Originally posted by wingerman:

health mead, poison resist, and maxed out iron mace, and iron gear
blunt damage is key.

Exactly this ! The secondary attack hits for around 200 dmg, and you can land 2-3 hits between his attacks, it's much faster than the arrows, which deal like 15-20 dmg only.
If you have high blocking skill, you can parry his attack effectively, with the right timing (he hits at the same speed as a troll, if it can help.), otherwise a roll always works.
Also bring good food to raise your hp and stamina, sausages are great (easy to farm materials from the swamp) and black soup is pretty good too.