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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

Journal Name:

  • Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

Publication Year:

  • 2013

Key Words:

Keywords (Original Language):

Author NameUniversity of AuthorFaculty of Author
Abstract (2. Language): 
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.
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Abstract (Original Language): 
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.
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REFERENCES

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Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler
118 / Enstitüsü Dergisi 2013 17 (2): 105-118 Mümin HAKKIOĞLU
Erdinç PARLAK
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