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Remember the cats, ravens, and other familiar spirits who are often the companions of witches in Scandinavian folktales?
These are fylgjur (pronounced “FILG-yur”) in the plural and fylgja (pronounced “FILG-ya”) in the singular.
Fylgjur usually appear in the form of an animal and commonly appear during sleep, but the sagas relate that they could appear while a person is awake as well, and that seeing one's fylgja is an omen of one's impending death. However, when fylgjur appear in the form of women, they are then supposedly guardian spirits for people or clans
In a sense, this helping spirit can be seen as the totem of a single person rather than of a group.
Fylgja literally translates as “follower,” but, as often as not, it’s depicted as travelingahead of its owner, arriving at the intended destination before its owner or appearing in the dreams of someone who will meet the owner the following day.
Intriguingly, the term is also applied to the afterbirth, but the connection is mysterious and unclear.
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Golther describes the Fylgja or “Folgerin” (Following being) as an inherent feature of man, his soul, which becomes visible to its bearer only at the moment of his death, but in some rare cases during his life-time, too.
It is said to adopt the features of the person himself, if it does not show itself in the shape of an animal, which reflects his nature. Thus a child may be accompanied by a bird, while a warrior might have a wolf or a bear at his side.
Eventually, however, that spirit changed into a female protector, a goddess of fate, watching over one individual man or his whole kin.
The Fylgja is an attendant spirit whose well-being is intimately tied to that of its owner – for example, if the fylgja dies, its owner dies, too. Its character and form are closely connected to the character of its owner; a person of noble birth might have a bear fylgja, a savage and violent person, a wolf, or a gluttonous person, a pig.
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The noun Fylgja (feminine singular) is derived from the verb Fylgja. This has various meanings:
- to follow
- to accompany
- to belong
- to help
- support
- align
- need
- keep inside
- have
- to follow as a concubine
As a noun, it is translated as:
- support
- help
- (female) companion
- guardian spirit
- protective spirit
- follower
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Further on the animal Fylgja
The animal fylgja motif is sometimes blended with the húgr-motif. [Húgr (masculine singular) means “intent”, “desire”, “thought”, “soul”, “heart” and seems to have been a part of the human soul that could move outside of the body in animal shape].
Manna hugir ["the intents of men"] sometimes replace the term manna fylgjor [the “followers” of men] and usually then appear in the shape of wolves. Wolves, being associated with fierce passion and desire (or greed and hunger) are closely connected to the húgr. The other animals appear as manna fylgjor...
The Woman Fylgja
When it comes to the woman fylgja, they are also known by many other names such as:
Ófridarfylgja, óvinarfylgja, kynfylgja, ættarfylgja,[“unpeace-follower”, “enemy-follower”, “friend-follower”, “clan-follower” - describing what kind of fylgja she is] and fylgjukona draumkona, dís, spádís and hamingja[follower-woman, dream-woman, goddess, prophecy-goddess, shape-walker].
The animal and the woman fylgja share a name and one common function: They may appear to others before her human person arrives, thus warning others of her human`s approach.
Different sources describe the woman fylgja differently. In the förnaldarsögur, she is usually described as a dís [goddess]. This choice of words I [Else Mundal] see as an example of a conscious attempt to make the stories appear more archaic.
In the king sagas, the dominant way of describing a woman fylgja is by the word hamingja [shape-walker]...
The Relationship between the Woman Fylgja and the Dísir
We have seen that the woman fylgja often is called dís in the sources.
It seems obvious that we have to do with the same female entity both where she is called fylgja and where she is called dís, but the worddís is not necessarily connected to the woman fylgja.
...the woman fylgja belongs to the same category as the nornir and thevalkyrjur. Dís is a common name for all the supernatural female entities...
The word is also used for its poetical value. If one is to make a distinction between the woman fylgjur and the dísir, it is that the worddís has a wider meaning.
The noun dís (pl.dísir) is etymologically connected to the Old Indian dhisanas – used to describe female goddesses of fertility
The word also exists in the Germanic languages. Old Saxon: ides, Old High German: itis, Old English:ides.
According to Folke Ström, the dísir, nornir and valkyrjur have an inner connection, whereas the womanfylgja stands outside. She originates in conceptions about the soul and thus has a different origin than thedísir although they sometimes are blended.
Adding to these, there are more unspecialized dísir who could be defined as protective spirits of particular clans, a blending between the dís and the animal fylgja.
Several scholars (especially Turville-Petre and Anne Holtsmark) emphasize the difference between thedísir, who were the objects of cultic worship, and the other female entities, who apparently were not.
Others, such as Ström to a certain degree, (but making an exception out of the fylgjur) and P.A.Munch, argue that they are all called dísir and that they were all worshipped together as dísir.
They seem to separate the dísir from the fylgjur by saying that the former were deities worshipped in a cultic setting, while the latter were connected to the souls of people and thus more related to the animal fylgja...
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