Streszczenie książki Pirat

The story in 10 parts

1. Key idea 1 · free to read

   A silent stranger rents a ruin at Jarlshof

   The story opens on Sumburgh Head, the great cliff at the southern tip of Zetland. A fierce tide called the Roost runs below it, and sand has buried most of an ancient Norse manor named Jarlshof. The landlord, Magnus Troil, lives far away in kinder country. He is a hot-tempered, generous man who prides himself on his old Norwegian blood.

   Into this bleak place comes Basil Mertoun with a handsome boy of about fourteen. The islanders ask him nothing, because their rules of hospitality forbid prying. He avoids company, shuns women and drinks nothing but water, which horrifies Magnus. He rents Jarlshof with a gloomy kind of pleasure, since no company is exactly what he wants.

   When a fisherman overcharges him, he pelts the man with his own fish. Mertoun also has what the household calls his dark hour, when he shuts himself in an inner room for days. The island politely leaves the mystery alone, but the book does not. A mystery kept by good manners is still a mystery.

2. 2

   Mordaunt grows up between cliffs and sagas

   Mordaunt Mertoun is taught by his father in a strict, cold way.

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3. 3

   A storm and a sibyl at Harfra

   One spring day Mordaunt leaves Burgh-Westra against the warnings of Minna, who reads the sky and the seabirds.

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4. 4

   A wreck brings Captain Cleveland ashore

   The next morning Mordaunt and his father see a ship with no sail drifting in the Roost toward Sumburgh Head.

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5. 5

   The favorite of Burgh-Westra pushes Mordaunt aside

   Weeks pass, and Cleveland settles in at Burgh-Westra as one of the family.

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6. 6

   Norna's dark tale and her leaden heart

   A great whale runs into the voe at Burgh-Westra, and the guests set out in boats to kill it.

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7. 7

   The pirates come to Kirkwall

   In Kirkwall, the Orkney capital, the Fair of Saint Olla draws crowds from every island.

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8. 8

   Old Norse ways meet the improving farmer

   Magnus Troil is the book's picture of the old Norse gentry.

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9. 9

   Dreams of sea kings meet real pirates

   Minna is the book's dreamer.

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10. 10

    How Scott tells the tale

    Scott opens with a preface about his voyage and a note about the real John Gow, who terrorized Orkney in 1725.

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