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So I talked to Glover and he gave me the quest to retrieve the Ancient Nordic Pickaxe, but accidentally I forgot that he was the old man in the mine, and accepted his quest to find his grandfather's remains in the mine, and now he has left the mine altogether and gone into his house, which he never comes out of, and that is locked. Do I need to do his quest for him to come back out or am I just really stupid and missing something obvious?

It should be unlocked... Have you tried waiting for a bit?

If it helps, I found the pickaxe in the wreck to the south.

I've tried waiting but to no avail. Where in the south did you find it?

Follow the coast, eventually you come to this wreck, it was in a chest inside the boat. Along with a book that was important for some reason that I've forgotten...

I don't know if it will always be there.

Sorry, got it all figured out now, you can lock this.

I am actually having the same problem - when I break into his house the marker just hovers in the central room, but there's no one inside of the building. I read the article on ancient nordic pickaxes but have we found a guaranteed drop that doesn't require a lengthy quest line?

(I believe) The Skaal Smith sells one on occasion, the only requirement is to get the bend will shout in the north and break the Wind Stone, waiting for him to return to the village
I did this after only having visited the Earth Stone near Raven Rock and not going to Miraak's Temple (Getting a quest from Storn instead to find his daughter Frea after the fact)

But I'm not 100% sure that another pick will work, I believe it has to be his pick (I think they may have a separate ID)

An easier way out of all of it is to simply do Crescius' quest, it's a fun little run with a couple interesting artifacts..

Indeed it does have to be Crescius' pick, Chaos.