In her novel Burial Rites Hannah Kent has imagined the last
months of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be executed in Iceland . Agnes
was condemned for complicity in the murders of Natan Ketilsson and “sheep-killer”
Pétur Jónsson in 1828. She was then lodged with the family of a minor district
official at Kornsá until the sentence was confirmed by the Danish king. Agnes
was beheaded with Friðrik Sigurdsson on 12 January 1830.
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| Burial Rites by Hannah Kent |
This is a subtle and moving novel that wants to understand
how a woman who had never been in any trouble could get mixed up with thugs and
violent thieves. Kent
describes a thoughtful, relatively educated woman in search of a home who
appears to get a chance to be a housekeeper or even a wife.
But Agnes is hemmed in by her class and bad luck in one of the least developed corners of a chronically underdeveloped country.
But Agnes is hemmed in by her class and bad luck in one of the least developed corners of a chronically underdeveloped country.
Agnes was born to unmarried landless farm workers, Ingveldur
Rafnsdóttir and Magnús Magnússon at Flaga in Underféll parish in Vatnsdalur, north
Iceland
on 27 October 1795. She was “raised on a porridge of moss and poverty.”
Móðuharðindin
She was born just 10 years after the catastrophic Laki
volcanic eruption in south west Iceland which from June 1783 to February 1784 spewed out tonnes of ash and sulphur dioxide creating
a great smog. The years that followed were called Móðuharðindin—the hardship of
the fog.
Móðuharðindin killed at least 10,000 Icelanders—one fifth of the population in
the following year as toxic gases poisoned the crops and about 80 percent of
the sheep and half the cattle and horses died of starvation. Fish was caught but
local officials made no serious attempts to distribute it to the starving
population—most of it was still exported. The winters that followed were ferocious.
When Agnes was born around 30 percent of babies born alive in Iceland died before they were one years old.[1] This was
twice the level of infant deaths in Denmark
and it was not just because of the climate and poverty, but because babies were not
usually breastfed in Iceland
in the 18th and early 19th centuries[2]. Only the poorest breastfed if no other milk were available.
Otherwise in north Iceland
babies were likely to get cow or sheep’s milk to suck through a rag until they
were about three months old and then be fed dúsa. This was what babies in the
south and west got within their first month of life—fish, butter or meat
already chewed by adults. Dúsa killed children by intestinal blockages, swollen
bellies (uppþemba) and dehydration from diarrhoea. Then there were epidemics of
whooping cough, diphtheria and in 1797-98 scarlet fever.
Development
By the time Agnes was born the Icelandic ruling class, made
up of landowners, Danish or Icelandic officers of the Danish Crown and its Lutheran
church, was a conservative force actively blocking development. Farm leases
were often very short—even two or three years long—which allowed people no time
to improve their land and buildings. If tenants did manage to make improvements
then rents were often raised[3]. Land
was much less productive than it could have been because old technologies such
as drainage and manuring, well known in mainland Europe were barely used in
Iceland. So soil was eroded and trees were lost.
The authorities saw any peasant family as merely a source of
new paupers to be paid for by landowners and the church, so they ensured that
most people could not marry with the Vistarband servant system. Everyone over
the age of 15 who was not living with their parents or supported by them had to
hire themselves out as a servant—an unmarried, indoor and outdoor farm worker
contracted for one year at a time, for bed, board and low wages.[4] In
most farms there were no more than one or two servants and often no separate
bedrooms. Beds were ranged along the walls of the communal room, the baðstófa.
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| A baðstófa, communal living and sleeping room of roughly similar date to Agnes' life as an adult |
All land was privately owned and the authorities stopped
tenant farms being rented to an unmarried couple even if they had scraped
enough together to rent livestock and equipment from a landowner. They also
prevented the development of fish processing industry to make sure they had
enough labour for the hay harvests. By 1850 nearly 40 percent of the population
over 15 years old were servants. In the winter women worked on wool processing
while the men were sent to fish, for which they received no extra pay, though they may have received a share of the fish. with the majority of profit going to their employer.
When Agnes was born nearly 10 percent of all babies in Iceland
were born outside of marriage.[5]
Agnes' mother Ingveldur would probably not have expected to get any money as wages—she would
have hoped for cloth and wool enough to make clothes for herself and her child.
Even male workers saw very little cash. In Burial Rites as an adult Agnes goes
to Búrfell farm because she has heard that the man said to be her father is
working there. Magnús isn’t pleased to see her but he gives her some money. She
says, “It was the first time I ever held money in my life.” For further detail on the lives of Icelandic peasants see my articles The Myth of Equality: the life of Icelandic agricultural workers and Lives Unfettered by Possessions or a Home
Pauper
Unlike most other areas of Europe, in Iceland
as Agnes grew up the previous gap between the survival rates for children born
in or out of marriage almost disappeared.[6]
But still Ingveldur had to leave Agnes at six years old to be fostered out to Inga
and Björn tenant farmers at Kornsá—the same place she would later be sent to wait
execution. Inga taught her to read and write and the Sagas but died in
childbirth when Agnes was eight in a winter that killed half their sheep. So with
no money to pay a farm worker or keep children Kjartan, Agnes' foster brother
went to his uncle and aunt and she was thrown back on the parish. Like all such
children she worked.
In 1809 at 13 years old she was confirmed as an adult member of the church. She was described in Undirfell church book as having “an excellent intellect, and strong knowledge and understanding of Christianity.” Then she was known as Búrfell-Agnes for where she was born. She also developed the prized skills for poetry.
In 1809 at 13 years old she was confirmed as an adult member of the church. She was described in Undirfell church book as having “an excellent intellect, and strong knowledge and understanding of Christianity.” Then she was known as Búrfell-Agnes for where she was born. She also developed the prized skills for poetry.
When Agnes arrived at Kornsá as a
condemned woman in the summer of 1829 Jon and Margrét had been tenants with their
two daughters Sigurlaug and Steinvör for ten years. They had been lucky and
prospered with three farm workers though they had only recently before lost a
servant Hjördís who died. Agnes could have been their servant as she had been
in many of the farms in the area but she went to work for Natan Ketilsson.
Burial Rites is fiction for all Kent’s research of parish
records but Agnes didn’t get much chance to tell her side of the story at the trial
held at Hvammur the homestead of District Commissioner Björn Auðunsson Blöndal.
She may have been part of a gang who tried to rob Natan but killed him and set
light to his house hoping to get away with it. Or Natan and Pétur could have
been killed by Friðrik alone or by other enemies. The district officials
hesitated to bury Pétur in church ground because in February 1827 he had been
convicted of robbery, theft and receiving stolen goods.
Natan also had at least a mixed reputation. He was said to have medical skills, had studied inDenmark
and knew Latin. But he charged dearly for his skills, had children by at
least one married woman and was entertaining Sheep-killer Pétur.
The authorities were very afraid of rebellious servants so when Agnes and Friðrik were executed their heads were stuck on spikes as a warning.
Natan also had at least a mixed reputation. He was said to have medical skills, had studied in
The authorities were very afraid of rebellious servants so when Agnes and Friðrik were executed their heads were stuck on spikes as a warning.
Poet-Rosa who was married to someone else but loved Natan and had two children by him gave
Agnes a poem,
Undrast þarftu ei, baugabrú
þó beiskrar kennir þínu
hefir burtu hrífsað þú
helft af lífi mínu
Don’t be surprised by the sorrow in my eyes
Nor at the bitter pangs of pain that I feel
For you have stolen with your scheming
He who gave my life meaning
And thrown your life to the devil to deal
Agnes replied and so gets the last word here,
Er mín klára ósk til þín,
angurs tárum bundin
Ýfðu ei sárin sollin mín,
sólar báru hrundin.
Sorg ei minnar sálar herð!
Seka Drottinn náðar,
af því Jesús eitt fyrir verð
okkur keypti báðar.
angurs tárum bundin
Ýfðu ei sárin sollin mín,
sólar báru hrundin.
Sorg ei minnar sálar herð!
Seka Drottinn náðar,
af því Jesús eitt fyrir verð
okkur keypti báðar.
This is my only wish to you
Bound in anger and grief
Do not scratch my bleeding wounds
I’m full of disbelief.
My soul is filled with sorrow
I seek grace from the Lord.
Remember, Jesus bought us both
And for the same price.[7]
[1] In
epidemic years such as 1846 around 60 percent of infants died. But in
Vestmannaeyjar as many as 80 percent of babies died from newborn tetanus,
Ginklofi. Iceland ’s
chief medical officer, Jón Sveinsson sent a questionnaire to Vestmannaeyjar’s parish
minister in 1789 to get reliable information about it. Ólöf Garðarsdóttir and Loftur
Guttormsson, An Isolated Case of Early Medical Intervention—the battle against
neonatal tetanus in the island of Vestmannaeyjar ,
Iceland
[2] The Development of Infant Mortality in Iceland ,
1800-1920 by Loftur Guttormsson and Ólöf Garðarsdóttir.
[3] Gísli
Águst Gunnlaugsson, Studia Historica Upsaliensia 154 Family and Household in Iceland 1801-1930
pg 79
[4] The word
húsbóndi is lord, master, farmer. In modern Icelandic it is not used for a husband.
[5]
Unmarried couples living independently became much more common in some areas
over the next 60 years. So in Garðar and Bessastaðir parish on the south west
coast of Iceland
from about 1855 up to 55 percent of unmarried women giving birth lived with
their partners. This parish had plenty of fishing opportunities and district
officials were less able to exert financial control over the peasantry. From
1870 similar numbers of unmarried co-habiting couples blossomed as foreign
capitalists brought money and raw materials looking for workers to profit from
fishing and whaling.
[6] Ólöf
Garðarsdóttir, The Implications of Illegitimacy in Continuity and Change 15
(3), 2000, p438
[7] price is translated as accord - p113-14 Burial
Rites, Hannah Kent
