Vardøger, also known as vardyvle or vardyger, is a spirit predecessor in Scandinavian folklore.[1]

Stories typically include instances that are nearly déjà vu in substance, but in reverse, where a spirit with the subject's footsteps, voice, scent, or appearance and overall demeanor precedes them in a location or activity, resulting in witnesses believing they have seen or heard the actual person before the person physically arrives. This bears a subtle difference from a doppelgänger, with a less sinister connotation. It has been likened to being a phantom double, or form of bilocation. In Finnish folklore, the concept is known as etiäinen.

Originally, vardøger was considered a fylgja, a sort of guardian spirit.[2][3] Thus, a vardöger is the representation of a human's inner essence, which manifests as an animal that most closely resembles the personality of the human.

Etymology

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Vardøgr is a Norwegian word defined as ‘‘premonitory sound or sight of a person before he arrives’’. It can also be interpreted as "harbinger". The word vardøger is from Old Norse varðhygi, consisting of the elements vǫrð, "guard, watchman" (akin to "warden") and hugr, "mind" or "soul".

References

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  1. ^ vardøger (Store norske leksikon. fagkonsulent for denne artikkelen var Olav Bø)
  2. ^ "The Vardogr, Perhaps Another Indicator of the Non-Locality of Consciousness (L. David Leiter, Journal of Scienti c Exploration, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 621–634, 2002)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-01-07. Retrieved 2010-01-07.
  3. ^ Hygen, Georg (1987). Vardøger: Vårt paranormale nasjonalsfenomen (in Norwegian). Oslo: Cappelen. p. 13. ISBN 82-02-11190-0.

Other sources

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Further reading

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  • Doubles: The Enigma of the Second Self, Rodney Davies, 1998, ISBN 0-7090-6118-8
  • Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals, Rupert Sheldrake, 2000, ISBN 0-609-80533-9
  • Phone Calls From the Dead [chapter on "intention" phone calls], D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless, 1980, ISBN 0-425-04559-5
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