History major Robbie Whelan ’06 (above) describes the Shetland Islands as a melting pot of folk tradition. In its fiddle tunes and dance reels, he says, you can hear the influences of Irish, American, Scottish, Scandinavian, and seemingly every Anglo culture in the world. But when the tunes reach these shores, located off the northern coast of Scotland, they become “Shetlandized.”

“The folk songs composed here are defined by a spooky, northern feel,” Whelan says. “They're lively, but hard to dance to — although somehow people manage it. You know a Shetland tune when you hear it.”

As a junior, Whelan spent five weeks in the Shetland Islands and two weeks in eastern Scotland thanks to a Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA), pursuing an independent project titled “Han' Me Doon Da Fiddle: Making Links Between the Ethnomusicology and Historical Memory of the Shetland Isles.” The project's title was taken from one of folk legend Tom Anderson's collected musical works, known as the bible of the Shetland fiddler.

An avid fan of folk music and an accomplished player, Whelan was in a traditional Irish band in high school that landed a place in a national competition in Ireland. He says his parents instilled in him a love of folk, in particular the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland.

The Shetlands, known for their ponies and archaeological sites, consist of about 100 islands, 29 of which are inhabited. They were occupied by Norse invaders and colonists after the late ninth century and were annexed by Scotland in 1472. Whelan spent his days there primarily in town archives looking for publications penned by folk culture groups. He also read scores of letters and newspaper articles, trying to make the case that Shetland folk music is part of the native peoples' greater identity in historical terms.

A Writing Seminars minor and the co-arts editor of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, Whelan interviewed several of the islands' elder statesmen of folk: men like Peerie Willie Johnson and Eric Isbister, who has lived on the Shetlands' Foula Island all his life. Whelan was also fortunate enough to play alongside some of the islands' young musicians at various seaside pubs.