Holmgang
Encyclopedia
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
practiced by early medieval Scandinavians. It was a recognized way to settle disputes.
Holmgang can be translated as "to go to (or walk on) a small island" or simply "island walk", perhaps a reference to the duels taking place upon a small piece of hide or cloak placed on the ground. The name may also derive from the combatants dueling on a small island or islet, as they do in the saga of Egill Skallagrimsson
Egill Skallagrímsson
Egill Skallagrímsson was a Viking Age warrior and skald. Egill is one of the great anti-heroes of the Icelandic sagas.-Life:...
.
At least in theory, anyone offended could challenge the other party to holmgang regardless of their differences in social status. This could be a matter of honor, ownership or property, demand of restitution or debt, legal disagreement or intention to help a wife or relative or avenge a friend.
Holmgangs were fought 3–7 days after the challenge. Refusing the challenge would have meant that one was niðingr, and could have been sentenced to outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
ry. In effect, if the other party was not willing or able to defend their claim, they had no honor. Sometimes a capable warrior could volunteer to fight in the place of a clearly outclassed friend.
The Holmgang in History
The Swedish Hednalagen, or Pagan law, a fragment from a 13th century document from UpplandUppland
Uppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, stipulates the conditions for a holmgang:
If someone speaks insults to another man (”You’re not the like of a man, and not a man in your chest!” – ”I’m a man like you!”), they shall meet where three roads meet. If he who has spoken comes and not the insulted one, then he shall be as he’s been called: no right to swear oaths, no right to bear witness, may it concern man or woman.
If the insulted one comes and not he who has spoken, then he shall cry ”Niðingr!” three times and make a mark in the ground, and he is worse who spoke what he dared not keep.
Now both meet fully armed: if the insulted one falls, the compensation is half a weregildWeregildWeregild was a value placed on every human being and every piece of property in the Salic Code...
; if he who has spoken falls, insults are the worst, the tongue the head’s bane, he shall lie in a field of no compensation.
Exact rules varied from place to place and changed over time, but before each challenge the duelists agreed to the rules they used. The duel was fought either on a pre-specified plot or on a traditional place which was regularly used for this purpose. The challenger recited the rules, traditional or those agreed upon, before the duel. Rules determined the allowed weapons, who was eligible to strike first, what constituted a defeat or forfeiture and what the winner received; in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, the winner could claim everything the loser owned . If one party did not appear at all, he was declared niðingr. How many times the challenged actually gave in beforehand, is unrecorded.
First holmgangs probably ended on the death or incapacitation of one combatant. Killing an opponent did not constitute a murder and therefore did not lead to outlawry or payment of weregeld. Later rules turned holmgang into a more ritualistic direction.
Kormakssaga states that the holmgang was fought on an ox hide or cloak with sides that were three meters long. It was staked on the ground with stakes used just for that purpose and placed in a specific manner now unknown. After that the area was marked by drawing three borders around the square hide, each about one foot from the previous one. Corners of the outermost border were marked with hazel staves. Combatants had to fight inside these borders. Stepping out of borders meant forfeiture, running away meant cowardice.
There is one reference in Kormakssaga about a sacrifice
Animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practised by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature...
of a bull before the holmgang but there are many references about the sacrifice the winner made after the victory. Combatants were permitted a specific number of shield
Shield
A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace or battle axe to the side of the shield-bearer....
s (usually three) they could use - the opponent's strikes could break a shield. The challenged would strike first and then the combatants would hit each other in turn. The combat would normally end on the first blood and the winner would receive three marks of silver.
This represents mainly the later Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic version of holmgang, which was intended to avoid unnecessary loss of life and excessive profiteering; unless the dispute was about a specific property, the most the winner could receive was the three marks of silver.
Professional duelists used holmgangs as a form of legalized robbery; they could claim rights to land, women, or property, and then prove their claims in the duel at the expense of the legitimate owner. Many saga
Saga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
s describe berserks who abused holmgang in this way. In large part due to such practices, holmgangs were outlawed in Iceland in 1006, as a result of the duel between Gunnlaugr Ormstunga
Gunnlaugr ormstunga
Gunnlaugr Ormstunga was an Icelandic poet, born ca. 983. His life is described in Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, where several of his poems are preserved....
and Hrafn Önundarson, and in Norway in 1014.
In popular culture
In 1957, Poul AndersonPoul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
– a Danish American who frequently used Viking themes in his writings – published the science fiction story "Holmgang"
" (collected in the 1982 anthology Cold Victory). The story's two protagonists – feuding spacemen of the future who are of distant Scandinavian origin and one of whom (the bad guy) is historically conscious – decide to revive this Viking tradition, resorting to a deadly holmgang on a lonely asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
instead of a sea island, in order to settle their irreconcilable differences over a tangled issue involving crime, politics and a woman's love.
"Holmgang" is the name of a Norwegian TV-debate program aired on the commercial Norwegian station TV 2
TV 2 (Norway)
TV 2 is the largest commercial television station in Norway. Over 30% of the time Norwegians spend watching TV is spent watching TV 2. The station has 65% of the market for TV commercials in Norway....
.
In the 2001 novel Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Dart is Jacqueline Carey's first novel and the first of the novels in her Kushiel's Legacy series. The idea for this book first came to Carey when she was reading the Biblical Book of Genesis, and specifically a passage about "sons of God" coming into the "daughters of Men." Later, when...
by Jacqueline Carey
Jacqueline Carey
Jacqueline Carey is an author and novelist, primarily of fantasy fiction.-Life:She attended Lake Forest College, receiving B.A.'s in psychology and English literature. During college, she spent 6 months working in a bookstore in London as part of a work exchange program. While there, she decided...
, the fictional Skaldic people observe the holmgang and other Norse and Teutonic traditions. One Skaldic character challenges Joscelin Verreuil to holmgang.
The movie The 13th Warrior includes a holmgang process, complete with insult, shields and weregild.