The Tollund Man - Seamus Heaney

Tollund Man - 4th century BD - sacrifice to the god of nature - 'naked except for/ the cap noose and girdle'
Brutual incident of murder of the 4 catholic brothers in the 1920's by loyalist paramilitaries. 'o four young brothers trailed/for miles along the lines'
violence and conflict - highlights the conflict and violence of the divided society of Northern Ireland
community - divided community of N.I and the violence that comes from it, vanished community of the ancient civilisation.
likened to a marriage ceremony, 'bridegroom to the goddess' - sexual
personifies the earth referring to it as 'the goddess'
political, controversial, human reality of violence
old meaningless futile sacrifice compared to recent brutal sectarian killings -> highlights the futility of it - Tollund man killed due to ignorance of society of his time, as with the "four young brothers"
violence - "man-killing parishes" both sacrifice young men in the name of religion (Jutland and Ireland)
Tollund mans death - calm peaceful imagery, united his community, 'sad freedom'
Brothers- brutal, divided and destroyed any hope of community solidarity, 'scattered' 'ambushed'
In these "parishes" where men were killed and sacrificed in the name of some ancient relg, the poet will feel a sense of familiarity because he too is from a community where young men are sacrificed in the name of relg
he would like to go to the bog and 'pray' to the tollund man asking him to make something positive grown out of the violence and bloodshed in NI - 'pray/him to make germinate' paganism - not praying to god - religion as a source of conflict
religion
sense of place - affinity with jutland and the tollund man
language - matter of fact, 'last gruel of winter seeds/caked in his stomach' metaphor - 'peat brown' (head) 'mild pods' (eyelids) personifies the bog, gentle language (first section)
2nd section - use of religious connotations - 'blasphemy' 'pray' 'holy' - disorder - lines run into each other unlike measured pace of first section
3rd section - soft s sounds, long vowels, convey sadness of tollund mans final journey

	Created by niamhmoynagh over 11 years ago

Seamus Heaney Note on The Tollund Man, created by niamhmoynagh on 05/05/2013.

The Tollund Man