You are watching Vagabrothers, and right now are in Scotland dressed as Vikings.
We're here for the Up Helly Aa Viking Fire Festival in the Shetland Islands.
Let's go Ok everyone welcome to our exploration of the Shetland Islands.
Before we get into the heart of the festival of Up Helly Aa, we are exploring around the various islands here in the Shetlands and really trying to get a hold of the Viking culture.
The Shetland Islands are unlike any other part of Scotland, closer to Western Norway than Edinburgh, they're just below the Arctic Circle, higher than Stockholm on the same latitude as Greenland.
Shetland Islands were conquered by the Vikings over 1200 years ago, and they remained part of Norway until the 15th century.
Even today although it's Scottish, you can still feel the Viking heritage.
And that's best expressed in Up Helly Aa, the Festival of Fire that begins in just a few days.
To this day 90% of the place names come from Old Norse.
Two-thirds of all Shetlanders have Norwegian DNA, and the dialect is peppered full of Nordic words.
