http://www.mesh5.com/tens...ch/bog.htm

Serves them right for disobeying Lord Vader's commands

The Tollund Man by Seamus Heaney

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.

JimmyNothing said:

True!

I wonder how long it will be before Cloudbuster quotes the first post and follows it with a

This is why I don't go to tanning beds.

Haystack said:

xenon said:

This thread is gonna give me nightmares

I remember we studied the Tollund man for a school project.

This is your best thread ever.

I humped something like that in a museum once!

Awww...

REDFEATHERS said:

Well, beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

minneapolisgenius said:

But still no star-rating

Haystack said:

At least they are permanently stiff...

Ok, I gave you a for effort..

do you think if they knew what they'd look like 3000 years down the line they'd have bothered?

I emphatically think NOT!

Actually, the bottom picture does look like me first thing in the morning.

Haystack said:

I'm trying to access more info. Was he one of the Vanuatu? Link me!

I have a great morbid facination with "mummies" what is it about a few thousand year old, highly preserved (well kinda) person? Whether frozen stiff, bogged down, or preserved for posterity and the afterlife, this is a facinating subject. Nice pics

Ahh, Tollund-manden!

V nice thing, very fresh

PREDOMINANT said:

Agreed!

That's sick I've just eaten

sawah said:

So had they, just before they bought the farm.

whew!


Haystack, I've been avoiding this thread because I thought you were going to show that haunted ebay painting again. Now that's REALLY freaky.


These I can handle...

AaronSuperior said:

Oh, you knew I was going to do this...

These children want you to play with them