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.
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.
Story.
Heaney wants to go to Demark to see the
wizened remains of the bog-body at Aarhus.
He was executed with his last meal still in
his stomach. He wants to worship him,
against all religious constraints. He wants to
call upon his to raise the dead Irish. He
wants to derive a sort of power from the
body, from the country, from being alone.
Structure.
The poem is divided into eleven stanzas, and
three parts. The first part has five stanzas,
and the second and third three. 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, and the
third 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.
in the future tense - with a sense of a
perhaps, a distant. 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 doomladen.
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.
Language.
Heaney makes a point of the place-names he
uses in "The Tollund Man" - "Aarhus",
"Tollund", "Graubelle", "Nebelgard",
"Jutland". The language used to describe the
body is quite impersonal - "his peat brown
head", "a saint's kept body". He tries to
emphasise the body's quasi-divinity.
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
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".
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".
Figures of Speech.
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.
Theme.
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 mankilling 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
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.
https://files.puzzling.org/wayback/hsc/heane
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