What is a fylgja? Is it like a Native American totem animal or is it something distinctly Northern European? In short conversations I have compared the fylgja to a Native American totem animal just to bring people up to speed about them, but they are different. I will only slightly touch on what a fylgja is in this post, but it will give you an idea about how deep and sometimes confusing this topic is.
The concept of the fylgja is buried deep in Northern European history and tradition. To start, here is a list of stories/sagas that mention the fylgja if you would like to read them. Each one is dated between 400 CE and 1200 CE. They are; Ljósvetninga saga, Vatnsdæla saga, Kormáks saga, Sagan af Nikulasi konungi leikara, and Tháttr Thidhranda ok Thórhalls. (Fylfja – Filg-ya, singular; Fylgjur – Filg-yur, plural)
Fylgja simply means follower. That is the simple part. The confusing part is that our ancestors saw the fylgja as being a fate goddess, a death goddess, a personal guardian spirit, the spirit of the ancestors, and a part of our soul. All of these concepts then overlapped and flowed together sometimes as well. According to author Maria Kvilhaug, “the old Norse saw things as fluid, shape-shifting, and gradually overlapping.” Keeping this in mind I will only touch on different ideas of the fylgja here.
Every person has one or more fylgjur. To complicate it even further our ancestors also believed the fylgjur were broken down into visible and invisible categories as well. Of the visible fylgjur it is believed that a person may have anywhere for one, two, three or nine of them. The number of the invisible ones in not known. A fylgja’s character and form was believed to closely resemble the character of its owner. A brave noble men may resemble a bear. A strong warrior may look like a wolf, and so on.
The fylgja came in three broad categories: guardian spirit, counselor, death warning. As a guardian spirit the fylgja may help in the defense of its charge and help attack against enemies. They may also answer prayers for help. The counselor can counsel its charge and let them know that if they do not take their advice, they may end up dead. (Northern Europeans were very practical people!) Death warning, if someone sees there fylgja riding a grey steed or it invites the person home it could be a death omen.
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