Note 122 — Chapter XI · TO HEKLA AND THE GEYSIR IN HAUKADALR.[87] (continued 2)

For the code of honour in pagan Iceland, Dasent refers to Kormak’s Saga, chap. x., where the law of the duello was most punctiliously laid down as the “British Code of Duel” (London, 1824) by a philanthropic and enterprising Irish gentleman. The weapons chiefly used were broadsword and battle-axe; the combatants might not step back beyond a given space, and the latter peculiarity is still preserved in the hostile meetings of students throughout Northern Germany, where the floor or ground is marked with chalk. In some cases they stood upon a hide and were not allowed to gain or to break ground. The Hólm-ganga was a “judicium Dei,” differing from the Einvígi, or simple duel, by the rites and rules which accompanied it. The Norwegian duel was worthy of the Scrithofinni; the combatants were fastened together by the belt, and used their knives till one was killed. How pugnacious the old pagan Scandinavians were, may be judged from the wife’s practice of carrying the husband’s shroud to weddings and “merry makings.”