View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Sir James MacTavish purchase the horse Seamus?

2. What does Matthew Ragnarson buy from the village store at the beginning of chapter 1?

3. What does Jess the tinker wife sell on her journey from place to place?

4. In chapter 2, who does Thorfinn dream of?

5. What do the Norday villagers use to attack from the broch?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reaction does Jacob's wife, Rena, have to arriving on Norday Island?

2. What does the title of chapter 3 refer to?

3. When Thorfinn drifts back into time, at the side of the broch ruin, how far back does he go and where is he?

4. Why is the horse, Seamus, killed on the road to Stirling Castle?

5. What is the scripture reading that the pastor from the Borders, Reverend Hector Drummond, saying?

6. Why does Jacob Olafson run away on the day of his sister's wedding?

7. In chapter four where does the school teacher, Mr. Simon, take the class?

8. Why does the school teacher, Mr. Simon, have trouble paying for his groceries at the village shop in Norday?

9. Why is Mr. Simon's lesson on Bannockburn so boring?

10. Why did the invading ship men stop coming to claim land in the Orkney islands?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Food is a strong theme in the book. Food is a very clear way to evoke a cultural tradition. Find some examples of Brown's use of food, in both the present day Norday story and the dreams. Describe the way Brown uses food and how it is used to bring the reader into the time and place of the characters.

Essay Topic 2

The style of writing a story within a story is somewhat unique. What does this literary device allow the author to reveal about his main character, Thorfinn? Why doesn't he simply write a book of imaginative stories? How is this double layer of reality different? How does it affect the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Why does Thorfinn leave when the Aerodome project arrives? In the previous chapters he has always dealt with conflict and trouble with stories and imagination? Why doesn't he do that in chapter 7? What has changed? Is the challenge simply too great for him to face? Or has he become a man and is making a different kind of choice?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 921 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample