Kjartan Thjostolfsson, the Draug
- a fantasy novel
by Hugh Anderson
In a cathedral there lived a quiet, curious draug named Kjartan Thjostolfsson. Not a powerful dangerous, intelligent cathedral, filled with stones and an elegaic smell, nor yet a grim, dark, foreboding cathedral with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a draug-cathedral, and that means peaceful.
One day, after a troubling visit from the álf Einar Budlason, Kjartan leaves his cathedral and sets out in search of three eschatological books. A quest undertaken in the company of Vasir, volur and fatalistic clansmen.
In the search for the álf-guarded books, Kjartan Thjostolfsson surprises even himself with his empathy and skill as a wizard.
During his travels, Kjartan rescues a knife, an heirloom belonging to Einar. But when Einar refuses to try waking, their friendship is over.
However, Einar is wounded at the Battle of Isle of Gulls and the two reconcile just before Kjartan engages in some serious waking.
Kjartan accepts one of the three eschatological books and returns home to his cathedral a very wealthy draug.