Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

As maid-servants under Urd, there are countless hamingjur (fylgjur) and giptur
(also called gáfur, auðnur, heillir). The hamingjur are fostered among beings of giantrace
(who hardly can be others than the norns and Mimir). Three mighty rivers fall down
into the world, in which they have their origin, and they come wise in their hearts,
soaring over the waters to our upper world (Vafþrúðnismál 48, 49). There every child of
man is to have a hamingja as a companion and guardian spirit. The testimony of the
Icelandic sagas of the Middle Ages are confirmed in this regard by phrases and forms of
speech which have their root in heathendom. The hamingjur belong to that large circle of
feminine beings which are called dises (dísir), and they seem to have been especially so
styled. What Urd is on a grand scale as the guardian of the mighty Yggdrasil, this the
hamingja is on a smaller scale when she protects the separate fruit produced on the
world-tree and placed in her care. She does not appear to her favorite excepting perhaps
in dreams or shortly before his death (the latter according to Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar,
the prose (35); Njal's saga, 62; Hallfreðar Saga Vandræðskálds ch. 11; proofs from
purely heathen records are wanting). 22 In strophes which occur in Gísla saga Súrssonar
ch. 22, and which are attributed (though on doubtful grounds) to this heathen skald, the
hero of the saga, but the origin of which (from a time when the details of the myth were
still remembered) is fully confirmed by a careful criticism, it is mentioned how he stood
between good and evil inspirations, and how the draumkona (dream-woman) of the good
inspirations said to him in sleep: "Be not the first cause of a murder! excite not peaceful
men against yourself! - promise me this, thou charitable man! Aid the blind, scorn not the
lame, and insult not a Tyr robbed of his hand!" 23 These are noble counsels, and that the
hamingjur were noble beings was a belief preserved through the Christian centuries in
Iceland, where, according to Vigfusson, the word hamingja is still used in the sense of
Providence. They did not usually leave their favorite before death. 24 But there are certain
phrases preserved in the spoken language which show that they could leave him before
death. He who was abandoned by his hamingja and gipta, was a lost man. If the favorite
became a hideous and bad man, then his hamingja and gipta might even turn her
benevolence into wrath, and cause his well-deserved ruin. Úfar eru dísir, angry at you are
the dises! cries Odin to the royal nithing Geirrod (Grímnismál 53), and immediately
22 These same references may be found under the entry "fylgja" in Vigfusson's Dictionary.
Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, the prose (35): Þat kvað Helgi, því at hann grunaði um feigð sína ok þat, at
fylgjur hans höfðu vitjat Heðins, þá er hann sá konuna ríða varginum; Then Helgi said that he suspected
that he was 'fey' (doomed to die) and that his fylgja had visited Hedin, when he saw the woman riding the
wolf.
No fylgja or hamingja appears in Njal's Saga ch. 62, however, fylgjur ("fetches") do appear in chapters
12, 23, and 69. Since chapter numbers vary by edition, the reference may be to chapter 69.
Hallfreðar Saga, ch. 11: Hallfreður leit til og sá að þar var fylgjukona hans; Hallfred took a look, and saw
that there was his fylgjukona (lit. "woman of fylgja," no doubt an example of the "fetch" as a woman.)
23 Vald eigi þú vígi,/ves þú ótyrrinn, fyrri,/morðs við mæti-Njörðu,/mér heitið því, sleitu;/baugskyndir, hjalp
blindum,/Baldr, hygg at því, skjaldar,/illt kveða háð ok höltum,/handlausum tý, granda. The final line
simply reads "Help the handless." Here tý is a verb, and undoubtedly a pun on the god-name Tyr, as he lost
his hand. Probably for this reason, Rydberg has chosen to insert the name Tyr in the translation.
24 This is not entirely true. Under the entry for hamingja, Vigfusson notes that the hamingja could be lent to
another, thereby imparting one's good luck to that person, sögðusk mundu leggja til með honom hamingju
sína, Laxadæla Saga, ch. 21. He adds that the hamingja left the dying at the hour of death and was passed
to a dear son, daughter, or beloved kinsmen, Hallfreðar Saga, ch. 11; Viga-Glums Saga, Ch. 9.