The Tollund Man

Background
 Bog bodies are one of those wonderful gifts to archaeology.
 For whatever reason, Northern European tribes in the ancient world buried a lot of
people in bogs.  And the wonders of cold temperatures, the tannins common in bog
water, and the auspicious choice to inter these bodies at just the right time of year
conspired together to preserve many bodies and thus teach us more about ancient
religious practices and material culture, than, well, just about any other burial
practice. 
 A chemist couldn’t arrange a better scenario to make human remains last.  Unlike
Egyptian Mummies, most bog bodies retain their facial expressions. 
 They retain skin and hair. 
 Leather and cloth often last. 
 People in Northern Europe have been finding preserved bodies in bogs for hundreds
of years as they cut turf. 
 Only in the last 120 or so years have we had any sense of how long some of these
people have been interred. 
 Tollund Man, who was found by peat-cutters in Denmark, was one of the first to be
properly dis-interred, studied, and preserved for the future.  He’s the Danish King
Tut. 
 Most of the bog bodies got there via human sacrifice, and many of the sacrificial
victims suffered triple deaths. 
 Tollund Man, for instance, was garroted, drowned, and bludgeoned.  And he was
clearly prepared for his death.  He was given special food.  He was wearing ritual
clothing.  He was pampered for a long time before his death.  He probably knew what
was coming, and he may even have volunteered for such a death. 
 And that’s where Heaney sets his hook. 
 Heaney wrote this poem when the Troubles in Northern Ireland were really getting
out of hand.  
 The Theme is Violence and conflict: This poem was written in response to violence
and murders in Northern Ireland. 
 Heaney uses the poem as a way to think about violence in Derry. He draws a parallel
between the ritual killings in Jutland and the murders in Northern Ireland. 
 Tollund Man is thought to have volunteered for martyrdom.  His face truly looks
peaceful. 
 Heaney, of course, rejects the concept of voluntary martyrdom in the modern world. 
He refuses to glorify murder by naming it sacrifice.

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Story

 Heaney wants to go to Demark to see the wizened remains of the bog-body at Aarhus.
 The person was executed with his last meal still in his stomach. (His last gruel of
winter seeds Caked in his stomach) Lines 7-8
 Heaney wants to worship him, against all religious constraints.
 He wants to call upon him to raise the dead Irish.
 He wants to derive a sort of power from the body, from the country, from being alone.

Theme.

 The poem is about the forces of fate, the chance survival of the bog body, the "saint's
kept body", against the "scattered... flesh of labourers".
 But even the body was tied to religious forces out of his sphere.
 In "The Tollund Man", freedom is bought at a high price, that of being
"lost/Unhappy". There is no society, no group, merely cold death, and outside forces.

Structure

 The poem is divided into three parts.

 The first part of the poem is a description of what Heaney will see when he views the
body.
 The second part is the relationship between the religious sacrifice and the dead Irish,
 The third sees Heaney in the country of Denmark.
 There is little rhyme (although Heaney uses end of line assonance occasionally), but
there is a singsong rhythm in the up and down of the vowel sounds, despite
Heaney's use of enjambment.

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The Tollund Man

I
Some day I will go to Aarhus
To see his peat-brown head,
The mild pods of his eye-lids,
His pointed skin cap.
In the flat country near by
Where they dug him out,
His last gruel of winter seeds
Caked in his stomach,
Naked except for
The cap, noose and girdle,
I will stand a long time.
Bridegroom to the goddess,
She tightened her torc on him
And opened her fen,
Those dark juices working
Him to a saint’s kept body,
Trove of the turfcutters’
Honeycombed workings.
Now his stained face
Reposes at Aarhus.

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II
I could risk blasphemy,
Consecrate the cauldron bog
Our holy ground and pray
Him to make germinate
The scattered, ambushed
Flesh of labourers,
Stockinged corpses
Laid out in the farmyards,
Tell-tale skin and teeth
Flecking the sleepers
Of four young brothers, trailed
For miles along the lines.

III
Something of his sad freedom
As he rode the tumbril
Should come to me, driving,
Saying the names
Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard,
Watching the pointing hands
Of country people,
Not knowing their tongue.
Out here in Jutland
In the old man-killing parishes
I will feel lost,
Unhappy and at home.

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SECTION ONE

 Section one has simple language reflecting the life of the Tollund man. 
 The Tollund Man is a poem that promises a pilgrimage: "Some day I
will go to Aarhus"
 In the first few lines the tone is expectant, determined, yet at the same
time the future tense is an indication of the remoteness of the poem from
the time it speaks of.
 While the poem never wanders in conviction, there is an element of
foreignness and distance, which is reinforced by the place names
‘Aarhus’, and later ‘Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard’.
 The Tollund Man is unnamed. The pilgrim will go "to see his peat
brown head"; he goes to worship, in a way, yet the tone remains
impersonal.
 The Tollund Man is passive, his eye-lids "mild pods".
 A victim, the action of the poem relates not who he is but what is done to
him, and in the end he "reposes" in "sad freedom".
 The Tollund Man’s own journey begins when "they dug him out",
destroyed and elevated at the same time.
 The meticulous observations of the narrator are again, detached, "his last
gruel of winter seeds/caked in his stomach" yet also emphatic,
emphasizing vulnerability "naked except for/the cap, noose and girdle"
the remains of a ritual death.
 The pilgrim makes a respectful promise to "stand a long time", but the
action itself is passive, promising not to move.
 The last line of this section "bridegroom to the goddess" takes on a more
ominous, forceful tone as the bog itself is personified and equated to
Ireland, female and overwhelming "she tightened her torc on him".
 The language indicates the powerlessness of the victim in the face of
greater, unfathomable powers, but at the same time metaphorically
insists on his quasi-divinity, worked "to a saint’s kept body", bringing in
religion and relating it to violence and ritual death.
 The Tollund Man becomes almost, a surrogate Christ. He is left to
chance, "trove of the turf cutters" and finally resurrected until at last
"his stained face/Reposes…"

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SECTION TWO

 The second section turns to violent  imagery, blending Catholic concepts

of prayer and martyrdom with witchcraft. 
 Heaney questions whether he should pray to the Tollund Man as some
sort of vengeance God, but ultimately refuses to do so
 The second part of the poem suddenly becomes more emphatic after the
stillness of the previous line "reposes at Aarhus" as the narrator says "I
could risk blasphemy".
 Again here, religion is directly connected to violence but this time the
pilgrim says he could "consecrate the cauldron bog/our holy ground".
 Religion derives it’s power from the land, as the land demands sacrifice,
a 'bridegroom’, to whom the pilgrim will "pray/him to make
germinate". Deriving his power from the land which turned him to a
saint
 the Tollund Man as victim, is linked to the "four young brothers", to
whom he is both kin and saint, to "flesh of labourers" and "stockinged
corpses".
 His paradoxical survival and repose should, the poem implies, give him
the power to raise others. At this point, the language is both bleak and
harsh, and can be interpreted as an impotent longing to obliterate the
wrongs of the past, attempting to see this resurrection as redemption from
violence, but seeing only the similarities of a ‘ritual’ of death,
uncontrolled and meaningless.

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 SECTION THREE

 The last part of the poem returns to the quiet beginning, but here, instead
of determination and looking forward, there is sorrow and despair,
 There is a sense of isolation which is linked to language.
 The pilgrim insists that the ‘sad freedom’ of the Tollund Man "should
come to me…/saying the names" yet showing that ultimately exile
means "watching the
 Heaney abandons ritual and observes the tragedy of all of it, while
imagining himself on a sort of parade of death, similar to Tollund Man’s
last hours, driving towards the museum in Aarhus.   Ultimately, Heaney
rejects the concept of sacrifice, as have the vast majority of humans in the
modern world.  We know that killing a goat or a person won’t improve
our crops or convince the Gods to smite our enemies.  We know that
dying to forward a political cause is useless. 
 pointing hands/ of country people/not knowing their tongues" as
language is defined as the root of culture, of nationality.
 Along with religion, and a sense of history and myth, language is central
to Heaney’s poetry,
 here the idea of isolation is brought sharply to the reader through the idea
of being ‘lost’ in a foreign land,
 yet ultimately the paradoxical nature of exile is realized, the poet realizes
that he feels at home in a state of homelessness, and welcomes the feeling
of being lost, of not belonging to society,
 he shares a sort of ‘sad freedom’ with the Tollund Man, no longer tied to
religious forces.
 The poem ends in a statement which describes both the isolation and
empowering sense of exile: "I will feel lost/unhappy and at home".
Heaney will feel at home because his sense of home is one of desolation
as he longs for ulster to be other than what it is. 

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Diction.

 The poem has a first person persona, an "I".

 The Tollund Man is never named except in the title, it is only "he".
 Despite this, the bog is personified as "she",
 the divine worship of the primitives takes on the same identity as the people
themselves.
 The poem is narrated in the future tense
 Heaney never wanders in his conviction that he will go, and he will do exactly this
and that, but it is not a trip he is contemplating with urgency.
 It is a "Some day" poem.

Tone.

 The opening tone of the first part is "mild" - Heaney will passively "see", and "stand
for a long time", the meticulous observer.
 The description of the primitive "goddess" to whom the man was sacrificed makes the
tone more ominous, more fateful.
 She "tighten[s]", "work[s]", and only away form her can he "repose".
 Heaney's tone is more emphatic in the second part, his verbs and language becomes
stronger.
 He "could risk", "consecrate", "pray". His voice is doom-laden.
 The tone of the last stanza is mournful. "Freedom" is "sad", a man who is "a home"
must also be "lost,/Unhappy". He is passive, accepting.

Mood.

 The opening of the poem is expectant, determined - "Some day I will", and
respectful, he intends to "stand for a long time" in the presence of the dead, the
"bridegroom to the goddess".
 There is a sense of powerlessness on the part of the corpse, of larger forces drawing
him along.
 He is consumed by the "torc" and "fen" of the "goddess".
 He is then left to chance, to the "turfcutters'/Honeycombed workings".
 He becomes anguished in the second part, calling upon words such as "blasphemy"
to describe his impotent longings obliterate the wrongs of the past.
 In the third part the Heaney-persona feels quiet despair, quiet strength, "sad
freedom".

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Poetic Devices.

 Alliteration - "peat... pods... pointed", "tightened... torc", "trove...

turfcutters" "blasphemy... bog", "consecrate... cauldron", "tell-tale...
teeth... trailed", "something... sad... should... saying", "pointing... people"
 Assonance - "Aarhus... head", "mild... lids", "bridegroom... goddess",
"torc on", "honeycombed workings", "cauldron... pray",
"ambushed/Flesh", "teeth... sleepers", "miles... lines".
 Metaphor - "a saint's kept body"

Imagery.

 The first image is that of the corpse, who is quiet and impersonal, the
poem's victim of fate, caught in the "torc" of others. He is "mild", and
everything is done to him. He is "dug... out", "worked", left as a "trove".
He is exposed - "naked", and finally he sleeps.
 He is described in a wizened state, careful emphasis made on his brown
skin, the workings of the fen.
 He is destroyed and yet elevated at the same time.
 There is a bleak, harsh feeling associated with the surrounding country,
the "cauldron bog", the "tumbril". They are the "old man-killing
parishes", the larger for which the smaller is sacrificed. The "goddess" is
part of the country - it absorbs and strangles, alone or destroyed at will.
The only marks it leaves on its victims are the remains of their death
"cap, noose and girdle".
 The first victim of fate is extended to the others, "the scattered,
ambushed/Flesh of labourers", of victims "trailed/For miles along the
lines." Their fellow in the Tollund Man should be somehow spiritually
akin, his preservation making him their saint. His paradoxical survival
and "repose" should give him the power to raise the others.
 Heaney's primary use of Denmark (and foreignness) as imagery is in the
third part. The isolation from society is emphasised by dwelling on the
strange names "Tollund, Graubelle, Nebelgard,", "not knowing their
tongue". The "at home" is not supposed to be comforting, it is just the
persona's normal state. He is always "lost,/Unhappy". But at the same
time, the isolation from language gives a "sad freedom", too highly
priced.

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