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. This represents mainly the later Icelandic 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. The combat would normally end on the first blood and the winner would receive three marks of silver. The challenged would strike first and then the combatants would hit each other in turn. Combatants were permitted a specific number of shields (usually three) they could use – the opponent's strikes could break a shield. There is one reference in Kormakssaga about the sacrifice of a bull before a holmgang, but there are many references about the sacrifice the winner made after the victory. Stepping out of borders meant forfeiture, running away meant cowardice. Combatants had to fight inside these borders. Corners of the outermost border were marked with hazel staves. After that the area was marked by drawing three borders around the square hide, each about one foot from the previous one. It was staked on the ground with stakes used just for that purpose and placed in a specific manner now unknown. Kormakssaga states that the holmgang was fought on an ox hide or cloak with sides that were three meters long. Later rules turned holmgang into a more ritualistic direction. Killing an opponent did not constitute a murder and therefore did not lead to outlawry or payment of weregeld. How many times the challenged actually gave in beforehand is unrecorded.įirst holmgangs probably ended on the death or incapacitation of one combatant. But if he fell in the duel, the fight lost him all his possessions, and the one who had killed him in the duel inherited from him. If he were defeated, he was obliged to ransom himself by an agreed sum.
If a man challenged another in any matter and the one who had issued the challenge won the victory, then his due as victor was whatever the challenge had been made for. Egils saga Skallagrímssonar 1975 (as cited in the Viking Lady Answer Page) recounted: Rules determined the allowed weapons, who was eligible to strike first, what constituted a defeat or forfeiture, and what the winner received in Norway, the winner could claim everything the loser owned. The challenger recited the rules, traditional or those agreed upon, before the duel.
The duel was fought either on a pre-specified plot or on a traditional place which was regularly used for this purpose. Įxact rules varied from place to place and changed over time, but before each challenge the duelists agreed to the rules they used. Now both meet fully armed: if the insulted one falls, the compensation is half a weregild 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. 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. 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 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. The Swedish Hednalagen, or Pagan law, a fragment from a 13th-century document from Västergötland, Sweden, stipulates the conditions for a holmgang: Sometimes a capable warrior volunteered to fight in the place of a clearly outclassed friend. In effect, if someone was unwilling or unable to defend their claim, they had no honor.
If the offended party did not turn up for the holmgang, they were deemed niðingr, and could have been sentenced to outlawry. If the person challenged did not turn up for the holmgang, the other man was considered just in his challenge. Holmgangs were fought 3–7 days after the challenge. 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. The name holmgang (literally " holm-going") may derive from the combatants' dueling on a small island, or holm, as they do in the saga of Egill Skallagrímsson.Īt least in theory, anyone offended could challenge the other party to holmgang regardless of their differences in social status. It was a legally recognized way to settle disputes. Holmgang ( holmganga in Old Norse, hólmganga in modern Icelandic, holmgång in Swedish, holmgang in Danish and Norwegian bokmål and nynorsk) is a duel practiced by early medieval Scandinavians. Egill Skallagrímsson engaging in holmgang with Berg-Önundr, painting by Johannes Flintoe
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