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In Nordic folklore and mythology, a fylgja (Old Norse: , Old Swedish: fylghia, older Dalecarlian: fylgja) is a supernatural being or spirit which accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune. They can appear to people in their sleep as dream-women, or appear to them while awake, often in the disembodied spiritual form of an enemy.

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Hallfreðar saga
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Encyclopedic overview

14 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Description
  • Placenta origins
  • Animal forms
  • Occurrences
  • Sleep and dreams
  • Waking appearances
  • Folktales
  • Skotta and móri
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • Bibliography
  • Further reading

In Nordic folklore and mythology, a fylgja (Old Norse: , Old Swedish: fylghia, older Dalecarlian: fylgja) is a supernatural being or spirit which accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune. They can appear to people in their sleep as dream-women, or appear to them while awake, often in the disembodied spiritual form of an enemy.

==Etymology== The word means "to accompany". The term fylgja is typically translated into English as "fetch", a similar being from Irish folklore.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “fylgja” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.