Alex Purbrick: “Giants in da Simmer Dim” blog

The project

“Giants have been dancing in Shetland for a long, long, long time. They’ve never stopped dancing. It’s more that we have stopped noticing the dance.

In our busy lives, rushing from place to place at breakneck speed, we don’t stop to watch the giants’ dance. But if you break away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and wander over the hills and moors to some of Shetland’s magical places, you can still see the giants dancing in the many standing stones, stone circles and wild places in which they live.

Although Giants and Giantesses can be rather elusive creatures, I had heard they were interested in dancing with us humans for a grand summer parade at St Ninians Beach in Bigton. I didn’t think anyone would want to invite Giants into human festivities as they can be rather clumsy, smelly and unpredictable! But they convinced me that it would be a good idea.

Fortunately, I received funding from Shetland Arts (Shetland Arts Commissioning Fund) to bring the concept of a Giants dance into being, which delighted the Giants immensely. With the help of some creative friends who also loved the idea of seeing the Giants dancing, the project ‘Giants Dance in Da Simmer Dim’ was born.”

Giant creator workshops

“Accompanied by Sculptor John Hunter, we invited adults to three workshops in Mareel in March 2026 to begin the process of sculpting the giant’s heads. Seven talented women grappled with chicken wire and papier mache to create two Giants, Flukler and Gryla. From the photos, it doesn’t look like anything of distinction was created, but look more closely and you can see giant ears forming for Gryla, a very big nose for Flukler and some gigantic hands!

The magic continued when I invited artists Jane Cockayne and Lauren Bulter to collaborate with me in three bairns’ workshops, again in Mareel, where we invited families to come along and decorate the giant heads. The bairns listened to the Shetland folk stories about giants and drew some wonderful pictures of what the giants would look like and wear.

I had created two magical beasties to accompany the giants, called Nessa the Nyuggle (a shapeshifting water horse known to frequent many lochs and old watermills throughout Shetland) and the one and only Midgard serpent, Jormungandr. If you know your Norse legends then Jormungandr only appears at Ragnorok, the great battle between the Gods which leads to an apocalyptic scenario for all Midgard. But hopefully Jormungandr’s participation in this project will only lead to more creativity and celebration – rather than the apocalypse – and the bairns certainly enjoyed painting him and Nessa and learning more about their stories.

We played some party games such as pin the tail on the Nyuggle, imagined through play-doh and clay what kind of food the giants would eat and placed them on giant plates, as well as a story stone activity sharing our imaginative thoughts about giants.

After all that excitement Flukler, Gryla, Nessa and Jormungandr were very tired and retired to the tiny workshop in the attic of Mareel to rest and gather their energy for their grand summer party.”

Skekler making workshops

“A few weeks later in April, I invited Eve Eunson and Maurice Henderson to lead two Skekler making workshops in the Bigton Hall.

In Shetland folklore, Skeklers are mysterious, disguised guizers who used to visit houses during the Winter months. They dressed in straw costumes with tall, conical straw hats and would represent the old Norse giantess, Gryla who rules Winter and the wild landscape. Skekla is another name for Ogress and in old Shetland folk would pay homage to her through the Skeklers by going door to door demanding offerings of food and drink to ensure she would bring a healthy Spring season to the land. Gryla would wear a straw apron hence why the Skeklers were dressed in straw outfits.

Eve and Maurice shared their wisdom and knowledge of straw weaving to help workshop participants to make three skekler suits and 4 skekler hats which is no easy task to compete in two afternoons!”

More to come…

“There are many more aspects of this project that I’d like to share but will leave for another blog post – so watch this space for more tales from the Giants and how you can participate in their Dance at the Simmer Dim in June 2026!”