The Troll's Grindstone/The Curse of Slagfid
    by Elizabeth Boyer, Published by Corgi, RRP œ3.99 each

                 Reviewed by Kjell Robertsen

Once upon the time there was a world called Skarpsey where Light
Elves fought Dark Elves and unlucky mortals were caught in the
middle.

This is the background for Elizabeth Boyer's Alfar novels. There
are six books but only the last two are still available.  This
doesn't matter much as this is not a series, each book is a
finished story.  They are set in the Viking world of long ago but
the books don't tell where Skarpsey was or even if it is a real
place.  I found the word "Gardar" in the book and this is an old
Viking name for Greenland.  If Skarpsey really is Greenland then
it must have been settled by Vikings almost 2000 years ago which
is impossible.

The Troll's Grindstone tells how the Viking Leifr escapes from the
Draugar by impersonating a missing Light Elf called Fridmarr (in
the books the Light Elves are called "Ljosalfar"), who turns out
to be not so missing in the end. Evidently the Draugar are not to
be taken lightly, they are more like zombies and are not like the
Norwegian draug who is a guardian of waterfalls and plays a
musical instrument, usually a fiddle.  I must admit that I've
never heard of these Draugar before, but Boyer could be drawing on
local myths or maybe she knows something I don't which is more
than likely.

I always enjoy catching an author in an obvious error and Boyer
has made a few.  For instance, Leifr's three hounds are called
Kraftig, Frimodig, and Farlig, which the author says mean
Strong, Fearless and Dangerous.  Close enough but the words are
taken from modern Norwegian/Danish, languages that didn't exist
when the Vikings terrorised Europe.  It is small errors like this
that can spoil a novel especially when all other names are in old
Norse (a language that today is spoken only on Iceland),
unfortunately the old Norse names are difficult, I had a lot of
problems with them. But back to the story.  Fridmarr has
apparently done a lot of wrong and Leifr sets out to correct it.
To help him he has an old scavenger named Gotiskolkr, an elven
girl named Ljosa and an inept wizard named Thurid.  Leifr has to
fight many strange creatures and the powerful but evil wizard
Sorkvir.  During a fight with Sorkvir, Ljosa disappears.

In The Curse of Slagfid, Thurid escapes the Wizard's Guild who are
going to take his magic away, only to be captured by the Wizard
Djofull.  Leifr sets out to rescue him only to be captured
himself. Djofull promises to release them if they can destroy the
curse that is on Hraedsla-Dalur and they accept.  But the family
who lives there is under attack by the Draugar who are after the
oldest member of the family.  Thurid needs all his magic to
succeed, and even if they can destroy the curse there is still
Djofull to fight. And Ljosa is still lost.

Elizabeth Boyer has created a world of fantasy as believable as
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.  It is based on the old Norse
mythology that Tolkien used but fans of Tolkien will find that
that both elves and wizards are nothing like his.  Tolkien's elves
were all good, Boyer's are a mix of both good and bad, just as the
old fairy tales.  Boyer's world is more realistic than his, and
although Troll's Grindstone/Curse of Slagfid aren't Boyer's best
books, I'm already looking forward to her next.