What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I read this between 2000 and 2010. There was a traveling wizard/merchant who came to town every year that the MC liked talking to and there was something weird going on underground/under the mountain so of course the MC finds a way in after being warned not to go there and it's like a maze they have to find their way through and at one point it's so dark that they can't see but they find another person in the tunnels and there's some kind of creature they're trying to keep away from. The MC might have been searching for treasure. It's not The Hobbit.

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald and A Walk Out of the World by Ruth Nichols both feature tunnels under mountains.

Memp wrote: "The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald and A Walk Out of the World by Ruth Nichols both feature tunnels under mountains."

I can rule both out, if the merchant is key. :) But it depends how tight the recollection of the book is - no travelling merchant in either. You're pretty sure of the merchant?

(I enjoyed both of them. :) And you can read them both online for free! And they're both quite fun and Tolkien-esque - one predates Tolkien and is cited as an 'inspiration', and the other is derivative but enjoyable)

There's also no travelling merchant in The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, but it's in that same vein, and it also has labyrinthine subterranean passages.

There's a Juvenile Fiction Maze/Labyrinth list:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Can you remember the era/setting at all? Modern or medieval-esque?

Any other details, however small? Clothing, or food, or what the other creature may have been (bigger? Smaller? Reptilian? Hairy?).

Not an exact match, but possibly The Tombs of Atuan

Capn wrote: "Memp wrote: "The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald and A Walk Out of the World by Ruth Nichols both feature tunnels under mounta..."
I'm not positive about him being a merchant. I just remember that there was an older male who came to town like once a year and he would give the MC news about the world and that's how the MC learned about what was going on underground/in the mountain.

Capn wrote: "Can you remember the era/setting at all? Modern or medieval-esque?

Any other details, however small? Clothing, or food, or what the other creature may have been (bigger? Smaller? Reptilian? Hairy?)."

It was medieval-esque. Like on the edge of the village the MC lived in. The traveler may have given the MC a precious stone. Maybe magical? I think the character that the MC finds in the labyrinth was stuck in a crate or a cage and the MC had to free them. But the MC didn't know they were going to be there. I remember the monster giving demon vibes. Large and carniverous and scary. And the labyrinth got darker the farther they went.