ØRNULF.
Jøkul faldt i ærlig holmgang; værre tort gjorde dine frænder mig, da de skikked dig ukendt til Island og fik mig til at knæsætte dig.
ÖRNULF. Jokul was slain in fair fight;
1
thy kinsmen did me a worse wrong when they sent thee to Iceland and entrapped me into adopting
2
thee, unwitting who thou wast.
1. “I aerling holmgang.” The established form of duel in the viking times was to land the combatants on one of the rocky islets or “holms” that stud the Norwegian coast, and there let them fight it out. Hence “holmgang”=duel.
2. “At knaessette”=to knee-set a child, to take it on one’s knee, an irrevocable form of adoption.
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