Vardøger, also known as ''vardyvle'' or ''vardyger'', is a spirit predecessor in
Scandinavian folklore
Nordic folklore is the folklore of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. It has common roots with, and has been under mutual influence with, folklore in England, Germany, the Low Countries, the Baltic countries, Finland and SÃ ...
.
Stories typically include instances that are nearly
déjà vu
''Déjà vu'' ( , ; "already seen") is the phenomenon of feeling like one has
lived through the present situation in the past.Schnider, Armin. (2008). ''The Confabulating Mind: How the Brain Creates Reality''. Oxford University Press. pp. 167–1 ...
in substance, but in reverse, where a spirit with the subject's footsteps, voice, scent, or appearance and overall demeanor precedes them in a location or activity, resulting in witnesses believing they have seen or heard the actual person before the person physically arrives. This bears a subtle difference from a
doppelgänger
A doppelgänger ( ), sometimes spelled doppelgaenger or doppelganger, is a ghostly double of a living person, especially one that haunts its own fleshly counterpart.
In fiction and mythology, a doppelgänger is often portrayed as a ghostly or p ...
, with a less sinister connotation. It has been likened to being a phantom double, or form of
bilocation
Bilocation, or sometimes multilocation, is an alleged psychic or miraculous ability wherein an individual or object is located (or appears to be located) in two distinct places at the same time. Reports of bilocational phenomena have been made i ...
. In
Finnish folklore, the concept is known as ''
etiäinen''.
Originally, vardøger was considered a
fylgja and/or
vǫrð, a sort of guardian spirit.
Thus, a vardöger is the representation of a human's inner essence, which manifests as an animal that most closely resembles the personality of the human.
Etymology
Vardøgr is a Norwegian word defined as ‘‘premonitory sound or sight of a person before he arrives’’. It can also be interpreted as "harbinger". The word is from
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
, consisting of the elements , "care taker, guard, watchman" (akin to "warden") and , "mind" or "soul". The same concept exists in Sweden but under the name of which also derives from Old Norse .
References
Other sources
*
Davidson, H.R. Ellis (1965) ''Gods and Myths of Northern Europe'' (Penguin Books)
*Kvideland, Reimund; Henning K. Sehmsdorf (1989) ''Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend'' (University of Minnesota Press)
* McKinnell, John (2005) ''Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend'' (D.S. Brewer, Cambridge)
*Orchard, Andy (1997) ''Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend'' (Cassell & Co)
*Pulsiano, Phillip; Kirsten Wolf (1993) ''Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedi''a (Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages)
*
Simek, Rudolf; translated by Angela Hall (2007) ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology'' (D.S. Brewer, Cambridge)
*
Steiger, Brad; (2003) ''Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places'' (Visible Ink Press, Detroit, Michigan)
Further reading
* ''Doubles: The Enigma of the Second Self'', Rodney Davies, 1998,
* ''Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals'', Rupert Sheldrake, 2000,
* ''Phone Calls From the Dead''
hapter on "intention" phone calls D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless, 1980,
External links
*
Llewellyn ''Unconscious in the Astral''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vardoger
Scandinavian legendary creatures
Paranormal
Supernatural legends
Doppelgängers