#fylgjur

Well here we are another Thor’s Day and another 20 min sketch of a Norse (and Germanic) mythological characters.  This week it’s a couple more quick sketches of Fylgjur / Fylgja / Fylgia / Fylgjuz, mentioned in the Sagas, and in folklore. This time appearing as human like spirits.

Their name translates to “fetches” or "follows" from the words 'fulga' and 'fylgja'. Meaning 'a following spirit or wraith'. Or sometimes interpreted as a "Skincover", or "Afterbirth" spirit.

They can be seen as all manner of ghosts and spirits. With some common notable occurrences being. The spirits of deceased family. Or spirits without family that appear as them. Sometimes invisible excepting in dreams and with powers. And sometimes being seen as apparitions or smoke like people, sometimes appearing as the person seeing them, or as an animal. And sometimes being the spirits of a baby.

While normally seen in dreaming in sleep. They can be seen while day dreaming.

When one that is a family member is seen outside of sleep it if often mean it is close to the end of that persons living fate, and they are about to be reunited in death.

If you want to submit a topic you would like me to write on for this blog or my Patreon, sign up for the Uruz or Thurisaz level or above here on my Patreon. From Vixen comes this topic: “The parts of the soul. Specifically Hamingja and Fylgja and how they interact with each other, us and the world around us. Reading up on it, both seem to appear (occasionally) in animal form?” The Fylgja and…

Please reblog and not repost

“Horstein said, that huge bear with reddened cheeks must be Zokul’s fylgja, and the other bears the fylgjur of his brothers. The wolves, however, seemed to me to be the same number as the men who came with the bears, since they have wolves, however, seemed to me to be the same number as the men who came with the bears.” I’ve been reading more around the concept of fylgjur. This is a really good video on it, which explains the concept and, really, there are places here where if you substituted the word daemon, it would still make total sense.

These two articles discuss this it further:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3720328?r

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43626769?

As does this article, although I don’t fully agree with some of it’s takes on the text it’s discussing, but an interesting read:

No harm in being curious 💙🌸

To be honest? I have not met anyone/talked to any others with a fylgja, but I can tell you my story!

It all started with my obsession with Harry Potter and it's Patronus consept. As the little nerd I was, I was desperate to find my patronous. This was the time I started getting signs.

I had a feeling of a pressence, to protect and aid me. The potterhead in me was like "Yeah! All that stuff tells me that this is my patronous!". This was also was the time where my bullying was gettig worse, so it really was a time I needed it.

Later I started feeling drawn to foxes, arctic ones in particular, but I thought that was just from my interest with Norways endangered fauna and carnivores.

So! After all that time, since I started feeling the pressence 2 years earlier, I finally had a dream. It was of an arctic fox, guiding me through a frozen wasteland to a cabin. Inside was my grandparents (none of them where dead at the time) and they told me to take good care of "Him". After that I knew that I had a spirit guarding me and keeping me en check. He has never told me his name, nor do I think I ever will, but we will see.

Why I know he is a Fylgja (and not anything else) is the whole family aspect, the way things get when he leaves for a time (Worse mood, bad luck, and so on), and just his general "I'm here, watching, but not interfering".

Hope that helped a little 💙🌸

I had tried journeying before and met the same animal who said their name was something else, but I dismissed it as my imagination because the rest of the meditation spiraled out of control and definitely into imagination territory.

Your flygja is the: Bear Your fylgja is curious, intelligent, and adaptable! The bear is also filled with integrity, strength, and honor. 

Question 18: Any familiars?

I do not have a ‘familiar’ per se but I do have fetches/fylgjur [one in particular] that I work with quite frequently for various things including divination, journeying/pathwalking (utiseta), spellwork etc. Since a good portion of my craft/spirituality involves “fringe-practice”, spirit work- they are often heavily involved. 

For those that may not know, a familiar is a working spirit that can manifest itself (usually in an animal or anthropomorphic form) and can be conjured or bound to the practitioner. A fetch is thus a personal working spirit. Fetches are often seen in various cultures and practices to be a part of one’s soul or a fragment of a person’s character in which it will make itself known. Fetches usually appear as animals, humans, or even as an alternate reflection of the practitioner/individual. 

Fylgjur are the Norse/Heathen concept of a Fetches.