Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Burial Rites, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth and Liberation
Women, Violence, and Innocence
Literacy, Language, and the Icelandic Landscape
Names, Superstition, and Christianity
Class, Colonization, and Hierarchies of Power
Summary
Analysis
The epilogue takes the form of a document written by Blöndal confirming that Fridrik and Agnes were both led to the execution place. Fridrik was killed first, then Agnes was brought in and her head was cut off. The heads were put on stakes at the execution site and the bodies were buried.
Kent’s presentation of Blöndal’s final letter contrasts the flatness of the objective account that Blöndal describes in the letter with the subjective account in the rest of the book, showing how each presents a different kind of “truth.”
Themes
