Learn Dutch: Het gevecht bij het schild duurde lang. - The fight at the shield lasted long.

In Dutch, bij is used to indicate proximity or location near an object (meaning "near" or "by"). If you used aan, it would imply the fight happened while physically attached to or touching the shield. Op would mean the fight took place on top of the shield.

The word schild means "shield". Are there any common expressions using this word that I should know?

Yes! A very common B2-level idiom is iets in je schild voeren, which means "to be up to something" or "to have a hidden, usually mischievous, plan."

The verb duurde translates to "lasted". How does this differ from volhouden?

Duren (past tense: duurde) simply means "to last" or "to take a certain amount of time." It neutrally describes the duration of an event. Volhouden, on the other hand, means "to endure," "to keep up," or "to persevere" through a difficult situation.

Could I use langdurig instead of lang in this sentence?