Burial Rites

Burial Rites is a 2013 novel by Australian author Hannah Kent. Based on the true story of the last woman to be publicly executed in Iceland, Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, a servant who is sentenced to death for the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer and lover. Two teenagers, Fridrik Sigurdsson and Sigridir Gudmundsdottir, are accused of aiding in the murders. While awaiting execution, she is placed in a government official’s house and seeks the help of a spiritual advisor to come to terms with her impending death.

The novel is told from a variety of perspectives, and includes correspondence between government officials as they finalize the details of Agnes’s execution. From Agnes herself we discover the details of her life; reveals her difficult childhood, her struggles to be accepted by society at large, and her eventual affair with the cruel Natan Ketilsson, whose murder she is accused of. Agnes tells her story to her spiritual advisor, a young and recently ordained man named Toti Jonsson. Despite having been convicted of murder, Agnes’s guilt or innocence remains the central question of the book and is something she is reluctant to speak about.

Agnes is also seen through the eyes of the Jonsson family, in whose house she is quartered to await execution. I Ironically, Agnes once lived in the same house, with a foster mother, but it now becomes the place where her guilt and innocence is debated by Jon, the regional governor, his ill wife Margret, and their two daughters Steina and Lauga. Although the family is initially horrified by the idea of keeping a convicted murderer in their home, Agnes’s pitiful appearance and her willingness to work soon makes them see her in a different light.

As Agnes’s story marches towards its harsh, preordained conclusion, she finds dignity in her work, and the family begins to see through her rough exterior and the crimes she is accused of to the kind, intelligent woman underneath. However, her fate is sealed as District Commissioner Bjorn Blondal has no interest in considering mercy for her, and he exerts an iron fist over the community and the Jonsson family. As Agnes faces her execution with grace, she goes to her death with the larger questions of her guilt or innocence, and the actions that led her to this point, forever unanswered.

Burial Rites offers a detailed and authentic account of life in 19th century Iceland. The novel explores themes of the powerful against the powerless, epitomized by Commissioner Blondal’s power over the community and the lack of interest he displays in the facts of Agnes’s case. The theme of storytelling is prominent as well, with Agnes’s heartfelt confessionals contrasted against the rumors and narrative that have been circulated by the community. The theme of fate, the idea that our life’s path is determined by forces and events out of our control, factors heavily into the story, and the unforgiving landscape of Iceland serves as a visual reminder that we are often struggling against things far bigger than ourselves.