The poem
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.
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.
a very good poem though too long i think as it has not specified on the actual tollund man just the srrounds.
Omg why oh why does seamus heaney feel the need to go on and on and on? We get the point - the tollund guy wasnt decomposed...and? Seamus - get a life and write about things that matter because if i fail my a-levels because of you there will be hell!!!!!!!
People, it is a metaphor for the battle between catholic Ireland and Protestand England. I thought the British were suppose to be intellectually superior to us. Pfft.
it seemed to me to be about necrophilia...maybe I'm crazy...I'm pretty sure it's cause Heaney was a little strange
The Tollund Man is in Denmark so why is anyone equating this poem with Irish Catholicism vs. Protestantism? He's from much farther back in time than all that and why are people degrading Heaney in these comments-- as if most people aren't fascinated by what remains in the way of Egyptian mummies or even the recent find of the Ice Man in Austria? To me this is a beautifully rendered, poetic illustration of something…
Read the whole commentThe Tollund Man is in Denmark so why is anyone equating this poem with Irish Catholicism vs. Protestantism? He's from much farther back in time than all that and why are people degrading Heaney in these comments-- as if most people aren't fascinated by what remains in the way of Egyptian mummies or even the recent find of the Ice Man in Austria?
To me this is a beautifully rendered, poetic illustration of something that you might only have had a chance to read a more scientific account of, This lends the Tollund Man a mystical air and makes you wonder what life must have been like for people in these times; I much prefer this to seeing a movie and yet no one would criticize any director for putting a peatbog person at the center of some drama.
OK, I see very clearly in the last two paragraphs why they are equating it with Irish Catholicism/Protestantic strife. (It's a bit of the problem that you can't be looking at the poems as you are commenting.) But the fear of the outsider is very much as alive in the modern age of religion as it was in the Pagan times of the Tollund Man when the villagers would be pointing a finger... humanity doesn't seem to change…
Read the whole commentOK, I see very clearly in the last two paragraphs why they are equating it with Irish Catholicism/Protestantic strife. (It's a bit of the problem that you can't be looking at the poems as you are commenting.)
But the fear of the outsider is very much as alive in the modern age of religion as it was in the Pagan times of the Tollund Man when the villagers would be pointing a finger... humanity doesn't seem to change in that regard. So Heany is saying that if he visited, he would recognize those feelings of being the outsider or being somehow suspect.
Getting back to the poem, I do so love the way he talks about giving the body back to the earth (the goddess) where she will make a saint of him and how he explores the theme of why he was killed -- was he sacrificed or was he guilty of some wrong-doing? All the more ponderable due to his beautific look being preserved in death.
My teachers go on and on about how good this poem is but I do not understand where they are coming from! I realise how amazing the remains of this man was and it's ok for one to write about these themes, (even at such a length), however the poem itself is not that good!
Currently I'm studying Heaney's poems for A level in English.
I think Heaneys a brilliant poet, one of my favourites by him being " The Peninsula". What you've got to understand is that a poem often has much more to it than what you see on the surface. This particular poem links ancient religion and violence, which often goes hand in hand, to the troubles Ireland was facing.
I am studying Seamus Heaney for level 3 NCEA and i find his work rather interesting.To be honest it takes me a few times to read it to fully understand what his message is however I also believe it is a metaphor to the battle between catholic Ireland and Protestand England.
well... i found it a gr8 poem...
actually, i think the tension and conflict between catholicism and protestantism within ireland holds up. Heaney tends to write poetry that is very close to him personally. he grew up in the protestant north, but is catholic. clearly there must be some tension between that. and im sure he's had close friends and relatives die due to this religious conflict. i think you definitely need to bring in some of heaney's background, because it proves the assertion of the religious tension.