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168 bear, running in front of you, but when it saw me it remained stationary, and you stumbled over it.’ This was Thorsteinn’s own fylgja, and Geitir concluded from its appearance that the lad was destined to great things.

The fylgja was often seen in animal shape—an interesting reminiscence of transmigration; for though the belief in the metempsychosis of the human soul had been given up, the idea lingered on and attached itself to the companion spirit. The fylgja showed themselves sometimes in the form of men, but also in that of any beast which represented the character of temperament of the man it followed. Brave men had their companion spirits in the shape of bears or wolves. That of a crafty man appeared as a fox. A timorous man had a fylgja in the form of a hare or a small bird.

The Icelander Einarr Eyjólfsson foresaw the death of his brother Gudmund in dream. He fancied that an ox with long horns ascended out of the Eyjafjord and leaped upon the high seat of Gudmund in his farm of Madruvöllr, and there fell dead. This ox, said Einarr, is a man’s fylgja. That same day his brother returned from a journey, and took his place in the high seat in his hall, and sank out of it dead.