Hallgerður Langbrók: The Legend of the Icelandic Sagas

Who's the lady of the Karma is a Bit*h! design?

Hallgerður Langbrók, or Hallgerður Long-Legs, is one of the best-known women in the Icelandic sagas. She appears in Njáls Saga, one of Iceland's greatest medieval stories, and is believed by many historians to have been inspired by a real woman who lived during the Viking Age.

She is remembered as the wife of the legendary warrior Gunnar Hámundarson. During Gunnar's final battle, his bowstring broke, and he asked Hallgerður to cut off some of her long hair so he could make a new one. Remembering an earlier insult, she refused. Gunnar was killed, and the scene became one of the most famous moments in Icelandic literature.

More than 1,000 years later, Hallgerður Langbrók remains an enduring symbol of pride, strength and the timeless power of Iceland's saga tradition.