It is dated to the early 11th century, because that was the time when the ordeal by boiling water made its appearance in Scandinavia and the poet speaks of it as a practice of foreign origin.
According to Henry Adams Bellows, the poem is based on material that came from northern Germany, where the ordeal by boiling water had long been current.
"Tregr mik þat, Guðrún Gjúka dóttir, mér í höllu Herkja sagði, at þit Þjóðrekr und þaki svæfið ok léttliga líni verðið."1.
"It troubles me, Guthrun, Gjuki's daughter, What Herkja here in the hall hath told me, That thou in the bed with Thjothrek liest, Beneath the linen in lovers' guise.
She declared that she wanted payment for her sorrows and she suggested the ordeal of boiling water, for which Atli should summon Saxi, the king of the Southrons, who could hallow the kettle.
To the bottom she reached with hand so bright, And forth she brought the flashing stones: "Behold, ye warriors, well am I cleared Of sin by the kettle's sacred boiling."
Ne'er saw man sight more sad than this, How burned were the hands of Herkja then; In a bog so foul the maid they flung, And so was Guthrun's grief requited.