Thorfinn Ragnarson is the daydreaming son of a tenant farmer avoiding both work & school despite the best efforts of family friends & neighbours Instead the boy dreams up elaborate historical fantasies In a series of intriguing chapters George Mackay Brown transforms Thorfinn into a Viking traveller a freedom-fighter for Bonnie Prince Charlie & the colleague of a Falstaffian knight who participates in the Battle of Bannockburn He is then hurled into the future as Thor who returns to the Orkneys as an adult & recalls his internment in a German POW camp where he discovered his writing skills Thor also reflects on the history of Orkney the links between dreaming & writing & the whims of fate In this beautiful & haunting novel Brown's lyrical descriptions & gift for local colour capture as ever the myth-drenched magic of his native islands