Gom is born the 10th child of Stig, woodcutter of Windy Mountain, and the mysterious Wife. On that day, Wife disappears. As he grows up on the mountain with his homely father, he manifests strange gifts which set him apart from the community in the town below. His outspoken tongue does not help and he makes enemies on all sides. He wears a rune which was left with him when Wife vanished. The rune also has strange properties which bring him strange visions and experieces. During the culmination of these, he is warned not to become town woodcutter after his father, but to leave the mountain and go in search of his mysterious mother . . .

Windy Mountain frontispiece

Gom and Hilsa Illustration

  After Wife vanished, Stig took the children to down into Clack, where they were eagerly seized and adopted - all save baby Gom, who was left lying on the cart. Time passed, ten years, in fact. When Stig made his weekly visits down into town, he took Gom with him. On these days, Gom visited his eldest sister, Hilsa, and Gudry, her new baby. Here he is rocking Gudry to sleep so energetically that the baby begins to cry. Both music & ironic text of the lullaby, "The Finch & the Sparrow", are featured in the book.