Vardøger

Vardøger, also known as vardyvle or vardyger, is a spirit predecessor in Scandinavian folklore.

Stories typically include instances that are nearly déjà vu 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've seen or heard the actual person before the person physically arrives. This bears a subtle difference from a doppelgänger, with a less sinister connotation. It has been likened to being a phantom double, or form of bilocation. In Finnish folklore, the concept is known as etiäinen.

Etymology

Vardøgr is a Norwegian word defined as ‘‘premonitory sound or sight of a person before he arrives’’. The word vardøger is probably from Old Norse varðhygi, consisting of the elements vǫrð, "guard, watchman" (akin to "warden") and hugr, "mind" or "soul". Originally, vardøger was considered a fylgja, a sort of guardian spirit.

Other sources

• Davidson, H.R. Ellis (1965) Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (Penguin Books) ISBN 978-0140136272
• Kvideland, Reimund; Henning K. Sehmsdorf (1989) Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend (University of Minnesota Press) ISBN 9780816615032
• McKinnell, John (2005) Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend (D.S. Brewer, Cambridge) ISBN 978-1843840428
• Orchard, Andy (1997) Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend (Cassell & Co) ISBN 0-304-34520-2
• Pulsiano, Phillip; Kirsten Wolf (1993) Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages) ISBN 978-0824047870
• Simek, Rudolf; translated by Angela Hall (2007) Dictionary of Northern Mythology (D.S. Brewer, Cambridge) ISBN 0-85991-513-1

Further reading

• Doubles: The Enigma of the Second Self, Rodney Davies, 1998, ISBN 0-7090-6118-8
• Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals, Rupert Sheldrake, 2000, ISBN 0-609-80533-9
• Phone Calls From the Dead [chapter on "intention" phone calls], D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless, 1980, ISBN 0-425-04559-5

External links

• Llewellyn Unconscious in the Astral