Seamus Heaney and Tollund Man | Bog Bodies and Sheela na Gigs; the Danish Connection

Join us for a special event exploring the poetic and archaeological layers of Seamus Heaney’s inspiration.

From the boglands of Jutland to the myth-rich soil of Ireland, The Tollund Man remains one of Heaney’s most enduring and mysterious poems — a work born of reading, ritual, and encounter with the past. In this illustrated talk, Eamonn P. Kelly will trace the poetic and scholarly threads connecting Heaney to Danish archaeologists P.V. Glob and Jørgen Andersen, whose writings and friendship deeply informed Heaney’s vision of the bog bodies and their symbolic resonance.

Eamonn P. Kelly is the former Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland. A leading authority on Irish archaeology, he has written and lectured widely on topics ranging from bog bodies to sheela na gigs, and has contributed to numerous television and radio documentaries. His pioneering work brings new insight to the archaeological and cultural context of many of the figures that inhabit Heaney’s poetry — bridging the worlds of history, ritual, and imagination.