A remembered domestic blow can be deadlier than any enemy’s sword

Evidence

Gunnar turned to his wife, Hallgerd, who had long, beautiful hair. ‘Give me two locks of your hair,’ he said, ‘and you and my mother twist them into a new bowstring, and I can hold them off and live.’ But Hallgerd remembered that Gunnar had once, long before, struck her in anger over a quarrel. ‘Does much depend on it?’ she asked coldly. ‘My life depends on it,’ said Gunnar, ‘for they can never overcome me as long as I can use my bow.’ ‘Then,’ said Hallgerd, ‘I will now remember that blow you gave me. I do not care whether you hold out a long time or a short.’ And she refused her hair. So Gunnar, his bowstring broken and unrepaired, fought on with sword and halberd until at last, overwhelmed by numbers, the greatest warrior in Iceland was slain — undone in the end not by any enemy’s strength, but by an old wrong come back to claim its price. — , A Year of World Stories, 13594

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the theme of small acts of decorum toward corpses from Ruhl’s 100 Essays — here inverted: the withheld act is deadly.
• FICTION: A revenge scene where the antagonist withholds aid rather than attacks directly — a model for tense, character-driven conflict.