Framgord

Star Stories

Unst has a rich oral and musical heritage.

Welcome to The Sky Trail Framgord, where Unst’s rich oral and musical heritage brings the stars to life through ancient legends and song.

At Framgord, the stars are more than just distant lights in the cold northern sky; they are the living characters of our oldest legends. In the centuries before electricity and satellites, the long winter nights were not a time of emptiness, but of storytelling.

As the wind howled across the North Sea, the people of Unst gathered around the peat fire, the heart of the home, to look upward and find meaning in the shimmering patterns above.

These ‘Star Stories’ were a celestial map of the Norse soul, turning the constellations into a theatre of gods, giants, and heroes.

The Story of Aurvandil’s Toe

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Listen to this ancient Norse celestial myth, written for the Wild Skies Shetland project by CMC Associates and evocatively performed by Christopher Ritch.

Recorded in the heart of Unst in 2021, it brings the Viking sky back to life.

Starry Nights in Shetland

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Experience the rhythm of the islands with the fiddle tune Starry Nights in Shetland.

This piece was performed and recorded by the Unst Music and Dance Club especially for our project, capturing the vibrant musical heritage that continues to thrive under these northern skies.

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The Story of Aurvandil’s Toe

Greetings Sky Trailer… My name is Birger. I am the keeper of our ancient stories. Listen while I share with you one of the sagas of our Viking past.

Make yourselves comfortable… as I take you back to a time when Norse gods ruled the Earth, when mortals feared and treasured the lights you still see in the night’s sky.

For the sky is our window on Asgard, home of the gods. That is where it all began…

From burning embers our gods gave fire to the Sun and light to the Earth and Moon. As they struggled with giants and rivals, they placed the planets and scattered the stars. Each night, the starlight reminds us of terrific tales – of battles, destruction and drama.

Let me tell you a story of Thor and one of his companions named Aurvandil, who is remembered in a group of stars we know as ‘Aurvandil’s Toe’…

You may have heard of Thor… God of War, of Thunder, Lightning and Storms… Oh yes, he lit up the skies and thundered across in his chariot… Stars you may know as the ‘Big Dipper’ or the ‘Great Bear’, we know as Thor’s ‘Great Wagon’.

Thor lived in a fortress with his warriors, including Aurvandil the Brave and Aurvandil’s wife, Groa. Their great rivals were the giants whose realm, Jotunheim, lay across the frozen and poisonous sea-ice of the Elivagar.

Now, there had been a great battle in the realm of the giants between Thor and the champion of the giants, Rungnir. Thor had used his hammer to kill Rungnir but was injured by a fragment of Rungnir’s whetstone.

So Thor made his way back to his fortress, with the stone fragment lodged in his head. Once home, Thor sought the help of Groa, wife of Aurvandil the Brave, and she cast healing magic spells over Thor’s head until the stone began to loosen.

When Thor noticed that Groa’s spells were working, he wanted to please the wife of his friend, Aurvandil the Brave. He told her that on the journey out of the realm of the giants he had carried Aurvandil in a basket across the frozen river of Elivagar. Unfortunately, one of Aurvandil’s toes had been poking out from the basket and had become so badly frostbitten that Thor was forced to break the toe from Aurvandil’s foot.

To remember their adventure, Thor tossed the frozen toe into the heavens, where it turned into a star that has since been known as ‘Aurvandil’s Toe’.

Groa was so happy at hearing Thor’s tale that she forgot all about helping him with her magic spells to remove the stone from his head!

Some say that the bright star marking Aurvandil’s Toe is the one you know as Rigel, at the right foot of your constellation Orion the Hunter. Although I think it is the group of stars you call Corona Borealis, seen in springtime in the northern night sky.

There were many Norse stories about how the stars and the planets came to be. Other cultures have their own stories for the stars. But as the generations passed and the world turned, some of this knowledge and wisdom was lost, lost into the seas and into the skies, hidden among the timeless stars.