Northern mythology

114 NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY.
offered to bear him company. On relating the incident
to his brother Helgij the latter foresaw his own approaching
end_, for he knew that it was his Fylgia that had accosted
his brother^ under the
form of a woman on a wolf.
When a person was dead or near death, his Fylgia was
desirous to follow his nearest relative, or one of the family.
When a person^s own Fylgia appeared to him bloody, it
betokened a violent death ^
Identical apparently with the Fylgia are the Ham
(Hamr, induvi.^) and the Hamingia. In the Atlamal^,
Kostbera dreams that she saw the Ham or genius of Atli
enter the house under an eaglets form, and sprinkle them
all with blood. In the Vaf];rudnismal and Vegtams-quiJ^a ^,
the Hamingior are identical with the Norns.
Connected wdth the foregoing is our own superstition
about a child's caul. In Germany, children born with
this membrane are regarded as fortunate and '^, the membrane
itself is carefully preserved, or sewed in a girdle for
the child to Avear. Among the Icelanders this caul also
bears the name of fylgia ; they fancy that the guardian
angel, or a part of the infant's soul dwells in it :
the midwives,
consequently, are careful not to injure it, but bury
it under the threshold, over which the mother must walk.
Whoever throws it away, or burns it, deprives the child of
its guardian angel. Such a guardian is called Fylgia, because
it is supposed to follow the individual ; it is also
called FoRYNiA, from being likewise regarded as a forerunner
^.
Traditions of, and a belief in, beings, of which every
person has one as an attendant, are universal over the
greatest part of Norway, though the name and the idea
1 Keyser, p, 157. - Str. 20. 3 str. 48, 49; Str. 17.
*
See the story of the Devi] with the three Golden Hairs, in the Kinder
und Hausmarchen, No. 29.
5 Grimm, D. M. p. 828.