Ciklamini, Marlene. The Old Icelandic Duel

• Author: Ciklamini, Marlene
• Title: The Old Icelandic Duel
• Published in: Scandinavian Studies 35/3
• Year: 1963
• Pages: 175-94
• E-text:
• Reference: Ciklamini, Marlene. "The Old Icelandic Duel." Scandinavian Studies 35/3 (1963): 175-94.

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Annotation

The article focuses on the information which Egils Saga, along with other sagas, gives us about the hólmgang and the rules governing this type of duels in medieval Scandinavia and Iceland.The author also links the abolition of the practice to the fact that duels became less profitable for the aristocracy, and she compares the different reasons that lead to the end of the hólmgang in Iceland, Norway and Denmark.

Lýsing

Greinin fjallar um þær upplýsingar sem Egils saga, ásamt öðrum miðaldasögum, gefa okkur um hólmgöngur og þær reglur sem giltu um slík einvígi á Norðurlöndunum á miðöldum. Höfundurinn segir að afnám hólmgöngunnar hafi orðið vegna minnkandi arðbæri hennar fyrir eftir stéttir samfélagsins. Einnig má finna samanburð á ástæðum þess að hólmgangan féll niður fyrir í Danmerkur, Noregs og Íslands.

References

Chapter 66: aflað sér fjár á hólmgöngum: "The sagas suggest, since they deal predominantly with the lives of prominent families, that it was mainly the aristocracy which engaged in the practice of the duel, just as law in general benefited and upheld the mighty. Nevertheless, the common man, a poor but free man, had apparently right to fight a duel … Egils saga Skallagrimssonar (ch. 65, p. 208) states epressly "at hverjum manni var rétt, at skora á annan til holmgöngu" ' that everyone had the right to challenge another to a duel.' References from Iceland and in particular Norway … show that the intrepid considered the duel an instrument to better their way of life." (p. 176)

Links

• Written by: Marion Brochet/ Barbora Davídková
• English translation: Barbora Davídková