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Sigrídur Gudmundsdóttir (Sigga)
Fridrik is Sigga's fiancée and Natan's neighbor and on-and-off friend. Fridrik is a boy of 17 who lives near Natan’s farm and sometimes helps Agnes and Sigga do farm labor while Natan is away. Fridrik is prone to violence and has a reputation for stealing. Fridrik wants to marry Sigga, but Natan does not want to give her up. When Natan first agrees to and then rejects the match between Fridrik and Sigga, he incites Fridrik to try to murder him and Pétur with a hammer. Fridrik is executed just before Agnes.
Fridrik Sigurdsson Quotes in Burial Rites
The Burial Rites quotes below are all either spoken by Fridrik Sigurdsson or refer to Fridrik Sigurdsson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 11 Quotes
“Thórbjörg had an inkling of what Fridrik planned. She knew about some sheep Fridrik stole. She lied to the courtroom…Thórbjörg saved my life,” Agnes added after a moment’s pause. “She found me on her doorstep after Natan threw me out. I would have died had she not brought me inside and let me stay there.”
Margrét nodded. “No one is all bad.”
Related Characters:
Agnes Magnúsdottir (speaker), Margrét (speaker), Thórbjörg, Fridrik Sigurdsson
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
259
Explanation and Analysis:
In this dialogue, Agnes and Margrét discuss the character of Thórbjörg, Fridrik’s mother, who lied to the court about Fridrik’s actions but who also took Agnes in out of the cold, saving her life.
Agnes and Margrét, trying to puzzle out their moral judgments of Thórbjörg, discuss how Thórbjörg is a complicated character. Thórbjörg serves as a parallel character to Agnes—both are smart woman with vexed moralities that are subject to judgment and discussion. Even though Agnes is in a similar situation, she struggles to reconcile Thórbjörg’s lies with the kindness she showed her. When Margrét tells Agnes that “no one is all bad,” she displays the comfort with moral ambiguity that Kent seems to be trying to encourage through her portrayal of Agnes.
Chapter 12 Quotes
“Admit it. You want this too, Agnes.”
At that point…I saw what Fridrik held in his hands. It was a hammer and a knife.
What do I remember? I didn’t believe him. I went back to my bed on the floor of the cowshed, suddenly weary. I wanted nothing to do with him. What happened?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Fridrik Sigurdsson Character Timeline in Burial Rites
The timeline below shows where the character Fridrik Sigurdsson appears in Burial Rites. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...Pétur Jónsson’s burnt remains were found on Natan’s farm. Eventually, one man and two women Fridrik Sigurdsson, Sigrídur Gudmundsdóttir (Sigga), and Agnes Magnúsdottir, were charged with the murders and sentenced to...
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Chapter 3
...the Supreme Court trials of Agnes’s case in 1829. The document states the allegation that Fridrik, Agnes, and Sigga entered Natan’s house with the intention of robbing him. According to the...
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Chapter 7
Chapter Seven begins with a testimony about Fridrik from the Reverend who is now the priest at his parish. According to the priest,...
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...administer to Agnes and told her to pray. Blöndal says that the priest working with Fridrik is reading him the Passion Hymns and suggests that Tóti do the same. Tóti says...
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...empathizing with Agnes. Blöndal tells Tóti how Natan and Pétur had gone to bed and Fridrik and Agnes murdered them in their sleep in a plot to steal their money. Blöndal...
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...not actually kill them, but Blöndal thinks that Agnes killed Natan. Blöndal believes that, after Fridrik killed Pétur, he lost the nerve to murder Natan. Blöndal thinks Agnes is the one...
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Blöndal then begins to tell Tóti about Fridrik’s spiritual process. When he was first arrested, Fridrik was violent and vulgar. After he worked...
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Chapter 8
...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...
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...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...
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Chapter 9
Soon after Agnes arrived, Fridrik visited for the first time. Natan introduced Fridrik and his lover Thórunn and they stayed...
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After Fridrik left, Natan disappeared briefly to check if he had stolen anything. According to Agnes, Natan...
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...Agnes to tell him about Sigga. Agnes tells Tóti how Sigga clearly hoped to marry Fridrik, but she worried that Fridrik was engaged to Thórunn. Agnes told Sigga that, in order...
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...deliver the lambs themselves because they were not strong enough, so Sigga went to get Fridrik to help. Fridrik helped them deliver the lambs for a week, during which time Agnes...
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Meanwhile, Sigga adored Fridrik, who soon forgot about Thórunn. When Natan returned to the farm, Sigga told him Fridrik...
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Chapter 10
...court. Rósa declined to do so. Rósa told the clerk that, after Natan left her, Fridrik made advances on her. According to Rósa, Fridrik thought that Natan had hidden money on...
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...He then expressed his romantic interest in Agnes and told her that he, Sigga, and Fridrik all knew that Natan and Agnes had sex. The conversation then got heated. Daníel implied...
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Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven opens with a clerical report from 1828 that summarizes Fridrik’s brother Bjarni’s testimony. He stated that Fridrik killed two of Natan’s sheep the previous year....
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...asks what Agnes was dreaming about. Agnes tells her she was having a nightmare about Fridrik’s farm, where she stayed for a few days before Natan died after he threw her...
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...her when she was a child. Margrét says all mothers think of their children—including Agnes’s, Fridrik’s, and Sigga’s. Agnes tells Margrét that Sigga’s mother is dead and Fridrik’s mother, Thórbjörg, is...
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...burnt down and Agnes insists it was a kitchen fire. Margrét, though, thinks it was Fridrik’s doing, and that Agnes is protecting her friend. Agnes insists that Fridrik is not her...
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...and did not seem to enjoy being back. Natan also did not like them seeing Fridrik because of their tense relationship. They had had a fight after Natan bought part of...
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Later, Natan and Fridrik got into another fight. Afterward, Natan took his anger out on Sigga, yelling at her...
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The narrative shifts to Agnes’s first person perspective as she remembers the events that followed Fridrik’s proposal to Sigga. That night it snowed so hard that Fridrik had to stay at...
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Agnes went into the badstofa and found Fridrik and Sigga sitting together. Sigga looked upset. Agnes told them that two sheep were missing....
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Fridrik said he was going to kill Natan, and when Agnes asked why, since Fridrik was...
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Three days later, after Fridrik had left, Natan returned to the farm. Natan was angry about Fridrik and Sigga’s engagement...
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...Sigga had become moody since her engagement, and seemed worried about what might happen if Fridrik and Natan were to encounter each other.
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...tells her to continue her story. She tells Margrét that she walked for hours to Fridrik’s farm, where Thórbjörg took her in. Fridrik’s farm, according to Agnes, was very poor and...
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Thórbjörg then told Fridrik that Natan was trying to steal Sigga from him. Thórbjörg said that, as long as...
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Chapter 12
The narrative then switches back to Agnes’s voice. She describes how she and Fridrik arrived at Natan’s farm together. Sigga answered the door and let them in, though Natan...
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Fridrik, Sigga, and Agnes spent the next few days together preparing to leave. Sigga planned to...
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...in the cowshed again. She woke up in the night and heard footsteps. It was Fridrik, who had walked all the way there from his farm. Fridrik told Agnes he had...
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Shaking, Agnes went to the kitchen for a lamp, where she found Fridrik. Fridrik told her he did not know if Natan was dead or not. Agnes’s heart...
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Agnes, furious with Fridrik, asked him what he was going to do now. Natan, who tried to get out...
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Fridrik then told Agnes that she killed Natan. Fridrik began sobbing, then took the knife out...
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Chapter 13
The secretary lays out certain requirements pertaining to the execution, including that Fridrik and Agnes must have a priest visit them each day, that the execution should occur...
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Next, Kent shows a letter to the District Officers from Blöndal, confirming the date of Fridrik and Agnes’s executions for January 12. Blöndal reminds them that local farmers must attend. After...
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The narrative returns to Agnes’s first person perspective, as she remembers how Fridrik never found Natan’s money after his death, before they burned the farm with the whale...
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...holds Agnes’s hand and hauls her out of the snow. People start gathering to watch Fridrik’s execution, which is first. Tóti and Agnes sit in the snow. Jón takes a sip...
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...not let go of her and holds her hand. They hear the axe fall, executing Fridrik.
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Epilogue
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...
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