1468, a period of 237 years, so that the islands were 590 years under Norse rule. The Scottish western isles were Norse for 37C years. The language of the Orkneys and' Shetlands from 870 to 1600 was Norse. Tho Orkneys and Shetlands once more came under Scottish rule in the reign of James 111., as a dowry to a Danish Queen, about 460 years ago. v Sir Robert Stout read'a poem on "Sinimerdim," written by James Nicholson, one of the greatest of Scotland's minor poets and a school contemporary of Sir Robert Stout himself. The "Up Holly A'^ festiyal, said Sir Robert, was not a religious ceremony, being merely a time for fun and frolic. During the evening gold badges were presented to Messrs. Moir, Jeromsoii, Tait, Harper, Arcus, Jamieson, Laurenson, and Anderson.