Veesick

During his visit to Shetland, Low was fortunate in obtaining two local versions of a veesick, the first from Cunningsburgh on the south Mainland: 'Myrk in e Liora, Luce in e Liunga, Timin e, Guestin e guengna' and the second from the northern island of Yell: 'Mirka Lora, Lestra Linga, […]

Football was the amusement of the men while the brief day lasted, dancing and veesicks (impromptu rhymes) the fun of the evening. Trows, being excessively fond of dancing, always tried to join the revels, but this they can only do in the […]

The ballads were commonly recited in winter by the fireside while the veesicks were the verses which used to accompany the old ring dances, once an essential feature of social gatherings. That ballads were recited as well as sung is not at […]

Sometimes the gue—the ancient two-stringed violin of the islands—would appear; sometimes one of the company would sing a Norn veesick while the young people performed a circular dance, their steps changing with the tune. […] With the decay of the Norn language in the eighteenth century (though many Norn words still survive in the Orkney and Shetland dialect), the veesicks gradually disappeared. Scottish dances were introduced into the islands, and […]