But lest any should think that this punishment was due to the cruelty of his father, Bikk judged that, when he had been put in the noose, the servants should hold him up on a beam put beneath him, so that, when weariness made them take their hands from the burden, they might be as good as guilty of the young man's death, and by their own fault exonerate the king from an unnatural murder.

He also pretended that, unless the accused were punished, he would plot against his father's life.

The adulteress Swanhild, he said, ought to suffer a shameful end, trampled under the hoofs of beasts.
The king yielded to Bikk; and, when his son was to be hanged, he made the bystanders hold him up by means of a plank, that he might not be choked.

Thus his throat was only a little squeezed, the knot was harmless, and it was but a punishment in show.

But the king had the queen tied very tight on the ground, and delivered her to be crushed under the hoofs of horses.