
We are in Ireland & it`s an awfully long time ago. Centuries & centuries. The country is supposed to have gone Christian, but there`s still magic in the air, salmon in the rivers, berries in the bushes, druids in the forest, a Worm in the lake, fairy music in the distance. Manchan`s mother wants to make a monk of Manchan. Manchan most emphatically does not want to be made a monk of. He`d rather sing songs with his father, or go fishing with his friend, Pagan-of the-Six-Toes, or go charging through the forest with his pet pig, Muck, or go bare-back riding over the bog on the chieftain`s mad ram, Balor. Anything fun or adventurous or magical, & absolutely nothing to do with turnips, penance, prayers, monks & chanting. Poor Manchan! The more he mucks about having fun, the more his mother is determined to tame him.