Willafjord

Willafjord is a traditional Shetland reel in D major, known in the tradition as a “whalin’ reel” — brought back from Greenland whaling expeditions by Shetland fiddlers during the 19th century, and collected (not composed) by Tom Anderson, who published it in his 1979 tune book Haand Me Doon Da Fiddle (with Pam Swing). No place in Greenland named “Willafjord” has been identified, but Shetland fiddler and researcher Maurice Henderson, in his 2016 book In Search of Willafjord (Shetland Times), traces the name to Amerloq Fjord on Greenland’s western coast — a fjord formerly visited by whaling ships and possibly once called “Veyde Fiord.” The tune’s most distinctive feature is its syncopated rhythm, which Anderson described in Shetland dialect as imagining one foot in a ditch and one out of it as you walk. The tune has also been documented among fiddlers in Newfoundland and Cape Breton, played in a similar syncopated style. Players should be aware of its close resemblance to the Irish “Kilfenora Reel,” which has caused the two tunes to be accidentally exchanged at sessions.