@article{oai:nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp:00027992, author = {Ozawa, Shigeru}, journal = {IVY}, month = {Oct}, note = {Seamus Heaney's poem "The Tollund Man" was written in 1972, inspired by a mummy dug out of a bog in Denmark. This poem was written during a time of serious political strife in Ireland. Heaney wrote in Preoccupation that his primacy goal in composing "The Tollund Man" was to present image as a symbol of the predicament of Irish. He explained the characteristics of such image or symbol by using the phrase "field of force" to grant the religious intensity of violence its deplorable authority and intensity. Thus far, critics have focused largely on the symbolism behind "The Tollund Man." Many critics have pointed out that by identifying two different kinds of deaths Heaney justifies killings in Northern Ireland. These discussions, which focus around the effectiveness of the symbolism intended by Heaney, encompass the essential problem in understanding "The Tollund Man." In this essay, I will evaluate the symbolic value of the Tollund Man, focusing on the way in which his death is described in the poem. The poem is divided into three parts. The first part of the poem centers around the narrator's decision to go to Aarhus, where the preserved head of the Tollund Man is on display. On a superficial level, this section appears to indicate that the Tollund Man died peacefully, as the bridegroom of a goddess. In the second part, the narrator describes the deaths resulting from the conflict in Northern Ireland. Superficially, these deaths appear to be disorderly, thus standing in sharp contrast to the Tollund Man's death. In essence, however, the two situations are highly similar, in that both represent the violence included in the religion. The superficial contrast is subverted, and the common characteristics are made clearer in the third part. Paying close attention to such words and phrases as "tumbril," "sad freedom," "lost," it will be clear that in this section the Tollund Man is described as the involuntary martyr. In this reading, it is the religion of the Earth Goddess that bears responsibility for his death. One of the reasons behind the deaths of the laborers in Northern Ireland was the conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants. Both the sacrifice of the Tollund Man and killings in Northern Ireland are variants on the theme of religious violence. The death of the Tollund Man demonstrates to the reader that the conflict in Northern Ireland is not the result of a temporary and localized madness, but rather violence born of religion, a connection that existed even in the Iron Age. "The Tollund Man" functions effectively in a symbolic sense, presenting a visual image of the field of force that grants the twentieth century killings religious intensity and authority.}, pages = {45--61}, title = {The Symbolic Value of "The Tollund Man"}, volume = {36}, year = {2003} }