Tuesday 25 September 2012

Holmgang

In Poul Anderson's Hrolf Karki's Saga (New York, 1973):

"In the morning the holmgang took place." (p. 117)

So far, a straightforward narration although we need to know what a "holmgang" is but we might guess this from the context. A man called Svipdag has just challenged the king's berserkers to single combat one at a time.

The text continues:

"This is a usage among the heathen, when men wish to fight out a challenge." (p. 117)

This confirms that the holmgang, like a duel, is the formula for fighting a challenge. It also reminds us, after just over a hundred pages, that the reader is not being addressed by an omniscient narrator. Instead, a Danish woman is addressing an English Christian court several centuries after the events described. That is why she pauses to explain to her audience that the holmgang is a "...usage among the heathen...," where Anderson or his readers might have said "a Norse custom."

The holmgang practice is then described in detail to an audience unfamiliar with it:

a holm is a small island where the antagonists are isolated;
four willow wands mark a field;
an antagonist loses if he is driven beyond them;
the blows go by turns till first blood, yielding or death.

As noted of Saxo and Starkad in the previous post, readers of Anderson's sf have already encountered this term. In a story called "Holmgang," two space suited men agree to fight on an asteroid. Anderson has a unique ability to project the past into the future for story purposes as well as to speculate about possible futures differing qualitatively from previous history.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And the Catholic Church STRONGLY disapproved of holmgangs or duels, considering it a barbaric way of settling disputes and condemning it as nothing but the crime of homicide and murder. Canon law came to include it among the offenses incurring automatic excommunication if a duelist survived the fight. And those duelists who were killed were refused burial in consecrated cemeteries. As late as the Pio/Benedictine Code of Canon Law of 1917, excommunication was imposed on Catholics who took part in duels in any way (duelists, seconds, witnesses, etc.) So it's no surprise this Danish lady had to explain to Christians like King Aethelbert and his friends what a holmgang was.

Mercifully, formal, organized dueling of the lethal kind seems to have died out in Western nations since 1917. The Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1983 makes no mention of dueling.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Thank you.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Anytime! Alas, I made a mistake in the first paragraph of my comment above. It was King AETHELSTAN, not Aethelbert, who was one of the listeners to the tale of Hrolf Kraki.

Sean

Jim Baerg said...

Was the 1917 mention of dueling more than a holdover from earlier times? Dueling seems to have died out through the middle of the 19th century.
https://www.beautifulperth.com/lastduelpark.html
BTW the mention of 'reformer' in the article would mean someone advocating for widespread voting rights in Upper Canada (now Ontario). Reforms that came about after the rebellion of 1837. The rebellion was suppressed, but in a way it helped the peaceful reformers.

I don't recall where I read the claim that dueling died out when rather than being thought of as wicked it was thought of as stupid & silly.
"You are rude & insolent puppy & I shall respond by giving you the opportunity to compound your insult with my murder."

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

Actually, no, the barbaric custom of dueling was all too frequently a customary way in both America and Europe for settling quarrels, long past 1850. Dueling did not truly die out till after WW I.

Ad astra! Sean

Jim Baerg said...

Judging by "Last Duel Park" & the Wikipedia article on dueling, dueling ended a bit earlier in Canada than the rest of western civilization.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

Good! Some customs don't deserve to survive.

Ad astra! Sean