The Sjöundá Case: Part I
- Icelandic Roots
- Oct 11
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 24
By Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir
One of the most famous murder cases in Iceland´s history is that of Bjarni Bjarnason and Steinunn Sveinsdóttir (I87649), who were sentenced to death in 1802 for killing their spouses while living as tenants on the farm Sjöundá in Rauðisandur, Western Iceland. Given its connection to this farm, it is commonly known as the “Sjöundá Case.”
This is part I of II.
Bjarni was born in the parish of Saurbær in Rauðasandur, January 11, 1761, but it is
not known precisely on which farm. After that, he spent most of his life in four parishes in what is now the county of Vestur-Barðastrandarsýsla, and Sjöundá belonged to that county. In his twenties, he was a labourer at the farm Botn in Patreksfjörður. His parents were, notably, divorced at that point. Bjarni married Guðrún Egilsdóttir (1765–1802) in 1789, and they had four children together between the years 1789 and 1800. They were Sigríður, born at Raknadalur in Patreksfjörður in 1789, Guðrún at Hrísnes on Barðaströnd in 1791, Gísli at Þverá in Barðaströnd in 1793 and Bjarni at Sjöundá in Rauðisandur in 1800. To begin with, Bjarni and Guðrún worked as labourers at Raknadalur but became tenant farmers after that on two farms in Barðaströnd: Hrísnes and Þverá. After that, they lived with three of their four children on the Sjöundá farm in Rauðasandur, which is the farm Bjarni is associated with today. Their daughter, Guðrún (b. 1791), appears to have died in 1794 while residing at Þverá.
Steinunn was born in 1767 on the farm Auðnar in Kjálkafjörður. Auðnar belonged to
the parish of Brjánslækur on Barðaströnd. Until Steinunn met her husband, Jón Þorgrímsson, she lived on several farms on Barðaströnd, and her father Sveinn was a respected deacon in Hagi church around 1800. Steinunn married Jón ca.1790, but he was—like Bjarni— born in the parish of Saurbær in Rauðasandur. Jón and Bjarni were even the same age, both born in 1761. Steinunn and Jón also lived on several farms on Barðaströnd and in Patreksfjörður, until they moved to Sjöundá in Rauðisandur in 1801. There they were tenant farmers, along with the above-mentioned Bjarni and Guðrún. Steinunn and Jón had six children together. They were Guðrún, born at Hærri-Vaðall on Barðaströnd in 1791, Sveinn, born at Hagi on Barðaströnd in 1792, Þorgrímur at Hrísnes on Barðaströnd in 1793, Jón at Skápadalur in Patreksfjörður in 1795, Ingveldur at Skápadalur in 1797 and Ingibjörg, born in 1800 (location unknown).
Steinunn gave birth to her seventh child, fathered by Bjarni, on March 21, 1803. This was while they were in custody in Hagi, sentenced to death for having killed their spouses. Hagi on Barðaströnd was the residence of the county sheriff.
The course of events in the Sjöundá Case was that Steinunn's husband, Jón, disappeared from Sjöundá on April 1, 1802, and never returned. Bjarni´s wife, Guðrún, died on Whitsun the same year. Already by then, rumours had started to spread around in Rauðisandur that Steinunn and Bjarni were responsible for their spouses’ deaths, as it was known that they had had an affair. Both Jón and Guðrún had for months complained about the unpleasant situation at Sjöundá during the winter of 1801–1802, which was also very difficult due to heavy snow and frost. The atmosphere in the area had turned hostile. Jón told his neighbouring farmers that he wanted to leave Steinunn and take three of their children with him. Guðrún even told her sister in Rauðisandur that she was afraid of being killed by her husband, Bjarni, and that he and Steinunn wanted to get rid of her.
The rumours about the unpleasant, even hostile, situation at Sjöundá became so strong
that the priest in Sauðlauksdalur, Jón Ormsson, had the coffin of Bjarni's deceased wife, Guðrún, reopened at her funeral in the church of Saurbær on Rauðisandur. This was done to check if there was any indication of physical harm found on her corpse. Several
farmers on Rauðisandur also participated in this inspection, but no medical doctor was called in, as would have been normal. However, nothing suspicious was detected on Guðrún's corpse by the priest and the farmers, according to what was documented after the inspection.
When the body of Jón was found, cast up on the shore of Bjarnanes, above
Bæjarvaðall in Rauðisandur, on September 26, 1802, it was nearly half a year after his disappearance. Consequently, the rumours about Bjarni's involvement in Jón's death became stronger than ever before. Again, Reverend Jón Ormsson and some farmers inspected Jón's corpse in the church of Saurbær to see if there were signs of physical violation on it, to shed light on whether Bjarni had murdered him. A hole in Jón's shoulder was detected, but the body was otherwise amazingly well preserved. Only his fingers and toes were missing, in addition to parts of the skin on his head, which had vanished. Otherwise, the body was mostly intact. After the initial inspection, a decision was made four days later to bring Bjarni from Sjöundá to identify the body of Jón. At that time, Steinunn had already moved from Sjöundá with her and Jón's children to her parents’ place at Hrísnes on Barðaströnd.
During the inspection in the Saurbær church, Bjarni was accused of having caused the
hole in Jon’s shoulder by sticking him with his staff. Bjarni instantly denied having been
involved in Jón's death. He was, nonetheless, arrested under the command of Guðmundur Scheving and brought to custody in Hagi. It must be underlined here that Guðmundur was not, in fact, serving formally as the sheriff of Barðastrandarsýsla county. Rather, his grandfather, Davíð, was the actual sheriff. Davíð had tried to leave his post as sheriff, but it was difficult to find someone to replace him. When the case in Sjöundá came up, Davíð asked his grandson, Guðmundur, to solve it. Guðmundur was at the time 25 years old and had no legal training, nor experience in dealing with criminal cases.
Nevertheless, Bjarni waited for 40 days in his cell in Hagi before his case was
investigated because when he was arrested, Guðmundur had gone to Reykjavik for some unknown reason. This was totally against the law and procedures. Sheriffs were supposed to investigate cases like this without delay. This was notably done in other cases at this time. When Guðmundur came back, 40 days later, he set up a court in the residence of the priest, Jón Ormsson, at Sauðlauksdalur in Patreksfjörður. Both Bjarni and Steinunn were interrogated for four days, accused of having killed their spouses.
To begin with, both Bjarni and Steinunn steadily denied the accusations. The deacon at
Sauðlauksdalur, Eyjólfur, was then requested to interrogate Bjarni in private, which he did for a whole day. After this “private interview” with deacon Eyjólfur, Bjarni confessed to the court of having both murdered his wife on Whitsun 1802, and also his tenant
farmer/neighbour at Sjöundá, Jón Þorgrímsson, that very same spring. Steinunn confessed after having consistently denied all the accusations, to the same court, to having acted as an accomplice to Bjarni in the murder of Guðrún.
What must be kept in mind here is that the prisoners were given only water and bread
during their interrogation and days of confinement. Furthermore, Bjarni had been in isolation, bound in chains, for 40 days before the trial even started. What the isolation did to him is difficult to know, but the harm it could do to an individual is well known today.
After the confession, Bjarni and Steinunn were immediately sentenced to death.
According to the sentence, both were to be beheaded, and Bjarni's right hand was to be
amputated, in addition, before the beheading. Their severed heads were even going to be put on display on sticks, and Bjarni's body was to be put on a wheel. This was a customary sentence in murder cases at that time in Northern Europe, and perhaps elsewhere. After her confession, Steinunn was brought to custody in Hagi in Barðaströnd where Bjarni had been kept since early October 1802. Approximately one year later, in the autumn of 1803, they were transferred from there to the royal prison at Arnarhóll, which belonged to the Seltjarnarnes parish in Reykjavík.
Bjarni and Steinunn waited in the prison after their conviction for two years, until a
decision was made to transport them for execution in Kristiansand, Norway. The day they were told how and where the execution would take place, Steinunn died in the
Arnarhóll prison, August 31, 1805. An autopsy showed that Steinunn died from a stroke that was likely to have been caused by the shock of receiving the information about her sentence of execution. Bjarni was therefore sent alone to the execution abroad. This took place at 7:45 on the morning of Friday, October 4, 1805, at Galgebergstange in Kristiansand, Norway.
There was no evidence that Bjarni and Steinunn had murdered their spouses, aside from rumours and their confessions, which seemed to have been forced by the investigators. Furthermore, Guðmundur Scheving did not, for unknown reasons, conduct any investigations into the case, nor did he have the corpses of Guðrún and Jón inspected by a medical doctor. For the improper 40-day delay, and for not having called in a medical doctor, plus some other misconduct, Guðmundur was only admonished and counselled, without further consequences. The admonitions he got did not affect the outcome of the case. However, important facts have come to light now, over 200 years after the execution of Bjarni and the death of Steinunn. They show above all how unfairly Bjarni and Steinunn were treated by the sheriff Guðmundur Scheving, who oddly enough, later became the sheriff of Barðastrandarsýsla county, despite the above misconduct.
Read more
Kristjánsdóttir, Steinunn. Dauðadómurinn: Bjarni Bjarnason frá Sjöundá 1761–1805. 2024: Háskólaútgáfan
“'Steinunn á Sjöundá' Gets Tombstone After 200-Year Wait" (01 Sep 2012) in Iceland Review. Retrieved from https://www.icelandreview.com/news/steinunn-a-sjounda-gets-tombstone-after-200-year-wait/?srsltid=AfmBOoo5xx2L93qtWXOsAk2mzsseO1u47nZ4LYxZeJBhjjGmG3i_L-cN
"Were the Murders Not Committed?" (08 Jun 2025) in Iceland Review. Retrieved from https://www.icelandreview.com/news/were-the-murders-not-committed/?srsltid=AfmBOoqOvk5B059ftLthz_1VYSkDkeDZQGwqi4LzeB8Ms8ikbkAmKvjU
"100 People Revisit an Old Historical Murder" (12 May 2022) in Iceland Monitor. Retrieved from https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/culture_and_living/2022/05/13/100_people_revisit_an_old_historical_murder/
Death Sentence—Book Presentation in Davíðshús in The Offical Travel Guide to Akureyri. Retrieved from
"This Day In Icelandic History: Murder Duo Bjarni And Steinunn Get Sentenced To Death" (02 May 2018) in Reykjavík Grapevine. Retrieved from