User:Freyjahambrick/sandbox

The word, fylgja (or as a 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 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. Fylgja could also “mark transformations between human and animal” or shapeshifting. In Egil’s Saga, there was lots of references to both the characters Egil and Skallagrim transforming into wolves or bears, as well as examples of shapeshifting in the Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, where Bodvar Bjarki turns into a bear during a battle as a last stand. 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 serpant. Interestingly, fylgjur do not have to be animals native to Scandinavia and can be animals that were described from people’s voyages or hearsay. For example, in Gunnlaug’s Saga, the character of Helga the Fair was represented by a beautiful swan, a fylgja that is common among gorgeous women, even though swans are not native to Iceland. In “Dreams in Icelandic Tradition" by Turville-Petre, it is discussed about 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 or 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.