Up Helly Aa - Translation Please

[Guest Anonymous]

Help please,

I have been asked by several Norwegians what Up Helly Aa means, eg. literal translation..

I was embarrassed to say that I didn't know,,

 

Please enlighten me..

 

Thanks,

Da Auld Een

[Ghostrider]

If you can risk believing what a journalist writes, there may be no answer to that one....

 

That reason is the fire festival they call Up Helly Aa, but it seems that nobody can agree on exactly what those words mean.

 

http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=138462006

[islandhopper]

... probably not Old Norse but Old Scots from O.Sc. uphalyday.

 

DSL has it as follows:

 

DSL - SND1 UPHALIE-, n. Only in combs. 1. Uphali(e)day, -hallieday, -helliday, the feast of the Epiphany on 6 Jan., marking the end of the Christmas holidays, twelve days from Christmas. Hist.; 2. Uphellie nicht, the evening of the Epiphany, Twelfth-night; 3. Uphellya, uphel(l)ya(a), up(p)hellia(a), a festival held in Lerwick on the last Tuesday of January as a survival of the Celtic fire festivals and the medieval Feast of Fools of the Yule season and now celebrated with modern accretions, such as the burning of a model Viking ship, tableaux, masquerading of GUISERS, etc. (see C. E. Mitchell Up-helly-aa (1948) (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), uphellia, Sh. 1973). The last syllable of the word is taken to represent A', all. Also attrib. [phle ()]

1. *Sh. 1774 G. Low Tour (1879) 82:

Their Festivals are Christmas, Newyearsday, Uphaliday (the last day of Yule).

*Ork. 1908 Old-Lore Misc. I. vii. 246:

Football was played on Yule Day, New-Year's Day, and Uphelli Day, the fourth day after old New Year's Day.

*Sc. 1960 F. M. McNeill Silver Bough III. 125:

To the country folk, Auld Handsel Monday was, in fact, Uphalieday, and with this last burst of jollity the Daft Days ended.

2. *Mry. c.1850 Pluscarden MS.:

A woman could cease to be a witch by saying the Lord's prayer every day from Halloween to Up-hellie-night.

*Mry. 1881 S. R. Macphail Relig. Ho. Pluscardyn 155:

The thirteenth night o' Eel was called uphellie nicht.

3. *Sc. 1884 Good Words 747:

Uphelya, --- the twenty-fourth day after Yule, and that on which the Holy or holidays are supposed to be ``up''.

*Sh. 1901 Shetland News (5 Jan.):

The principal Festival of the season to Lerwegians, namely `Up-helly A,' which brings to a close the orgies and festivities which have more or less been the rule for a month, is now celebrated with all the `glorious pomp and circumstance' of Norse galleys, torch-light processions, and guizing galore.

*Sh. 1934 W. Moffatt Shetland 129:

Up-Helly-Aa night was the twenty-fourth night of the Helli or Holy Days, and that period of feasting, drinking, singing and rejoicing concluded with a great flare-up on Up-Helly-Aa night.

*Sh. 1948 Daity Mail (16 Jan.):

Lerwick is demanding the revival of its 1,000-year-old Norse ceremony, Up-Helly-Aa, banned during the war because of the shortages of timber for the Norse galley, paraffin for the torches and coupons for costumes.

*Sh. 1967 New Shetlander No. 80. 19:

Three rousing choruses of the ``Up-Helly-A' Song.''

[O.Sc. uphalyday, 1478, uphaly evin, 1507, from up, over, finished, + HALIE, HALIDAY. The Sh. Uphellya has been somewhat altered to conform to HELLY.]

 

(... the there given Shetland references in bold SH.)

 

(edit)... with Helly probably from O.N. helgr (dat. and acc. helgi), holiday, festival ... equalising O.Sc. a series of festive days or a weekend ...

... search DSL for helly ...

[Pooks]

Up Helly Aa - When men dress as wimmen and wimmen drink lik men.

 

(I think that was the direct translation)

[Guest Anonymous]

^^^^ Yes Pooks,,, One guy asked me the other day "What is it you call the fire fetival?"

I said simply, "An excuse for a piss up" ,,

[Tom]

Interestingly, and never mentioned, is Jakobsen's definition of 'hellya' as 'denotes a piece of smooth rock, generally (but not always) at the sea-shore.'

 

Which curiously seems to fit it well with the traditional conclusion of the tar barreling.

[Arathea]

I always understood it to mean'the holiday is over'.

 

Arathea.

[deardron]

Here´s what JJ writes on this word:

 

upp-helli-a' - the cessation of the Christmass-time, acc. to old custom, i.e.: the 24th day after Christmas, the 17th of January. Also called "four-and-twenty day" and by older people "Antonmass" or "St. Anthony's day". - Prop. over, the whole festive season at an end. Although helli holy-day, festival, must be regarded as an old Norn word, and O.N. uppi is used in sense of at an end (still used in No., Fær. and Icel.), it is, however, doubtful whether the compd. is old in Shetl. Note old L.Sc. "uphalie day (ouphalliday)" in Jam., explained as "the first day after the termination of the Christmas holidays".

----------------------------

In addition to that, JJ points out with his transcription of this word that the last part of the word originates from Scots: a' (< all?). So the literal translation must be "over-holiday-all(?)", i.e. the holiday is over.

 

Hope dis helps

[Medziotojas]

The twenty-fourth night is still celebrated in Whalsay isn't it? I remember being at a twenty-fourth night disco when I was about 15. I also remember that beer wasn't allowed in the hall - only spirits!

[Tom]

None of the major recent books on Up-Helly-Aa give a definitive answer; they just offer several of the possibilities, which seem to have all been mentioned here.

[Medziotojas]

http://www.units.muohio.edu/ath175/student/MCCRUMAM/index.html

 

The name Up Helly Aa originates from “up finished†and the Scottish form of holiday, “halidayâ€, since the celebration marks the end of the Yule Holiday (Harris). The exact historical origins of Up Helly Aa are not known, but it is thought to have begun as a celebration for the end of the Yule season in Lerwick, the capital of Shetland. Some believe that the tradition dates back to the Viking practice of burning a galley as a sacrifice to the sun and others believe that it is a celebration for the beginning of spring (Discovery Communications). Another explanation for the holiday is stated by Mackie ( 1967:18 ) in his book, Scottish Pageantry , “The Shetlanders in their Up Helly Aa torchlight procession and their parade of the Viking boat commemorate their Norse ancestors and assert their distinctivenessâ€. When the Yule holiday became Christmas with the arrival of Christianity, the 24 th night after became “uphalliday†to signify the end of the holidays when the Vikings could feast, drink, and burn bonfires again since the Christian holy period ended on that day. The last Tuesday of January did not become the official day for the celebration until the end of the 19 th century, and has been every year since. (Scotsman.com).

[Medziotojas]

The Up Helly-Aa song (to the tune of Glory Glory Hallelujah):

 

From grand old Viking centuries Up-Helly-A' has come,

Then light the torch and form the march, and sound the rolling drum:

 

http://www.planetparty.com/book/uphellyaa.htm

 

???? So Up Helly Aa is a festival based on the American Civil War then, right...