Objectives

• Analyse how Heaney structures the three-section poem to move from personal pilgrimage to political elegy to existential unease.
• Analyse how specific imagery — 'peat-brown shroud', 'mild pods', 'saint's kept body' — constructs the Tollund Man as both victim and sacred figure.
• Analyse how Heaney uses mythological allusion to Nerthus and the bog to connect Iron Age ritual killing to the Northern Irish Troubles.
• Write an evidenced paragraph that tracks how the phrase 'lost, / unhappy and at home' resolves — and refuses to resolve — the poem's central tension.
• Evaluate the critical debate (Vendler vs. Longley vs. Irish nationalist critics) about whether aestheticising political murder is ethically defensible.
• Compare the speaker's tone across all three sections, identifying shifts from reverence to desperation to alienated familiarity.

The sequence

1. Lesson 1: First Encounter: Pilgrimage, the Bog Body, and the Three-Part Structure

   60 min · ch. 1

   Do now

   I know that bogs are wetland areas that can preserve organic material for thousands of years, including human remains known as bog bodies. If I could ask a question to a 2,000-year-old preserved corpse, I’d want to know what their life was like and what they thought about the world around them.

   Teacher input

   Model a structural reading of Section I, lines 1–12 ('Some day I will go to Aarhus… his last gruel of winter seeds'). Discuss how the future tense 'I will go' casts the entire poem as an unfulfilled promise — a journey that remains to be taken — and how 'peat-brown shroud' blends the sacred (shroud) with the natural (peat), quickly setting the bog as a place of sacred death. Annotate on the board: tense, compound noun, religious register.

   Independent task

   Students annotate their own copy of Section I, lines 1–20. They need to identify: (a) three words or phrases that position the Tollund Man within a religious context, (b) one word that indicates the speaker's emotional vulnerability, and (c) the point where the description ends and the prayer starts, noting the structural shift. They submit the annotated extract with three marginal labels and a sentence explaining the structural shift.

   Exit ticket

   Heaney uses the future tense 'I will go' instead of 'I went' to suggest that the speaker feels a sense of ongoing connection and anticipation towards the Tollund Man, indicating a relationship that is still evolving rather than one that is merely reflective.

2. Lesson 2: Sacred and Sacrificed: Imagery of the Body and the Prayer for the Irish Dead

   60 min · ch. 1

   Do now

   Section I concludes with Heaney stating he will 'pray / Him to make germinate / The scattered, ambushed / Flesh of labourers'. Place the word 'germinate' at the center of your page and create a spider diagram that explores every association it holds — whether biological, religious, or political. You have four minutes.

   Teacher input

   Model a close reading of Section I, lines 13–20, focusing on "the mild pods of his eyelids" and "saint's kept body." The phrase "mild pods" combines two ideas: "pods," which evoke nature—think of seeds or botanical growth—and "mild," suggesting calmness or gentleness. This dual imagery connects the body to the fertility goddess Nerthus and reinforces the notion that death in the bog is akin to planting. Next, consider "saint's kept body," which draws on language typically associated with Catholic relics. This phrase shifts the sanctity of paganism into an Irish Christian context, creating a theological ambiguity in the prayer found in lines 17–20.

   Independent task

   Students are tasked with writing a PEEL paragraph (150–200 words) that responds to the question: 'How does Heaney's imagery in Section I present the Tollund Man as both a victim and a sacred figure?' They need to include the quotes 'mild pods of his eye-lids', 'saint's kept body', and one additional phrase of their choice. The completed paragraph will be collected and graded based on the accuracy of the quotations, the depth of language analysis, and how well the student explores the tension between the notions of victimhood and sacredness.

   Exit ticket

   The goddess Heaney alludes to is the earth goddess, and one phrase from Section I that connects the Tollund Man's death to her domain is "the bog was a womb."

3. Lesson 3: Ancient Rite, Modern Murder: Section II and the Northern Irish Troubles

   60 min · ch. 1

   Do now

   Read Section II in full (lines 21–32: 'Tell-tale skin and teeth… their muscles webbed and lost'). Underline each word that might apply to either a bog burial or a paramilitary killing. Be prepared to discuss your selections.

   Teacher input

   Model how Section II serves as a clear connection between Denmark's past and Ulster's present by analyzing lines 21–26: 'Tell-tale skin and teeth / Flecked with soot and peat, / Opened the black mouths / Of their mothers and kin'. Highlight how 'tell-tale' evokes a legal-forensic tone (evidence, testimony) that recontextualizes the bog from a natural environment into a crime scene. Also, note how 'black mouths' compels the reader to sense the sorrow of Irish families whose sons were 'dumped' — a term used by Heaney — similarly to the Iron Age victims. Annotate: register shift, verb 'dumped', anaphora of loss.

   Independent task

   Students create a comparative annotation grid using the provided template. It features two columns titled 'Iron Age ritual killing (Section I)' and 'Northern Irish Troubles (Section II)'. They locate and quote three parallel images—one depicting the body, one showing the landscape, and one illustrating the community's response. For each pair, they write a single analytical sentence explaining what the parallels suggest about Heaney's argument. The completed grid is submitted.

   Exit ticket

   Heaney argues in Section II that ancient sacrifices were sanctioned acts of devotion, while modern political murder has become a sanctioned means of power and control. This shift highlights a troubling continuity in humanity's relationship with violence and authority.

4. Lesson 4: 'Lost, Unhappy and at Home': Section III, the Jutland Landscape, and the Poem's Unresolved Ending

   60 min · ch. 1

   Do now

   Heaney concludes the poem with the lines: 'Out there in Jutland / In the old man-killing parishes / I will feel lost, / Unhappy and at home.' Take three minutes to reflect on the oddity of feeling 'at home' in a location linked to violence and death. What does this suggest about the speaker's connection to Ulster?

   Teacher input

   Model a reading of Section III, lines 33–42, that emphasizes the oxymoron 'lost, / unhappy and at home' and the phrase 'man-killing parishes.' It's important to note that 'parishes' carries a specific meaning within the Irish-Catholic context; they represent both community and belonging, being the places where individuals are baptized and buried. Thus, the term 'man-killing parishes' suggests that murder has become a communal, almost ritualistic act. The line break after 'lost' captures a sense of interruption: the speaker's thought is abruptly halted, reflecting the poem's refusal to offer resolution, instead leaving us with a sense of ongoing disconnection.

   Independent task

   Students are tasked with crafting a structured response of 200–250 words to the question: "How does Heaney use the final section of 'The Tollund Man' to convey the speaker's sense of identity?" In their responses, they should: include a quote and analysis of "man-killing parishes," examine the phrase "lost, / unhappy and at home" (paying attention to the line break), and reference at least one critic — either Vendler's concept of "measured sorrow" or the Irish nationalist view that presenting murder in an artistic light diminishes moral outrage. Responses will be collected and graded.

   Exit ticket

   The word that best describes the speaker's final emotional state is "defeated," as evidenced by the quotation: "I realized that my efforts were in vain."

Activities

Assessment

• Lesson 1 exit ticket: checks whether students have grasped the significance of the future tense 'I will go' as a structural and tonal signal.
• Lesson 1 annotated extract: checks ability to identify religious register and locate the structural shift from description to prayer in Section I.
• Lesson 2 PEEL paragraph: checks whether students can sustain a language analysis that holds the victim/sacred tension rather than collapsing it into one reading.
• Lesson 3 comparative annotation grid: checks whether students can identify parallel images across the two historical contexts and articulate what the parallel argues.
• Lesson 4 exit ticket: checks whether students can name and justify the speaker's final emotional state using Section III vocabulary.
• Register Spectrum activity grid: checks whether students recognise that individual words carry multiple registers simultaneously — the key analytical move this poem demands.

Standards covered

Common Core 11 12

• RL.11-12.1 — Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• RL.11-12.4 — Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyse the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.
• RL.11-12.5 — Analyse how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text contribute to its overall structure and meaning.
• RL.11-12.6 — Analyse a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated from what is really meant.

AP Literature

• Literary Argumentation (LAN-1) — Explain the function of word choice, imagery, and figurative language in a literary text.
• Figurative Language (FIG-1) — Analyse how an author uses imagery and allusion to contribute to the meaning of a poem.
• Structure (STR-1) — Explain how the arrangement of a poem into numbered sections shapes the reader's experience of its argument.
• Character and Narration (NAR-1) — Analyse how the speaker's perspective and tone shift across the three sections of the poem.

AQA

• AO1 — Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression.
• AO2 — Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology.
• AO3 — Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received (Northern Irish Troubles, P. V. Glob's The Bog People, publication in Wintering Out 1972).
• AO5 — Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations (Vendler's 'measured sorrow'; Longley's concern about aestheticising violence; Irish nationalist critical objections).

Edexcel

• AO1 — Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts using associated concepts and terminology.
• AO2 — Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts, with particular attention to Heaney's use of religious register, compound imagery, and oxymoron.
• AO3 — Demonstrate understanding of the significance of cultural and historical contexts: Iron Age bog sacrifice, the Northern Irish Troubles 1969–71, and the reception of the 'bog poems'.
• AO4 — Explore connections across literary texts, including connections between 'The Tollund Man' and other poems in Heaney's bog sequence.