Set against the harsh, eerie backdrop of 19th century Iceland, Hannah Kent's 'Burial Rites', explores the multifaceted dimensions of a society within an isolated community, who become the hostess' to the last women and 'murderess' to be executed in Iceland, Agnes Magnusdottir.
The texts opens with a prologue to the protagonists physical and mental state, in a cell in Stora Borg, explaining the occurrences of events to trigger her imprisonment. 'They said I must die. They said I stole the breath from men and now they must steal mine.' Asserts to the audience that women in 19th century Iceland are inferior and the text will be a fight between voicelessness, superiority and the manipulated truth. The deliberately disjointed novel depicts the unpredictability of landscape and climate, truth and liberation and apparent evidence through the use of historical documents (that are existent today.) The novel is based on a true story and taps into the prevailing hunger for historical fiction.
Behind Agnes Magnusdottirs execution lies a double murder and a sophisticated love triangle between two girls and a boy. In Spring 1828, Agnes woke a neighboring household to tell them that the Illugastaðir farmhouse had become alight and was on fire (the farmhouse to her love). She ran to a neighboring household within the small Icelandic community of Illagustadir and said two boys were trapped inside a burning farmhouse.Unfortunately for the protagonist the fire quickly subsided and it became apparent that the two men had been stabbed before the blaze. Agnes was arrested, along with a farmer named Fridrik and 'women of only sixteen' Sigga. Sigga was originally sentenced to be executed alongside Agnnes, but however was was later sent to a Copenhagen textile prison with a reduces sentence, to life imprisonment instead of execution. Agnes and Fridrik were beheaded by Natan’s brother on a small hill in Húnavatnssýsla 12 January 1830. The grave still remains today for the community, tourists and locals to visit the if they wish, which is now in the churchyard at Tjörn.
Kents multi-narrative structure switches from first person to 3rd person, the ongoing changes of points of view inevitably attenuates the reader's commitment to Agnes, whose voice is the most compelling. The historical fiction of Kent’s, depicts the omnipresence of religion, the traditional Icelandic house structures, and the colonial organization of Iceland are all drawn from the real conditions of the time.
