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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. When does Jacob Olafson die?

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

3. Why does Will Olafson need help on the croft?

4. Who is Hector Drummond?

5. In the 1930s what does the broch on Norday Island look like?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Why are the children bored on the field trip to the broch?

9. What does the poorest man in Norday believe politically?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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 3

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.

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