Fylgja

In Norse mythology, a fylgja is a spirit who accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune. The word, fylgja (or plural fylgjur) means “to accompany” similar to that of the Irish Fetch, it can also mean “afterbirth of a child” meaning that the afterbirth and the fylgja are connected. In some instances, the fylgja can take on the form of the animal that shows itself when a baby is born or as the creature that eats the afterbirth. In some literature and sagas, the fylgjur can take the form of mice, dogs, foxes, cats, birds of prey, or carrion eaters because these were animals that would typically eat such afterbirths. Other ideas of fylgjur are that the animals reflect the character of the person they represent. Men who were viewed as a leader would often have fylgja to show their true character. This means that if they had a “tame nature”, their fylgja would typically be an ox, goat, or boar. If they had an “untame nature” they would have fylgjur such as; a fox, wolf, deer, bear, eagle, falcon, leopard, lion, or a serpent. In “Dreams in Icelandic Tradition" by Turville-Petre, it discussed commonalities between the various animals such as an evil wizard or sorcerer’s fylgja would be a fox because they are sly and hiding something, or an enemy is depicted as a wolf. Particularly in The Story of Howard the Halt otherwise known as Hárvarðar saga Ísfirðings, the character Atli has a dream about eighteen wolves running towards him with a vixen as their leader, predicting that he would be attacked by an army with a sorcerer at the front.