The Tale of Tollund Man: Unraveling Rituals and Mysteries of Iron Age Bogs

In this eerie mini-sode of Wildly Curious, hosts Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the hauntingly well-preserved story of the Tollund Man. Found in a Danish peat bog in 1950, this Iron Age figure still has intact skin, facial features, and even his last meal in his stomach! Katy and Laura explore the mysterious rituals surrounding his death, why bogs preserve bodies so well, and what his discovery reveals about Iron Age life. Was he a human sacrifice to appease the gods, or does his peaceful expression suggest something more profound?

Perfect for fans of archaeology, history buffs, and anyone fascinated by the macabre wonders of our natural world.

Transcript

Laura: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Wildly Curious, a podcast that tells you everything you need to know about nature, and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.

Katy: And I'm Katy, and we are going to continue our bog banter, for the holiday season. We talked about bog butter, bringing the families together for the holidays with multi people that we

Laura: now we're gonna about to ring in the new year with this one.

Katy: Yeah, right. So this one I'm going to talk about, so again guys, just a reminder, these are mini episodes until our new season, next season is going to start in January, so stay tuned.

So until then, we're doing these quick little bog banter minisode episodes. The one that I'm going to talk about is the Tollund Man. T O L L U N D. It, and this is probably the most famous bog discovery from any, I don't remember if it said he had redheads or

Laura: I just

Katy: but he's like,

Laura: an image of super, super, super intact.

Katy: that's this guy like super super well preserved.

Yeah, he's by far the most well preserved Person that's ever been found [00:01:00] in a bog and he was thought to have been for a while They thought he was just a murder victim, but he's well over 2, 000 years old And like I said, it's the Toland man. So he is again just like Laura talked last week another bog body Meaning that his remains were preserved in the unique conditions of a peat bog Again, remember I talked about in the first episode the cold acidic oxygen poor like freakishly well preserves these bodies Yep, and it just, it's insane how, how, it just pickles their bodies.

And in this one in particular, his skin, facial features, and even his internal organs keeps everything perfectly intact.

Laura: This is one of those things that would, haunt your nightmares, guys, if you look up the

Katy: Yeah, yeah, this is a, this is a weird one. So on May 8th, 1950, brothers Vigo and Emil Hoggard are, were harvesting peat in, I don't know, in a Vox Goldove? I don't know, bog. Approximately 12, [00:02:00] well, this would be 12 kilometers. What is that? I don't know. More miles. And Denmark. As they were cutting through the layers of peat, they uncovered a lifelike face just peering up at them from the bog.

Which, that alone, I would never harvest peat again. Like, no. Ever. Just,

Laura: Cause the face is one of nightmares.

Katy: yes. It is just, because it's one of nightmares because it's so perfectly preserved. It's creepy. It's not like

Laura: somebody made of

Katy: Yes, it's not scary per se. It's yeah, it's so perfectly preserved. It's freaky and so it was about So the body, whenever the heart found him, was about seven and a half feet, under seven and a half feet of Pete.

So they were about digging down, harvesting everything, and it was positioned in a fetal like position, which is interesting that you said in yours, Laura, they were also in a fetal like position,

Laura: Yeah,

Katy: with the legs tucked up and arms bent. But this guy, like, and again, his facial features, it's almost like he was, I don't know, [00:03:00] Sleeping almost like it's almost creepy how peaceful he looks he wore a pointed sheepskin cap secured under the chin He had a smooth hide belt around his waist and most notably a noose made of animal hide Still encircled on his neck indicating death by hanging Alarmed by the discovery, of course the brothers contacted the local police upon arrival The authorities quickly realized this was no ordinary case Because of the preservation of the body coupled with the ancient style of the cap and hat the cap and the belt suggested that they were dealing with a significant historical find rather than a modern day murder so archaeologists thing from a promptly called to investigate and They started to examine him and I think the more that they did with him the more they were like just Fascinated and like holy cow because again perfectly perfectly perfectly preserved so his skin retained the texture his facial [00:04:00] features were Clearly discernible like you could see everything down to the stub on his chin, which was visible, right?

 This exceptional step of preservation provided an Unprecedented opportunity for researchers to study an individual from the iron age Offering profound insights into the periods Cultural and ritualistic practices. So again, back then, a lot of times they sacrificed people into the bog for different gods and everything.

And so often even back, you know, when was, when did I say this? This was 1950. You know, they kind of understood culturally that people were sacrificed. And so they thought that, even though he was hung, was he. Believed to be a human sacrifice. And so they do know he lived during the iron age, roughly 375 to 210 BCE.

, a time when survival was deeply connected to nature and the communities relied on rituals to please appease their gods. The [00:05:00] iron age in Northern Europe was marked by a belief system where bogs were considered sacred spaces. Basically like a portal between mortal and divine. Yeah.

Laura: Where else do you think you could just descend into hell other than a place that was like that? , oh my

Katy: that would also like almost like pause time in a way like you're dead but you also look still perfectly alive, you know so, The audience offerings placed into bogs were then brought to carry thought to carry prayers for prosperity fertility and protection straight to the gods The tolan man wasn't just killed though.

They do think he was sacrificed with intention. The noose around his neck tells us that he was hanged, a method often used in ritual killings to symbolize control over life and death, which is very interesting.

Laura: Hmm.

Katy: Afterward, his body was carefully placed in, in the bog, in a fetal like position as if prepared for the gods.

So whenever you were reading yours last week, like I didn't want to quite get into that, but like, again, it'd be interesting that, [00:06:00] why the significance in this news, you were like, Oh, a fetal like position. I was like, huh, I wonder if like,

Laura: because we're also talking about two very different places too, right? Like, I mean, yes, both in Europe, but like Denmark versus the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Those people, I mean, they, they could have met because of ships,

Katy: yeah, oh absolutely, , but even just, , culturally, things carry through, especially sacrificing, you know what I mean, and rituals, and there's a lot of sacrificing that was going on over in Denmark with these, but yeah, so why sacrifice someone in the first place again? Like I said life during the iron age was very tough communities Were all often at the mercy of just nature's unpredictability harsh winters crop failures disease And so sacrifices were often seen as in any culture as a devotion and a way to secure favor for the gods to ensure survival so

Laura: did they see, I mean I'm sure they already analyzed this, but, did they see if his neck was broken?

Katy: I don't know. I didn't see that or

Laura: I would just be curious, right? Like, [00:07:00] like, cause,

Katy: because if his neck was broken, yeah, then it was like,

Laura: clearly hanging, but also, if it's not broken, it doesn't necessarily have to be hanging, could've just,

Katy: Yeah, well, I mean they said that he it was hung so maybe they just said it was broken without saying it was yeah broken one cool thing that they did do with his body because it was so well preserved was the told man came from what he ate before death because his son organs and everything were so perfectly preserved.

So scientists analyzed the contents of his stomach and found his last meal was just simple porridge made of barley flaxseed and wild weeds and like knot grass. This was typical Iron Age fare, but it wasn't just the ingredients that stood out. There were over 40 types of plant material in the porridge including some milky toxic weeds.

So was the toxicity of it Accidental. Could it have been part of the ritual? 

Laura: Right, like, was it like a numbing? , was it toxic [00:08:00] enough that it made him delirious, but not so toxic that it killed

Katy: yeah. So then I

Laura: Because who knows, , sacrifice doesn't have to be unwilling either. Some people I think could have been like,

Katy: I'm part of, yeah, yeah. I'm part of this. It's my turn. And that's what they were saying. Cause they knew the meal was eaten about 12 to 24 hours before his death. At least giving scientists like a level of precision, and reconstruction of the timeline of his final day, which is, that's how crazily like well preserved everything was.

So yeah, so the last meal that he was, , that they were studying definitely gives a glimpse into the Iron Age agriculture and food practices because you can see what was eaten back then.

Laura: Yeah, what's available.

Katy: Yeah, it also shows how communities made use of every resource available, even plants we might consider undesirable today.

So yeah, so then why does the Talon Man matter in general? Well, he's obviously not just like, perfectly, preserved body, but again, he's because of how he was Sacrifice, kill, die, [00:09:00] whatever it was. It, again, like yours, Laura. Yours had a lot of questions. This one kind of does too, but it starts to understand, or at least attempt to help to understand the different beliefs, traditions, and struggles of people , who lived back then.

Laura: Yeah, well, plus, because he has just so much extra on him, like, you can really see a snapshot of culture. What he ate, what he wore,

Katy: Yeah. Yeah. Everything. Everything. So yeah, so that's the, , the Talon Man. One of the most iconic bodies.

Laura: up. It's amazing. The folds of his eyelids. He's literally just, looks like he's asleep.

Katy: yeah, it does it look it looks like he fell asleep one day and just woke up. It's just that like this Yeah, it's crazy. All right guys. That's our third one So go ahead and go Please if you could support us on patreon it really helps to be able to bring this content because we have to pay for all This stuff And so it would help us and then like I said, we'll be kicking off the new season come January So until then we will talk to you guys next week

Laura: [00:10:00] Later.