Thords Story

Thord’s Story is a year in the life of a nine-year old boy living at Kirbister Farm in Birsay. The story is set in 1557 and is a very thoroughly researched book for children about the same age as Thord.

The details of day-to-day life and the cycle of the seasons and festivals of the year make it easy for children to imagine what it would have been like to live in Kirbister 450 years ago.

Paperback, 119 pages

ISBN 095403208X

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Thursday, 27th May, 1557

His mother had finished scooping out the grains of bere, which had been drying in the big pot overnight, and Lina started to grind them with the quern-stones. She swung the pot over the fire again and asked Thord to get some water from the tub on the stone bench at the door.

Mother poured the meal into the pot and stirred until it thickened. Thord liked bursteen and helped to fetch the bowls and hand it round. He liked the morning and the evening best, he thought, when they were all sitting round the back together, his whole family.

“I was going to dry some corn today,” said his father. “Dod can help me after we’ve fed the kye.”

Up till today the weather had been bad. It had rained a lot and the wind had been blowing strongly for a long time; it seemed for weeks. Grandfather for some reason was quite pleased about this and when they complained about the weather he would say,

“If the lavro sings afore Candlemas, she’ll greet twice as lang after.”

“Da, Da!” said Christane. “I’ve never seen a lavro greeting. What way can it greet?”

Mother laughed. “He means that if we get good weather before Candlemas, we’ll get twice as much bad weather after.”

If it was raining or the wind was blowing very strongly, they would carry food for the kye from the barn, through the stable, through the sallur, through the firehouse and into the byre and never need to go outside at all.

Today, though, was a glorious day. The sun shone and there was little or no wind. It was even warm outside on the brig-stones and Thord followed his father out round the back to the outside door, past the door through to the byre, past the bus-herra, the large red stone lying at the sun side of the door for luck, and along the brig-stones to the yard.

He enjoyed tying the windleens of hay and carrying them from the skroo in the yard back in front of the house and into the byre. The six cows and their calves seemed pleased to see them, but the bull gave Thord a bored look as usual. He hated being tied up all winter.

His father then took a burning peat from the fire and carried it out to the barn. He lit the kiln and they began to spread grains of bere over the straw matting on the platform in the kiln so that the heat coming from the fire could dry them. “You must not let it get too hot or the corn will scorch,” said his father. “We’ll have to watch the fire carefully.”

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