Between Two Armies: The Place of the Duel in Epic Culture (Davis Medieval Texts and Studies , No 10)

Epic poetry depicts single combat between champions as a substitute for pitched battle. By analyzing poetic representations of warfare in sources such as "Nibelungenlied", "Beowulf", "The Iliad" and "Odyssey", "Hildebrandslied" and The Bible, this study reconstructs the circumstances under which the duel emerges as a mechanism for avoiding catastrophic battlefield losses. Thus the duel proves to be the pivotal element in a complex system of practices and institutions that define "epic culture".