Fylgja
The Fylgja ( Old Norse plural: Fylgjur , German plural: Fylgjen or Fylgien ) is a female follower (Old Norse: fylgja = to follow) in Norse mythology , a kind of protective spirit that accompanies a person. These beings are comparable to the elves and norns . The Fylgjur are normally not visible in their human form, but they are already present in any (animal) shape when their protégé is born. When they appear, then as a dream face in the form of a woman or the form of that animal that resembles the soul of the respective person. A warlike person could have a wolf or a bear, a horse or a bird for the Fylgja. She only shows herself to her protégé at the moment of death. At this point she is of the same nature as the Valkyrie , the terrible sight of which banishes the chosen warrior and thus brings him to death. In her female form, she then steps to his grave, animates him with her love and the life drink (ags. Alu , beer), in order to then take him on horseback to Valhalla. Since the Fylgja is an accompanying being, one can compare her with the guardian angels of the Christian idea, but not with the soul. According to Else Mundal, these beings have their origin in ancestor cult. The Fylgjen Þorgerð and Irp helped Håkon Jarl to defeat the Jomsvikingers in the battle of Hjørungavåg . They are presented as Fylgjen of his family and should have been his ancestor from the family of the Jöten . The fylgjen of a clan especially followed the chief. It was her job to help him and protect him. In some sources they also bring the person they followed when he died to themselves and to the other ancestors.
The Fylgja on Auzon's runic box
The rune box by Auzon (also called "Franks Casket" after the founder) with its sequence of images vividly depicts the appearance of the Fylgja or Valkyrie : On the magician picture, a representation of the homage to Jesus by the three kings, she appears as a water bird (swan or Goose) in place of the angel. In the Wieland picture next to it, the swan girl appears - here as a companion and helper - hidden by two floral rune symbols that identify the Valkyrie. It is hardly a coincidence that this mark resembles the print of a bird's foot. As a rune, it refers to the reeds, the sharp foliage of which is the location of the Valkyries. In the picture of Romulus and Remus , their Fylgjas appear to be represented with the two wolves. On the back, the image of Titus , under an arcade there are three pairs of animals (probably horse, wolf and raven, emblems of Ziu, ags. Tiw, nord. Tyr , and Wotan, ags. Woden, nord. Odin ), while the floral markings the Valkyrie is placed above the arch of the arcade.
The illustration on the right shows a warrior who meets his Valkyrie , here a hybrid creature with predominantly animal features, and is then visited by her at the grave - now in human form. As with corresponding representations on Gotland picture stones, Odin's knot (an. Valknutr ) mark the horse at the grave as Odin's Sleipnir . Finally, the cover picture shows an archer Ægil, perhaps - after Völundarkviða - Wieland brother Egil , who is also in a relationship with a swan girl. Then it would be Oelrun ("the one who knows the beer secret"), who, sitting under an arch, procures the accurate, deadly arrows for her protégé. The scene will be about the defense of Walhall against the frost giants , which is also suggested here by the knot ornaments (valknutr). According to this interpretation, the pictorial program conjures up the life of a person of high standing from his birth, beyond the grave, to life in Wotan's / Wodens / Odin's hall under the protection of the Fylgja.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Else Mundal: Midgardsormen and andre heidne vesen i kristen kontekst. In: Nordica Bergensia 14 (1997) pp. 20-38, 22.
literature
- Alfred Becker: Frank's Casket. To the pictures and inscriptions of the rune box by Auzon , Regensburg, 1973, ISBN 3418002056
- Wolfgang Golther: Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie , Marixverlag, Wiesbaden, 2004; Newly set and revised edition after the Leipzig edition in 1895, ISBN 3-937715-38-X , p. 98ff
