holmgang
holmgang noun: in Norse and Icelandic culture, a duel to the death.
Noun
holmgang (countable and uncountable, plural holmgangs)
- In Norse and Icelandic culture, a duel to the death.
- 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.1933, Gwyn Jones, “Some characteristics of the Icelandic 'Hólmganga'”, in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, volume 32, number 2, page 224
- 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.1970, Eirikr Magnússon, The story of Kormak, the son of Ogmund, page 37
Forms of holmgang
| plural | holmgangs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | holmganga |
Origin of holmgang
From Old Norse hólmganga; cognate with Icelandic hólmganga, Danish holmgang, Swedish holmgång.
Questions about holmgang
- What does holmgang mean?
- Holmgang means in Norse and Icelandic culture, a duel to the death.
- What part of speech is holmgang?
- Holmgang is a noun.
- What is the plural of holmgang?
- The plural of holmgang is holmgangs.
Words near holmgang in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: holmgang (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “holmgang.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holmgang. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.