The Tollund Man
Synopsis
Made as an undergraduate project for my final year in University of Ulster.
The brief for the module was to create an motion adaptation of any of Seamus Heaney's work. I chose The Tollund Man because the interesting mood written and implication of sacrificial offering to a goddess. The Tollund Man himself is distinct from other discovered mummifications for two reason:
1. The body was far better preserved than other bodies because he was buried in bog. He might've been buried in the 4th Century B.C. and yet when discovered, researchers were able to identify his age and diet compared to others, who are usually reduced to skeletal remains.
2. The Tollund Man is no one, possibly just an ordinary person of his time, not a king or any kind of royalty. This leaves a sense of curiosity of what his life might have been like while royalty were able to record their stories for future generations.
2. The Tollund Man is no one, possibly just an ordinary person of his time, not a king or any kind of royalty. This leaves a sense of curiosity of what his life might have been like while royalty were able to record their stories for future generations.
The Tollund Man was discovered in the small village of Tollund on the Jutland peninsula, Denmark in 1950.
The poem itself
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.
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,
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,
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,
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.
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
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,
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.
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
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.
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.
In the old man-killing parishes
I will feel lost,
Unhappy and at home.
The verses highlighted in bold is what interests me the most because it gives the reader the implication that the man's death was a sacrificial offering, perhaps a sacrificial marriage even.
The Goddess Freyja
Behind the Scenes
Storyboards and concept
