Ashdown, Margaret. The single combat

• Author: Ashdown, Margaret
• Title:
• Published in: Modern Language Review 17/2
• Place, Publisher: n/a
• Year: 1922
• Pages: 113–30
• E-text: JSTOR
• Reference: Ashdown, Margaret. "The single combat in certain cycles of English and Scandinavian tradition and romance." Modern Language Review 17/2 (1922): 113–30.

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Annotation

On the motif of single combat where the fate of the community is at stake. Ashdown suggests textual ties between single combat as it manifests itself in English and Scandinavian traditions. Ashdown points out that while single combat is used in Scandinavian countries to settle personal disputes during the Viking era, there is no evidence of its use in disputes at the national or international level. By contrast, a number of English chronicles and romances feature a single combat between the leaders of two opposing forces for control of the country. Although accounts of the Battle of Brunanburh do not make use of this device, this decisive battle may have in turn inspired traditions in which combat is fought for a kingdom that has been deliberately staked. At the Battle of Vinheith (Vínheiði) in Egil’s saga, the forces of King Olaf and King Athelstan fight a pitched battle over control of England. Use of the phrase ‘hasla völl’ in this passage may suggest a ‘holmgang’ element to the warfare, although the phrase is somewhat ambiguous. Ashdown argues that this account of Vinheith may represent an intermediate stage of such traditions relating to Brunanburh.

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