The present paper attempts to call attention to and shed light upon the almost forgotten short narratives of George Mackay Brown by analyzing "The Story-Teller", a story this writer considers central to his work. Mackay Brown presents the Orkney Islands, the setting for the stories found in his collection A Time to Keep, as a microcosm of the universe, wh'ose inhabitants are a faithful reflection of mankind in general. Relationships, symbolic as well as stylistic, are established among the three stories told by the 'storyteller' of the title and then linked to Mackay Brown's overall narrative.