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

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens when the Sea King ship is sighted?

2. What do the knight and his squire eat on the way to their destination in Chapter 2?

3. Who is Hieronymus?

4. What secret thing does Thorfinn bring to Jacob Olafson?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. When and where does Old Jacob Olafson die?

2. When Jacob Olafson returns from his great adventure, what does he bring and what does he find?

3. Why does the author call the gathering at the Norday blacksmith shop "the village parliament?"

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

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

6. What is the family situation of Matthew Ragnarson at the beginning of the book?

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

8. What is the general opinion of Thorfinn in the village of Norday?

9. What is Mr. Harcourt-Smithers place within the island community?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The theme of the disintegration of the broch is carried through chapter 4 from beginning to end. Write an essay on the image of the stones slowly falling into the ocean. Pick out all the examples of this through the chapter and explain the meaning of this symbolic destruction and loss of history, stone by stone.

Essay Topic 2

Make a list of all the imaginative stories. What is the place of Thorfinn in each? How does his fictional character evolve? What does he learn (briefly) from each dream adventure?

Essay Topic 3

What is the effect of the Aerodrome project upon the Island of Norday? How does this project change their way of life forever? What do the workers bring? What do they destroy?

(see the answer keys)

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