The Trolls of Mount Grieg

“The Trolls of Mt. Grieg” is a fantasy-adventure written for young adults and older. The tale chronicles a conflict between the nature-loving and preserving trolls of Mt. Grieg and oil trolls who worship crude oil and the power it gives them. This conflict is told as a part of the kidnapping of a precocious female mountain troll for ransom and the attempt to free the victim. Nature’s truth, often stranger than fiction, plays a crucial part in this action-filled story.

The adventure begins with the evil bog troll Zote kidnapping the young mountain troll Laelia and hiding her in his cave riddled with catacombs.  The all-knowing messenger of the wind sadly delivers the news of the kidnapping and ransom to Laelia’s brother Odin and his Jerusalem cricket friend Punga.  Odin and Punga resolve to rescue Laelia and set off into the frightening realm of the bog below their beloved mountain. Unbeknown to all, Laelia’s friend, an old raven, discovers an earring that Laelia lost during the kidnapping and delivers it to Manti, the albino bog witch.  Manti resolves to join with Odin and Punga in Laelia’s rescue.

All are in danger of the insidious oil trolls. By day, they disguise themselves as roots growing along a river’s edge; at night, they hunt their prey. As part of their quest for oil, they destroy the environment.

Once Manti joins the rescuers, she uses miraculous potions made from bog plants to help her friends and hinder others. The messenger of the wind also helps as she is able.   The story ends with the rescue of Laelia, the return of Manti to her mystical bog, and the return of Odin, Laelia, and Punga to Mt. Grieg. Along the way, the messenger of the wind discloses the secrets of the powerful crystals embedded only in Mt. Grieg.  These crystals, powered by the sun, will free the nature-loving trolls of Mt. Grieg from the control of oil trolls and their wicked ways.