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BEBSEBESGAKC. 253
naut (a sword whicli he had found in a subter-
ranean passage); Kandvid had a yery slender
baton, an ell in length, in his hand. When all was
ready, the tub was covered. Eandvid told Thorgils
to thrust the first, for he was the challenged. He
did so, struck the baton so that it broke in pieces,
and wounded Eandvid in the abdomen. The latter
then said, 'Give me now the sword, but do thou
have the baton, then shall I stab thee with the
sword.' 'Methinks now,' said Thorgils, 'that
there is not any baton.' Soon afterward Kandvid
died. He had relied upon his sorcery ; for he had
Idlled many a man in this kind of Holmgang."*
The Kergdnga has something in common with
the Belt-clasping (Beltespsenden), still common in
modern times among the peasants in some of the
mountain districts of Norway, in which the two
contending parties are inclosed within a large belt
constructed for that purpose, and thrust at each
other with large pocket-knives. Of this kind of
duel there are scarcely any traces to be found in
the ancient Sagas.
There were men in heathen times, as has been
already alluded to in the above-quoted accounts,
who made the holmgang a means of gaining a subsistence,
and even a source of wealth ; such were
especially the so-called Berserks (Berserkr, plur,
Berserkir), of whom it may be proper here to speak
more at length.
The name of Berserkir was given to certain men
who sometimes, especially in the heat of battle,
12
* FlSainanna S. 14.