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. What is the primary image of "The Song of the Broch?"

2. Who is the most lazy and useless boy who ever went to Norday school?

3. Who digs Olafson's grave?

4. What do the visitors bring to the Prince Boris in Thorfinn's first dream?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. When and where does Old Jacob Olafson die?

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

7. What brings Jacob Olafson's wife Rena out of her fearful, furtive ways and back into life?

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

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

10. Why does Thorfinn not know what the circular ruin is that stands on the shore a mere half mile from his home?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a detailed character sketch of Mara, the seal wife. What does she give up by marriage to Thorfinn? What is it that she longs for? What is it that she cannot stand, finally, and why does she return to the sea? What does she look like? How does she see the world? What does she want?

Essay Topic 2

Write a detailed character study of Jacob Olafson. Why is he in the book? What does he represent in terms of Thorfinn's journey? What is he representative of in terms of the book and its overall theme?

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)

This section contains 879 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample