such as a woman, honour was almost always hiding in the background.
             The modern duel evolved from trial by combat of the early middle ages. "Ordeal by battle was common to all Germanic people, and served as a touchstone of honour, or as a settlement of legal disputes." (Kiernan 29) The idea of fighting for honour is a very old one, for if an individual's honour was questioned, the only real way for that individual to restore his honour was by fighting for it. Put in that situation, it was almost impossible for an individual to back down, for if he did, his honour would suffer even more and he would risk rejection from society. Since one's honour was also intricately bound to the honour of his family, it made backing down more difficult. Kiernan states that when he writes that one was "often caught in a fatal dilemma, between two choices, each destructive" (28). Though the form of the duel would change in the centuries that followed, the idea of honor and reputation remained
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