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262 RELIGION OF THE NOETHMEN.
took place. Gu8run took up the stones from the
bottom of the boiling cauldron with unscathed hand,
and was acquitted. But Herkja, Atli's mistress who
had accused the Queen, burned her hand when she
was subjected to the same ordeal, and in punishment
for her falsehood was cast into a pool and drowned.*
This whole affair, however, if indeed there be anything
historical in the account, took place among
the German tribes. The ordeal may therefore have
been in use among them in heathen times, and
through them become known to the Northmen,
without having been employed by them. Not until
Christian times do we find with certainty that the
Northmen adopted this ordeal (ketilfang, or ketiltak),t
which among the Germans was, like many
similar customs, carried over from heathendom to
Christianity.
* The 0. Edda: GuSrdnarkv. III.
f
Ei5siTa Thing's Chr. Laws, 42 & Norw. Ano. Laws, I., p. 389,