Tollundmanden – The Tollund Man at Museum Silkeborg

Face to face with a man from the Iron Age

Standing in the dim light of the gallery, you come almost eye to eye with a man who died more than 2,400 years ago. The Tollund Man, discovered in 1950 in the Bjældskovdal bog near Bølling Lake west of Silkeborg, lies in a glass case with his knees drawn up and a leather cord still looped around his neck. His features are so delicately preserved that early finders believed they had stumbled upon a recent crime scene rather than an ancient burial. What you see today is his original head and soft features mounted on a carefully reconstructed body, built from his skeletal remains when conservation of an entire bog body was still impossible. The closed eyes, faint stubble and peaceful expression make him feel uncannily alive, collapsing the distance between the Iron Age and the present.

An extraordinary journey from peat bog to museum

The Tollund Man’s story begins with peat cutters working in Bjældskovdal in May 1950. When their spades revealed a body lying more than two metres down in the peat, the police were called. Only when the depth of the find and the lack of recent disturbance became clear was the case handed over to archaeologists, who realized that this was a unique Iron Age burial preserved by the oxygen‑poor, acidic bog environment. At Museum Silkeborg, conservators decided to preserve the head, one foot and a finger, while the rest of the soft tissue later decayed. In the 1980s a full‑size body was reconstructed so that visitors could appreciate how he was originally laid to rest. Since then, advances in scanning and scientific analysis have continued to reveal new details about his age, health and final hours.

Clues to a life and a violent death

Scientific studies suggest that Tollund Man was in his late twenties or thirties when he died, relatively lightly worn by physical labour compared with many Iron Age contemporaries. His height is estimated at around 1.60 metres, with evidence in his feet that he sometimes went barefoot, leaving scars still visible after millennia. Microscopic analysis of his last meal, a simple barley-based porridge mixed with weed seeds, has opened windows onto farming practices and ritual food in his community. The leather noose around his neck and marks on his body show that he was hanged. Whether this was a ritual sacrifice to deities associated with bogs and wetlands, or a punishment for a crime, remains a matter of interpretation. The careful positioning of his body, the closed eyes and the special last meal all point to deliberate, meaningful preparation rather than a casual disposal.

Elling Woman and the wider bog landscape

Tollund Man is not alone in his marshy resting place. Earlier, in the 1930s, another body was found nearby in the same bog – the Elling Woman. She too had been hanged, her plaited hair and rope preserved by the peat. Today, both Tollund Man and Elling Woman are part of the same narrative at Museum Silkeborg, underlining that the surrounding wetlands once formed a sacred and dangerous border between the human world and the realm of the gods. The exhibition helps you imagine the boggy landscape as it looked in the early Iron Age, with walkways, sacrificial deposits and hidden bodies lying beneath the sphagnum moss. Maps, models and atmospheric lighting evoke the mists and still waters that shaped people’s beliefs and fears in this corner of Jutland.

Inside the museum’s Iron Age universe

Tollund Man is the centrepiece of a broader Iron Age and regional history exhibition at the museum’s Hovedgården site on Hovedgårdsvej. Displays set his story in context with weapons, jewellery, tools and everyday objects from the same period, tracing how local communities farmed, traded and worshipped long before Silkeborg became a town. Clear, bilingual information panels, reconstructions and interactive elements make the material accessible to both casual visitors and archaeology enthusiasts. The museum building itself, a former manor house from the 18th century, adds a further historical layer, so that a visit becomes a journey through multiple eras of central Jutland’s past.

Planning your time with the Tollund Man

A focused visit to see Tollund Man alone can be done in under an hour, but allowing more time lets you absorb the details of his discovery and the wider Iron Age collections. The exhibition spaces are compact and indoors, making this an all‑weather activity in Silkeborg. Nearby you will find other cultural sites, lakes and forests, so many travellers weave a meeting with Tollund Man into a wider day exploring the region’s nature and history. Quiet corners, seating and considered lighting encourage you to pause and simply look. For many, the most lasting memory is not a specific object or text panel, but the unsettling, moving feeling of having shared a room – briefly – with a person whose life ended in a lonely bog more than two thousand years ago.