Burial Rites: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Chapter Eight begins with a poem Rósa wrote to Natan in 1837. In the poem, Rósa thinks of how happy she was with Natan even when everyone looks down on her for the relationship. She then calls Natan a traitor and says that a “rose of Kidjaskard” (i.e. Agnes) has poisoned him.

The chapter then returns to the third-person narrator, who describes Margrét lying awake in the badstofa at Kornsá. A few days before, Margrét had stayed behind with Agnes while everyone else went to round up the sheep for winter. That day, Margrét had had a sense of foreboding. As she and Agnes were cooking, they talked about the people they’d known who died in the mountains. Margrét had the sense that by naming death, they could prevent it.

As it turned out, Róslín went into labor that day, and Margrét, Agnes, and Ingibjörg went to Róslín’s farm to help her. It quickly became clear that something was wrong, and Agnes told them the baby was in a bad position for delivery. Agnes instructed Ingibjörg to make a tea from angelica root to help ease the delivery. As predicted, the baby came in breech position, but it survived. Agnes refused to deliver it. When asked why she would not touch the newborn, Agnes said that she wanted it to live.

That night everyone celebrated the round up of the sheep and the baby’s birth. The next day, Margrét spoke Agnes more than usual. Lauga had come in and complained about Agnes staring at her possessions, despite the fact that Agnes had proven by then that she was no thief. Margrét wondered if Lauga hated Agnes so much because she was jealous of her, though she did not know why Lauga would be.

Margrét stops thinking about Róslín’s delivery and finally gets out of bed. She looks out at the animals, remembering that it is slaughter day. Margrét thinks back on the day that Agnes arrived at Kornsá and how hostile she felt toward her. Now, though, she appreciates Agnes’s help. Margrét decides to try not to think about what she will do on the day of the execution.

The narrative switches back to Agnes’s first person perspective as the family begins the slaughter of that year’s animals for the winter. Agnes wonders if she is included in the calculations of how many mouths to feed. She also wonders if the animals know that they are going to die. The farmhand Gudmundur catches and slaughters the first sheep, catching the blood in a pail. Agnes brings the pail inside to Margrét before returning outside. Agnes watches as Gudmundur skillfully skins the sheep. He reminds her of Fridrik. Together, Jón, the other farmhand Bjarni, and Gudmundur skin all the sheep and gut the carcasses.

Agnes remembers the previous autumn on Natan’s farm, when Natan made a mistake gutting a sheep and Fridrik laughed at him. Agnes returns to the kitchen where she and the other women make sausage. The men come in later to eat the sheep kidneys. When Agnes serves Jón his food, he looks her in the eyes and says “thank you Agnes.” Agnes thinks this is because she helped deliver Róslín’s baby.

When the men finish eating, Agnes prepares the mixture used to salt the meat. It makes her think of how she used to help Natan mix medicines. Agnes remembers Natan talking to her as she made blood sausage the year before. Agnes shows Steina how to salt the meat, and Steina asks her why they’re salting it and where salt comes from. Agnes asks why she asks so many questions, and Steina, blushing, says it is because Agnes gives her answers.

They poach the sausage in a kettle over the fire. As Agnes holds a sheep head close to the fire to burn away the hair, the smell reminds her of Natan’s farm burning with the bodies in it. Agnes gets upset and goes outside. Margrét finds her, and instead of chastising her, she makes small talk with her. Then they sit silently before Margrét says they should go see what Lauga and Steina are doing. Margrét holds out her hand to Agnes, who takes it. They go inside.

The narrative switches to third-person as Lauga and Steina work together in the kitchen to finish making the sausage. Steina mentions how quickly Agnes works, and Lauga says that she probably poisoned the whole barrel of meat. Steina doubts this and says that Margrét seems to be becoming fond of Agnes. Lauga, exasperated, asks Steina why she is always talking about Agnes. She expresses her frustration that everyone else seems to be acting like Agnes is a normal servant rather than a convicted murderer.

Steina realizes that Lauga is very upset and asks her what is wrong. Lauga tells her that she thought that Agnes would just be a prisoner in their house, not a constant part of their family. She worries about how the other people in the valley will see their family now as a result. Lauga thinks that she and Steina will never find husbands and accuses Steina of treating Agnes more like a sister than Lauga. Steina insists that she only pities Agnes and empathizes with her. Lauga tells her that Agnes is nothing like them, and leaves the room.

The narrative, still in third-person, jumps to follow Tóti as he decides to travel to Kornsá to talk with Agnes despite the bad weather. As Tóti prepares for his trip, Reverend Jón implies that Tóti is romantically interested in either Lauga or Steina. Tóti tells his father not to wait up for him, and his father hands him the Bible he has forgotten as he leaves. Tóti rides toward Kornsá in the cold.

The narrative jumps to Agnes and Tóti sitting in the badstofa as Agnes tells him that, after first meeting Natan, Agnes did not see him for days. Then Natan turned up while she was cutting meat down from the rafters of an outbuilding and began talking with her. Natan told Agnes that he needed a new housekeeper. They walked together back to the house, passing María and Pétur on the way.

Tóti asks if she is talking about the same Pétur that was murdered when Natan was, and Agnes confirms that she is. She says they were all afraid of Pétur, who told them about his strange dreams. Agnes says that Natan also told her some of the strange dreams he’d had. Across the room, Lauga pipes up, saying that Róslín told her about Natan’s dreams.

Jón tells Lauga to let Tóti speak with Agnes without interference. This infuriates Lauga, who says that it is Agnes who has been interfering with their lives. Margrét tells Lauga to go back to her knitting. Agnes asks Lauga what Róslín told her about Natan’s dreams. Lauga says that Natan had a dream that an evil spirit stabbed him in the stomach and another in which he saw his own body in a grave. Tóti then asks Agnes to continue with her story.

Agnes continues, talking about Pétur’s bad reputation for having been arrested for killing animals for fun. Agnes says she walked Natan to Worm and then rejoined María in the field. Agnes told her about Natan’s visit and María told Agnes to be careful, and that she was worried for her. Suddenly Jón interrupts and asks Tóti to speak with Agnes away from his family. Tóti says that, unfortunately, their discussion cannot help but being overheard in such close quarters. Margrét says that it doesn’t make a difference, since anything the girls did not know before, Róslín has since told them.

Tóti and Agnes resume their talk. Agnes says she thought that María was jealous because Agnes was the one getting Natan’s attention, and because they both knew that Natan was looking for a housekeeper. Whenever Natan came back to the farm, he and Agnes would talk. They quickly became friends. Soon, Maria started ignoring Agnes. When Agnes told them that Natan had asked her to work for him, the other servants were angry. Then Agnes goes silent. Jón suggests that they go to bed, offering Tóti the spare bunk, and they all go to sleep.

The narrative switches to Agnes’s first-person perspective as she describes how sometimes her mouth aches after talking with Tóti. No matter what she says to him, though, it is impossible for him to understand what it was like to be with Natan. She remembers walking in the snow in the evenings and talking with Natan about how he didn’t believe in God. Natan had said that they were two of a kind, and they were better than the other people in the valley.

Natan had then asked Agnes what the name was for the space between the stars, and when Agnes said “soul asylum,” Natan told her that was another way of saying “heaven.” Agnes disagreed. It was only later, Agnes says, that they could not have these kinds of discussions without arguing. That night, Agnes and Natan had sex in the cowshed. Afterward, Agnes wanted to cry with happiness. Natan left, but he came back to see her again and again that winter.

Agnes fell in love with Natan and felt flattered that he had chosen her. She would look with satisfaction at the bruises she’d gotten during sex and feel sad when they faded. Agnes tried to keep her love a secret from the other servants. Finally, Agnes and Natan decided Agnes would go live with him. However, Natan also had Sigga the whole time.