diff --git a/django_sorting/middleware.py b/django_sorting/middleware.py
index cd8a076..6e974ff 100644
--- a/django_sorting/middleware.py
+++ b/django_sorting/middleware.py
@@ -1,13 +1,25 @@
 def get_field(self):
+    ordering = []
     try:
-        field = self.REQUEST['sort']
+        # REQUEST is deprecated as of Django 1.7.
+        field = self.POST.get('sort')
+        if field is None:
+            field = self.GET.get('sort', '')
     except (KeyError, ValueError, TypeError):
-        field = ''
-    return (self.direction == 'desc' and '-' or '') + field
+        pass
+    else:
+        for key in field.split(','):
+            if key:
+                ordering.append((self.direction == 'desc' and '-' or '') + key)
+    return ordering
 
 def get_direction(self):
     try:
-        return self.REQUEST['dir']
+        # REQUEST is deprecated as of Django 1.7.
+        value = self.POST.get('dir')
+        if value is None:
+            value = self.GET.get('dir', '')
+        return value
     except (KeyError, ValueError, TypeError):
         return 'desc'
 
@@ -19,4 +31,4 @@ class SortingMiddleware(object):
     """
     def process_request(self, request):
         request.__class__.field = property(get_field)
-        request.__class__.direction = property(get_direction)
\ No newline at end of file
+        request.__class__.direction = property(get_direction)
diff --git a/django_sorting/templatetags/sorting_tags.py b/django_sorting/templatetags/sorting_tags.py
index 7cdeb42..e0abd2e 100644
--- a/django_sorting/templatetags/sorting_tags.py
+++ b/django_sorting/templatetags/sorting_tags.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from django import template
+from django.core.exceptions import FieldError
 from django.http import Http404
 from django.conf import settings
 
@@ -22,12 +23,9 @@ def anchor(parser, token):
     bits = [b.strip('"\'') for b in token.split_contents()]
     if len(bits) < 2:
         raise TemplateSyntaxError, "anchor tag takes at least 1 argument"
-    try:
-        title = bits[2]
-    except IndexError:
-        title = bits[1].capitalize()
-    return SortAnchorNode(bits[1].strip(), title.strip())
-    
+    sort_tag = ','.join(bits[1:-1])
+    return SortAnchorNode(sort_tag, bits[-1].strip())
+
 
 class SortAnchorNode(template.Node):
     """
@@ -59,8 +57,11 @@ def render(self, context):
         else:
             sortdir = ''
         if sortby == self.field:
-            getvars['dir'] = sort_directions[sortdir]['inverse']
-            icon = sort_directions[sortdir]['icon']
+            try:
+                getvars['dir'] = sort_directions[sortdir]['inverse']
+                icon = sort_directions[sortdir]['icon']
+            except KeyError:
+                icon = DEFAULT_SORT_UP
         else:
             icon = ''
         if len(getvars.keys()) > 0:
@@ -94,10 +95,11 @@ def render(self, context):
         key = self.queryset_var.var
         value = self.queryset_var.resolve(context)
         order_by = context['request'].field
-        if len(order_by) > 1:
+        if len(order_by) > 0:
             try:
-                context[key] = value.order_by(order_by)
-            except template.TemplateSyntaxError:
+                context[key] = value.order_by(*order_by)
+                context[key].first()  # evaluate query to protect from being sorted by non model field
+            except (template.TemplateSyntaxError, FieldError):
                 if INVALID_FIELD_RAISES_404:
                     raise Http404('Invalid field sorting. If DEBUG were set to ' +
                     'False, an HTTP 404 page would have been shown instead.')