Trailblazers Lerwick gives women full Up Helly Aa Vikings rights

Jenna Moar will win a small place in history next week, marked by the sound and heat of her flare as it is lit in the darkness of a January night in Lerwick, Shetland.

- Severin Carrell

Jenna, 16, wearing her handmade Viking warrior's uniform, will be among the first female participants, alongside three cousins, at the heart of one of Scotland's most famous cultural events, Lerwick's Up Helly Aa fire festival.

After decades of quiet complaints, covert attempts at subversion and then open rebellion from feminist Shetlanders, she and her cousins are full members of the jarl squad - the axe-wielding Viking-dressed celebrants who will lead Up Helly Aa on Tuesday.

Her father, Richard, 47, is this year's guizer jarl, or chief. He has overseen, in conditions of some secrecy, the building of a replica longship by his squad, which includes 31 family members from Shetland, Norway and London.

After parading through the town with the boat, all four women will join Moar and the rest of the squad by throwing their blazing torches in an arc of fire on to the longship.