The Tollund Man Heaney Analysis

The Nobel Prize holds some of the highest prestige in the intellectual realm. The Literature award, conferred annually since 1901 to authors and literators that; in the words of Alfred Nobel; produced "the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”. Seamus Heaney was granted the award in 1995 for “works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth” in his portrayal of the sectarian violence between the Northern Irish Protestants and Catholics. Heaney retains a rooted, earthbound, tactile style, expressing meaningful emotions in a beautiful manner. He governs lyricism in full awareness of the power of his ideas, confronting the immorality and melancholy of the Irish struggle. Two exemplars of Heaney’s ability to aestheticise these appalling events

Heaney contorts information from P.V. Glob’s ; a Danish archaeologist who worked as the Director General of Museums and Antiquities for the state of Denmark; The Bog People combining it with speculatory assumptions to create bold yet alluring visual imagery; suggesting the male died peacefully. The body is described as being “naked”, a Greek symbol of moral virtue, and having metaphoric “mild pods” as eyelids, highlighting his tranquillity and relation to the Earth — alluding to his vulnerability thus juxtaposing the prominent theme of violence. The sacrificial act itself is also presented in a lyrical and sensual manner, as the “bridegroom to the [Pagan] goddess” of fertility, Nerthus, “tightens her torc on him” and “opens her fern”. Despite the violent happenings of the body, the Catholic persona uses soft phonaesthesia to compare “him to a Saint” beatifying his death, suggesting it occurred in adoration of the Earth rather than illogical violence. Nerthus’s “dark juices” highlight the aesthetics of female sexuality, contrasting the repression in both Protestant and Catholic religions. By exploring the beauty of the Tollund Man and the sensuality of his sacrifice, Heaney effectively creates a lyrical and aesthetic