Nordwelg
Nordwelg is an old troll of Blighburrow and the oldest friend Alistair Archibald has.[1] He is at the Sacred Ruler's side in the city greenhouse when Beatrice Tidal is carried in with her Sacred symbol darkened, and it is Nordwelg who tells her what a Shadow Reaper does to what it touches and why part of Demise is still inside her.[1]
Appearance
Nordwelg is short and plump, with slate-grey withered skin, a nose as big and round as a tennis ball, scruffy hair, ocean-grey eyes and white whiskers. He wears overalls, and a smoking pipe sits more or less permanently between his thin, cracked lips.[1] His fingers are described as chubby and as stubby, and he uses one to tamp the brown leaves flat in the pipe's chamber before striking a match.[1][2] He coughs hoarsely enough to alarm the people around him.[1]
Barnaby Britto, meeting Vendalis on Alakyer a book later, thinks she looks a little like Alistair's troll friend Nordwelg, though less squat, leaner, and with much longer hair.[3]
Personality
Nordwelg is blunt in a way nobody else is allowed to be with a Sacred Ruler. He tells Alistair to his face that Bea's mark is darker than any he has seen and that it cannot look normal to him either, asks him outright whether he has lost it, and calls his hurry foolishness right back when Alistair calls him foolish.[1][2] When Alistair tries to leave Blighburrow without saying goodbye, Nordwelg grabs his wrist, holds him still until he apologises, and only then asks what happened.[2]
He is irreverent about the things Blighburrow holds sacred. The first settlers named plants, held naming ceremonies for every new bud and worshipped Gewa and the flora more than they worshipped Aezaros, all of which Nordwelg reports with the observation that they were a little bit twisted up in the roots. Alistair tells him their ancestors are not to be made a joke of, and Nordwelg carries on anyway.[1]
He is dismissive of his own usefulness and useful throughout. He grumbles about always being stuck with the bedside duties while doing them, fetches a cloth and a canteen of water for Bea without being asked twice, picks a fallen branch off the greenhouse floor at the right height to serve her as a cane, and takes the credit for it with the remark that this old troll has not lost all his wits.[1] He is unrepentant about the pipe: told he will run his lungs dry, he answers that they have not worked since the day he was born, and told not to let his lips get too accustomed to it, he laughs that they already have.[1][2]
Background
Nordwelg lives at Blighburrow, the kingdom of the Book of Land, and is at home in the glass tunnels and the greenhouse of Alistair's castle above the city.[1] He knows enough of the Sacred Chamber and of Shadow Reapers to explain both, and enough of the Knowers to know which of them have been expelled, but the books do not say what he does or how long he and Alistair have known each other.[1][2]
Story
Sacred: Eslura's Calling
Nordwelg is kneeling beside Bea's bed in the greenhouse when she comes round, arguing with Alistair about how dark her symbol has gone. He fetches what Alistair asks for, and when Bea asks what the Shadow Reaper did to her he answers before Alistair can: a Shadow Reaper lives by sucking the souls from its prey, one touch could mean death, her own power is the stronger of the two but she cannot fight it off forever, and the reason her symbol has darkened is that part of the Reaper is still inside her, eating what life she has left.[1]
He cuts her a branch to lean on and leads her and Alistair out of the greenhouse along the glass hallway, hundreds of feet above the garden roofs of the city, to the giant tree at the end of it. He gives her the history of the settlers who named it, and turns back at the door in Gewa's trunk when Alistair tells him the rest of the journey must be made alone. Bea thanks him, and he winks and bows.[1]
He catches up with them again as they leave the Sacred Chamber, hurrying after Alistair and demanding to know what happened inside. Told that Bea has seen Obellius Kalaar in a vision, he objects loudly to the fact being announced in a corridor. He then stops the Ruler by force, gets the story properly, points out that Alistair might have his own Book's Heart to worry about, and reminds him that Bea's companions are still waiting outside.[2]
Outside, Seely lays out the research that clears the Olphins, and Nordwelg almost chokes on his pipe: he grants that Seely has been expelled from the Knowers and asks whether he has now gone completely mad. Alistair refuses to dismiss it. Nordwelg sees them off north to Galecrest with an instruction to Alistair to be safe and not come back in two pieces, since he can barely handle one.[2]
Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened
Nordwelg does not appear. He is mentioned once, when Barnaby compares Vendalis to him on the mountain.[3]
Relationships
Alistair Archibald is his old friend, and the two use the phrase of each other. Their affection runs through insults about pipes and lungs, and Nordwelg thinks nothing of stopping the Sacred Ruler of the Book of Land mid-stride by the wrist.[1][2]
Beatrice Tidal is nursed by him for as long as she is unconscious in Blighburrow, and he is the one who explains her own condition to her.[1]
Seely is treated with open scepticism. Nordwelg is the one who reminds the room that the Knower was thrown out of his order.[2]
Behind the scenes
The pronunciation guide at the back of both novels gives his name as Nord-wellg. No surname is recorded.[4][5]
The prose calls Nordwelg a troll and describes him in detail, but says nothing about trolls in general. Everything the books record about trolls as a people comes instead from the illustrated appendix printed at the back of both novels.[6]