“When Icelanders were worthy of the name, it was considered an accepted duty to avenge with the sword the sort of crime you have committed against my family. It's a bitter thing to be living at a time when one may not challenge to single combat the man who has disgraced one's family, and carve a blood-eagle on his back!”

— Halldór Laxness

Jason talking to Ólafur
Heimsljós (World Light) (1940), Book Four: The Beauty of the Heavens

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Halldór Laxness 216

Icelandic author 1902–1998

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