562 THE OATH AND ORDEAL. 



way. Then Sigurd let Harald be called, and told him that he 

 would allow him to undergo the ordeal to prove who was his 

 father. Sigurd said that Harald should walk on iron bars to 

 prove his fathership ; but that ordeal was thought to be rather 

 hard, for he had to suffer it for the sake of his fathership and 

 not for his kingship, which he had before renounced by oath. 

 Harald assented to this. He fasted before he walked on the 

 irons and suffered the ordeal, the severest in Norway, that nine 

 ' red-hot ' ploughshares were to be laid down, and Harald to 

 walk over them with bare feet, and two bishops to lead him. 

 Three days afterwards the ordeal was tried, and the result was 

 that his feet were not burnt. Thereafter Sigurd acknowledged 

 the kiusmanship of Harald ; but his son Magnus disliked him 

 much, as did many chiefs. Sigurd trusted so much to his 

 popularity with the people that he asked all to swear that 

 Magnus, the son of Sigurd, should be king after him, and he 

 got that oath from all the people of the land " (Sigurd 

 Jorsalafari's Saga, c. 34). 



