36 pages • 1 hour read
Hannah KentBurial Rites
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 12-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Chapter 12 opens with Agnes and Fridrik arriving at Natan’s home, but he’s not there, having left to visit a sick friend. Sigga refuses to say whether or not he touched her again, and tells Fridrik that Natan had been looking for more compensation for Sigga. He then decided he wouldn’t let Sigga marry Fridrik and that he would marry her instead. The trio began making their plan to escape. Agnes would accompany Sigga back to the village, while Fridrik knew of someone who might take Agnes on as a housekeeper. They didn’t see Natan and Petur approaching the farm, and Natan was enraged to see Agnes again, ordering her out. Agnes slept in the cowshed that night, and was woken by Fridrik, who made advances on her. She ignored him and went back to sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night and tried to find him, but only saw Sigga huddled up against the wall, terrified. When she found Fridrik, he was standing over Natan’s prone body while holding a bloody hammer. Petur was lying on the floor dead, while Natan was close to death from a head wound as well. She screamed, and Natan woke up, calling her name. He was dying, but not dead yet, and was in agonizing pain. Agnes handed Fridrik a knife and told him to finish what he started, but he couldn’t. He handed the knife to Agnes, and she plunged the knife into the mortally wounded man she loved, unable to stop stabbing him. Fridrik told Agnes that she killed him, and Agnes saw that she was covered in blood.
Chapter 13 Summary
As Chapter 13 opens, Blondal receives the king’s decision. Sigga has been pardoned and will be sent to prison for life instead of being executed, but Agnes and Fridrik are not so lucky. Their executions are to take place as close to the scene of the crime as possible, and Blondal is ordered to confirm when this has been done. Specifications about the execution are sent in the letter, and Blondal communicates them to the district offices. Toti is roused from his recovery by the message that Agnes is to be executed in six days. Although he is still weak, he insists on going to her, against his father’s advice. When he arrives, Margret is shocked by how thin he is. Toti goes to tell Agnes the news and promises to stay with her until the end. Agnes feels like she is underwater. The entire family is devastated, even Lauga, who withdraws to the pantry to be by herself. Margret in particular is horrified by the injustice taking place. The family tries to get Agnes to eat, but she refuses. The night before the execution, the family sits and drinks together. Margret dresses Agnes in their best clothing and tries to assure her that she’s not a monster and they’ll never forget her. Toti tells them that it’s time to go, a neighbor gives Agnes a flask and Toti tells her to drink it all. The family accompanies Agnes to the site of the execution, and they arrive just in time to hear the sound of the axe as Fridrik is executed. In a brief epilogue, Blondal sends out a letter confirming the execution has been carried out and listing the witnesses. The letter states that the executions were performed by Natan’s brother and the heads were placed on stakes while the bodies were placed in coffins.
Chapter 12-Chapter 13 Analysis
Chapter 12 focuses entirely on the events that led to Natan’s murder. It’s clear that Agnes had no intention of killing Natan, as he was more concerned with removing Sigga from an abusive environment. Fridrik, however, was determined to remove Natan from the picture by any means necessary so he could be with Sigga. He broke into Natan’s house with the express intention of killing him. Although Agnes had not intended to kill Natan, she was moved to end his life in order to end the pain Fridrik had inflicted on him. Although Agnes had no intention of killing Natan, it’s clear from her actions that she took a sort of cathartic pleasure in it once it was happening.
In the final chapter, Agnes’s execution becomes a pressing concern and the entire cast of characters unites to support her. Toti risks his own health to be by her side, and the Jonsson family rallies around her, treating her like a beloved daughter. In the end, just before she meets her death, Agnes seems to find the loving family she had always longed for. Every family member expresses their grief, with even the quiet and dispassionate Jon praying for her soul. Toti, Agnes’s spiritual advisor, was by her side until the last moment. It was only Commissioner Blondal who approached the execution with the cold objectivity he had since the start, ending the book on a stark, clinical note as he described the brutal facts of the execution.
