HE said, “I am called Ola;* and I am a stranger here.” Gyda replies, “Wilt thou have me if I choose thee?” “I will not say no to that,” answered he; and asked what her name was, and her family, and descent. She was a young and handsome woman. They afterwards talked over the matter together, and Olaf and Gyda were betrothed.
Alfin was very ill pleased with this. It was the custom then in England, if two strove for any thing, to settle the matter by single combat;* and now Alfin challenges Olaf Tryggvason to fight about this business. The time and place were settled, and that each should have twelve men with him.
Olaf had a large axe; and when Alfin was going to cut at him with his sword he hewed away the sword out of his hand, and with the next blow struck down Alfin himself. He then bound him fast. Olaf in this way got Gyda in marriage, and lived sometimes in England, and sometimes in Ireland.
tr. Samuel Laing (abridged)
This was the form of his name he had been accustomed to use in Novgorod, modern-day Russia, where he was a captain in the service of Vladimir the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev — Vladimir’s forebears were Vikings who had come to Kiev a century before, and when Vladimir was briefly evicted from Novgorod in 977 by his brothers, he turned for help to Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway. Olaf himself was minor Norwegian royalty and an exile, and regarded by Earl Haakon as a potential threat, especially as his uneasy relationship with both Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and his own noblemen began to deteriorate. Olaf realised that this was no time to draw attention to himself.
This custom was called Holmgang, and properly speaking took place within a week, on an isolated patch of land (a holme or islet) chosen for the purpose. It was not necessarily a fight to the death — Alfin was not killed, but bound and banished permanently — though the winner was not liable for murder if he loser died. The practice was outlawed in Norway in 1014, partly because of professional fighters who who made a living by disputing lands and honours and then winning them in combat. Sturluson implies that Alfin was one such fighter.