Fylgja Sources: The Norse Spirit Animal

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In Norse mythology, a fylgja is a supernatural being or spirit which accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune.

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Sources
Prose Edda
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Poetic Edda
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Saga of the jomsvikings
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Gunnlaugs saga Ormstungi
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Kormáks saga
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Njáls Saga
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Jón Árnason, Icelandic Folktales and Legends
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Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend
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Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar

Ljósvetninga saga

Nikulás saga leikara

Þiðranda þáttr ok Þórhalls

Hallfreðarsaga

Þorsteins saga Vikingssonar

Vápnfirðinga saga

Descriptio Islandiæ

Sels-Móri eða Þorgarður

Dalakúturinn






The word fylgja means "to accompany" similar to that of the Fetch in Irish folklore. 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. Fylgjur usually appear in the form of an animal or a human 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 (ættir). According to Else Mundal, the women fylgja could also be considered a dís, a ghost or goddess that is attached to fate.