Viking Duels

Holmgang: A Duel or Fight to the Death

Life could be tough in ancient Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden.

This photo doesn’t exactly show a holmgang, but it’s nevertheless a pretty cool shot that looks appropriately viking-ish for this article. Photo by Victor B. on Unsplash

In the Old Norse language, says the OED, the word holmganga meant “going to the holm.” A holm was an islet, on which duels were traditionally fought. And the -gang part is practically a universal ancient word meaning to go. (Old Norse had it, as did Old English and surely other “Old” languages.)

In any case, this is where we get holmgang, a fairly uncommon word that’s basically synonymous with the more common English word duel, except to note that, with duel, one commonly thinks of guns (though one may duel without them); with holmgang, it was more of a battle axe and broad sword kind of affair. The overall concept with either word, though, related to a formalized means for settling disputes and/or defending honor, quite often (but not necessarily) to the death.

Wikipedia has a super basic write-up of the rules of engagement, going back to the 1200s (though holmgangs were around centuries before that), complete with some regional variants of these rules. But, if you want a much more thorough history of holmgangs, here’s a superior article, written by The Viking Answer Lady.

Both of those sources mention, by the way, that English also gets the word berserk from Old Norse. The Berserker…