Medieval judicial ordeals, especially trial by fire or battle, conjure up vivid pictures in the modern imagination. Searing iron and clashing swords used in moments of high drama shape popular perceptions about the Middle Ages yet leave the reader without a context in which to understand this most dramatic of medieval judicial remedies. Ordeals were not the proof of first choice and were used only when other evidence was unavailable or ambiguous. Medieval people knew that the ordeal was an imperfect judicial process, just as we know that a jury trial may convict the innocent and let the guilty go free.

Literary texts provide us with some of the most graphic and detailed dramatizations of the use of the ordeal in the medieval legal system, since the ordeal brings forth a plentitude of moral and psychological issues. Because the conflict between good and evil stands at the heart of all epics, ordeals provide, both literally and figuratively, a battleground for this conflict and arouse great narrative interest. Lives and reputations are at risk in a highstakes drama such as a trial for treason. The violence and the potential for destruction in a judicial duel parallel the intellectually combative and intentionally destructive verbal arguments frequently presented to the judge. Adultery in high places, then as now, affected the ruler's authority; the dramatic ordeal of the hot iron, with its purifying element of fire, concentrated official and private tension in a public event.