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Year 2013, Volume: 17 Issue: 2, 0 - , 03.01.2014

Abstract

Addressing the Irish Troubles in his “North”, 1995 Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney makes mythological allusions and tells of the chaos by using symbolic language. His relevant poems, Antaeus and Hercules myths from Greek mythology are the stories of source power for the Irish and those of their dispossessions. His poems dealing with the cult of Nerthus, the goddess of earth in Scandinavian mythology, are the narratives underlying the cultural kinships between the two geographies, reflecting contemporary practices of cycle of violence. In this sense, the bog queens in ‘Come to the Bower’ and ‘Bog Queen’ appear to be as Nerthus, for whom people were sacrificed to ensure the fertility of the territory in spring, and as Mother Ireland, who needs the blood of her children to survive. While the first group traces back the reasons of hibernation of Ireland, defined as the ‘sleeping giant’, the second one picks the route of violence followed by her loyalties to awaken this giant. Heaney’s preference to hold a mirror to his locale through Greek and Scandinavian mythologies is a result of his desire to show the political and social chaos comprehensively.

References

  • Bhroin, C. N. (2011). Mythologizing Ireland. Valerie Coghlan & Keith O’Sullivan (Ed.). Irish Children’s Literature and Culture: New Perspectives on Contemporary Writing. (pp. 7-29), New York: Routledge.
  • Sutton, M. (2013). An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland. CAIN Web Service, Organisation Summary. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/tab2.pl [15.05.2013]. Carson, C. (Winter 1975). “Escaped from the Massacre?”. The Honest Ulsterman, No. 50, pp. 183-186.
  • Corcoran, N. (1998). The Poetry of Seamus Heaney. London: Faber and Faber.
  • Coughlan, P. (1997). ‘Bog Queens’: The Representation of Women in the Poetry of John Montague and Seamus Heaney. Michael Allan (Ed.), Seamus Heaney. (pp. 185-205), New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Foster, T. C. (1989). Seamus Heaney. Dublin: The O’Brian Press.
  • Foster, J. W. (1995). The Achievement of Seamus Heaney. Dublin: The Lilliput Press.
  • Haffenden, J. (1987). Seamus Heaney and Feminine Sensibility. Yearbook of English Studies, 17, 89-116.
  • Hart, H. (Autumn 1989). “History, Myth, and Apocalypse in Seamus Heaney’s North”. Contemporary Literature, 30(3), 387-411.
  • Heaney, S. (1980). Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968-1978. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  • Heaney, S. (1975). North. London: Faber and Faber.
  • Heaney, S. (1972). Mother Ireland. The Listener, 7 December, 790.
  • Hutchinson, J. (2001 October). “Archaeology and the Irish Rediscovery of the Celtic past”. Nation and Nationalism, 7(4), 505-519.
  • Johnston, D. (2003). Violence in Seamus Heaney’s Poetry. Matthew Campbell (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry. (pp. 113-132), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Kearney, R. (1996). Post Nationalist Ireland: Politics, Literature, Philosophy. Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
  • Lloyd, D. (1996). Fusions in Heaney’s North. Catharine Malloy & Phyllis Carey (Ed.). Seamus Heaney: The Shaping Spirit. (pp. 82-90), Newark & London: University of Delaware Press & Associated University Presses.
  • Longley, E. (1997). ‘Inner Émigré’ or ‘Artful Voyeur’? Seamus Heaney’s North. Michael Allen (Ed.), Seamus Heaney. (pp. 30-63), London: Macmillan Press.
  • Moloney, Karen M. (2007). Seamus Heaney and the Emblems of Hope. Columbia, MO, USA: University of Missouri Press.
  • Morrison, B. (1982). Seamus Heaney. London-New York: Routledge.
  • O’Brien, C. C. (1997). A Slow North-east Wind: Review of North. Michael Allan (Ed.), Seamus Heaney. (pp.25-29), London: Macmillan Press.
  • O’Neill, C. L. (1996). Violence and the Sacred in Seamus Heaney’s North. Catharine Malloy-Phyllis Carey (Eds.). Seamus Heaney: The Shaping Spirit. (pp. 91-105), Newark-London: University of Delaware Press-Associated University Press.
  • Parker, M. (1993). Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet. London: Macmillan.
  • Tobin, D. (1999). Passage to the Center: Imagination and the Sacred in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky.
  • Tomlinson, A., Horne, J. (1999). Twentieth Century in Poetry. Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
  • Vendler, H. (1998). Seamus Heaney. Cambridge/Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

From Antaeus to the Bog Queen: Mythological Allusions in Seamus Heaney’s North / Antaeus’tan Bataklık Kraliçesi’ne: Seamus Heaney’nin North Adlı Yapıtında Mitolojik Göndermeler

Year 2013, Volume: 17 Issue: 2, 0 - , 03.01.2014

Abstract

Abstract: Addressing the Irish Troubles in his “North”, 1995 Nobel Laureate Seamus
Heaney makes mythological allusions and tells of the chaos by using symbolic language.
His relevant poems, Antaeus and Hercules myths from Greek mythology are the stories of
source power for the Irish and those of their dispossessions. His poems dealing with the cult
of Nerthus, the goddess of earth in Scandinavian mythology, are the narratives underlying
the cultural kinships between the two geographies, reflecting contemporary practices of cycle
of violence. In this sense, the bog queens in ‘Come to the Bower’ and ‘Bog Queen’ appear
to be as Nerthus, for whom people were sacrificed to ensure the fertility of the territory in
spring, and as Mother Ireland, who needs the blood of her children to survive. While the first
group traces back the reasons of hibernation of Ireland, defined as the ‘sleeping giant’, the
second one picks the route of violence followed by her loyalties to awaken this giant. Heaney’s
preference to hold a mirror to his locale through Greek and Scandinavian mythologies is a
result of his desire to show the political and social chaos comprehensively.


Öz: 1995 Nobel Edebiyat Ödülü sahibi Seamus Heaney ‘North’ adlı kitabında İrlanda
Sorunu’nu ele alırken mitolojik anıştırmalarda bulunmuş, yaşanan karmaşayı simgesel bir
dille anlatmıştır. Yunan mitolojisindeki Antaeus ve Hercules söylenceleri, onun ilgili şiirlerinde,
İrlandalıların köklerinin ve köklerinden kopartılış sürecinin öyküleridir. İskandinav
mitolojisindeki Toprak Tanrıçası Nerthus kültüyle ilgili şiirleri ise, iki coğrafya arasındaki
ekinsel benzerlikleri vurgulayan, şiddet döngüsünün çağdaş pratiklerini yansıtan anlatılardır.
Bu anlamda, ‘Come to the Bower’ ve ‘Bog Queen’ şiirlerinde sözü edilen bataklık kraliçeleri,
ilkbaharda toprağa bereket getirmesi için kendisine kurbanlar sunulan Nerthus, kurtuluşu
için evlatlarının kanına gereksinim duyan İrlanda Ana olarak görünür. Birinci grup, ‘uyuyan
dev’ olarak tanımlanan İrlanda’nın uykuya yatışının izlerini sürerken, ikinci grup bu devin
uyanması için izlenen şiddet yolunu yanlış bularak eleştirir. Heaney’nin Yunan ve İskandinav
mitolojileri aracılığı ile kendi yereline uzaktan ayna tutmayı yeğlemesi, yaşanan siyasal ve
toplumsal karmaşayı bütün boyutlarıyla gösterebilme isteğinin bir sonucudur


Keywords: Seamus Heaney, poetry, Ireland, Irish Troubles, mythology, bog


Anahtar Kelimeler: Seamus Heaney, şiir, İrlanda, İrlanda sorunu, mitoloji, bataklık

References

  • Bhroin, C. N. (2011). Mythologizing Ireland. Valerie Coghlan & Keith O’Sullivan (Ed.). Irish Children’s Literature and Culture: New Perspectives on Contemporary Writing. (pp. 7-29), New York: Routledge.
  • Sutton, M. (2013). An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland. CAIN Web Service, Organisation Summary. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/tab2.pl [15.05.2013]. Carson, C. (Winter 1975). “Escaped from the Massacre?”. The Honest Ulsterman, No. 50, pp. 183-186.
  • Corcoran, N. (1998). The Poetry of Seamus Heaney. London: Faber and Faber.
  • Coughlan, P. (1997). ‘Bog Queens’: The Representation of Women in the Poetry of John Montague and Seamus Heaney. Michael Allan (Ed.), Seamus Heaney. (pp. 185-205), New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Foster, T. C. (1989). Seamus Heaney. Dublin: The O’Brian Press.
  • Foster, J. W. (1995). The Achievement of Seamus Heaney. Dublin: The Lilliput Press.
  • Haffenden, J. (1987). Seamus Heaney and Feminine Sensibility. Yearbook of English Studies, 17, 89-116.
  • Hart, H. (Autumn 1989). “History, Myth, and Apocalypse in Seamus Heaney’s North”. Contemporary Literature, 30(3), 387-411.
  • Heaney, S. (1980). Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968-1978. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  • Heaney, S. (1975). North. London: Faber and Faber.
  • Heaney, S. (1972). Mother Ireland. The Listener, 7 December, 790.
  • Hutchinson, J. (2001 October). “Archaeology and the Irish Rediscovery of the Celtic past”. Nation and Nationalism, 7(4), 505-519.
  • Johnston, D. (2003). Violence in Seamus Heaney’s Poetry. Matthew Campbell (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry. (pp. 113-132), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Kearney, R. (1996). Post Nationalist Ireland: Politics, Literature, Philosophy. Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
  • Lloyd, D. (1996). Fusions in Heaney’s North. Catharine Malloy & Phyllis Carey (Ed.). Seamus Heaney: The Shaping Spirit. (pp. 82-90), Newark & London: University of Delaware Press & Associated University Presses.
  • Longley, E. (1997). ‘Inner Émigré’ or ‘Artful Voyeur’? Seamus Heaney’s North. Michael Allen (Ed.), Seamus Heaney. (pp. 30-63), London: Macmillan Press.
  • Moloney, Karen M. (2007). Seamus Heaney and the Emblems of Hope. Columbia, MO, USA: University of Missouri Press.
  • Morrison, B. (1982). Seamus Heaney. London-New York: Routledge.
  • O’Brien, C. C. (1997). A Slow North-east Wind: Review of North. Michael Allan (Ed.), Seamus Heaney. (pp.25-29), London: Macmillan Press.
  • O’Neill, C. L. (1996). Violence and the Sacred in Seamus Heaney’s North. Catharine Malloy-Phyllis Carey (Eds.). Seamus Heaney: The Shaping Spirit. (pp. 91-105), Newark-London: University of Delaware Press-Associated University Press.
  • Parker, M. (1993). Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet. London: Macmillan.
  • Tobin, D. (1999). Passage to the Center: Imagination and the Sacred in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky.
  • Tomlinson, A., Horne, J. (1999). Twentieth Century in Poetry. Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
  • Vendler, H. (1998). Seamus Heaney. Cambridge/Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
There are 24 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language en;tr
Journal Section Makaleler
Authors

Mümin Hakkıoğlu

Erdinç Parlak This is me

Publication Date January 3, 2014
Published in Issue Year 2013 Volume: 17 Issue: 2

Cite

APA Hakkıoğlu, M., & Parlak, E. (2014). From Antaeus to the Bog Queen: Mythological Allusions in Seamus Heaney’s North / Antaeus’tan Bataklık Kraliçesi’ne: Seamus Heaney’nin North Adlı Yapıtında Mitolojik Göndermeler. Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 17(2).

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