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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 job does Jock Seatter do in Norday?

2. When does Jacob Olafson die?

3. What do the villagers eat while taking shelter in the broch?

4. Who is Hector Drummond?

5. What is the name of Jacob Olafson's boat?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the family and friends of Jacob Olafson do when the old man dies?

2. When and where does Old Jacob Olafson die?

3. In the Song of the Broch, how does Thorfinn describe the sheltering castle?

4. How are the men of the North treated when they had sailed into the Byzantium empire?

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

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

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

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

9. Why did the broch on Norday island become a ruin?

10. Why does Isa Estquoy know more than the minister and doctor about the community of Norday?

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

Looking at the historic imaginative stories, write an essay on the various time periods and major event which Thorfinn "brings to life" through his imagination and dreaming. Touch briefly on each episode and clearly identify the time period and major characters of the story.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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