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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 is at the center of a broch?

2. What language does Rolf Rolfson speak?

3. Scottish is a fusion of what two languages?

4. What are iron rations?

5. What song is Olafson singing right before he dies?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. When Sir James MacTavish is on his way to the battle of Bannockburn he meets a herdsman. What has the herdsman never heard of?

6. What is the Solan Goose?

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

8. When Thorfinn and his father are in the smithy, the men are talking politics. What point of view does MacTavish take?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How would you describe the writing style of this book? Historical fiction? Poetry? Lyrical fiction? Is it a combination of several styles? Describe the style and find examples in the book of this style.

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

Why do Sophie and Thorfinn return to the barren community of Norday Island? What does their return represent? What is George Makay Brown's message in their return? What is the place of the artist in the world?

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This section contains 906 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample