holmgang

From Old Norse hólmganga; cognate with Icelandic hólmganga, Swedish holmgång.

holmgang (countable and uncountable, plural holmgangs)

1. In Norse and Icelandic culture, a duel to the death.
   • 1933, Gwyn Jones, “Some characteristics of the Icelandic 'Hólmganga'”, in Journal of English and Germanic Philology‎, volume 32, number 2, page 224:

     A man could no longer be challenged for his lands or his women-folk, since the only result of holmgang which the law would allow, apart from wounds or death, was a claim for the payment of the agreed stakes.

   • 1970, Eirikr Magnússon, The story of Kormak, the son of Ogmund‎, page 37:

     The influence of Christianity may have hastened the end of holmgang in Iceland, but long before the conversion of the country enlightened public opinion had come to see the absurdity of single combat as a method of settling disputes.

   • 2015, Joseph Ottum, Sun Stone Saga: A Viking Passage to Helluland‎, →ISBN:

     Some members of the council suggested a holmgang.