these are my mountains

This refrain echoes through the text. At different stages, various characters take the opportunities to claim a piece of this terrain for themselves.

Symbolically, the mountains represent:

• home for the people who are driven from the land
• money, wealth, success and power for those characters who want to acquire land

It is possible to read the mountains as symbolic of the endurance and resilience of the Highland people or the permanence of the land itself.