Up Helly Aa from Upholiday, the lowland Scots word for Twelfth Day, and was brought by them to the Shetland Islands in the 19th century. There is a main guizer who is dubbed the "Jarl". There is a committee which a person must be part of for 15 years before one can be a jarl, and only one person is elected to this committee each year. The procession culminates in the torches being thrown into a replica Viking longship or galley. The event happens all over Shetland and is currently celebrated at ten locations – Scalloway, Lerwick, Nesting and Girlsta, Uyeasound, Northmavine, Bressay,
Action off Lerwick Action off Lerwick The Action off Lerwick was a small naval battle of 1917 fought in the North Sea during the First World War. Two German light cruisers attacked a convoy of coal-carrying ships and their escort. In the course of the battle, the two escorting destroyers and nine neutral Scandinavian ships were sunk off Shetland, Scotland. The British regularly shipped coal across the North Sea from Norway in 1917; these convoys were lightly defended so the "Kaiserliche Marine" took advantage of the situation. At first, submarines were deployed to sink the merchantmen, but after these attacks failed the German