Shetland's islanders to ban 'bland' Norwegian street names

Published on Tuesday 1 March 2005 01:31

ISLANDERS on Shetland are planning to ban Norwegian street names.

The move comes just weeks after organisers of Shetland’s traditional Up Helly Aa festival caused outrage by banning all outsiders from the event.

Now locals want to stop the island’s governing body from naming streets with non-Shetland "pseudo-Viking" words - despite the fact that the Scandinavian connection makes almost 12 million per year for them in tourism.

Community councillor Karen Fraser has demanded that "bland Viking concoctions" be put to an end on the islands. Her call came at a community meeting last week after it had been proposed that two of three new roads on the islands be named Fjallberg and Sundhamar.

She said: "We don’t speak Norwegian here. We’re not Vikings. Can’t we have something Shetland instead of these rather bland Viking concoctions?"

The remarks follow the Up Helly Aa chief, Peter Fraser, saying that "soothmoothers" - people who have arrived in Shetland through the south mouth of Lerwick harbour - were not welcome at the festival last month.

A spokesman for the Shetland Tourist Board said: "Even at this time of the year, we are seeing 100 to 150 people coming in here per day.

"At high season and at Up Helly Aa time, we see as many as 750 people per day from all over the world.

"The Viking festival is a very important part of the tourist industry here and attracts all kinds of people from across the globe."

Another source at Shetland Tourist Board said: "Of course we are not actually Norwegian-speaking Vikings. Nobody is saying that. But the festival adds the colour that attracts people to the islands.

"If these people want Shetland to be a closed little community for them and them alone it will have a terrible effect on the economy. We should be proud of the Viking remains and festivals that we hold."

Ms Fraser wants the streets to be named as part of another Lerwick tradition of British regal names, along the lines of Victoria Pier, Albert Dock and Queen’s Place instead of the Norwegian names.

The community council voted 5-3 in favour of requesting that the Norwegian street names be scrapped last week.