Heill Amber,
Sorry for the delay but I have been busied as you know. Grettis saga is exceptionally rich in both psychological and mythological terms. Its account of the protagonist shows a diversity of forces combating within him (Vidar Hreinsson 1992:105). Equally, it is replete with allusions to mythological figures. In this respect Grettir is notably polysemous (cf.Hastrup 1986:310), having in his composition something of Ódinn,something of Thórr, something of Loki, something of the giants. The Grettis Saga is the last and highest praised work of the genre of family sagas of old Iceland. It tells the eleventh-century tale of Grettir, a warrior of phenomenal strength and an equally powerful temper. Banished and outlawed, the victim of curses, witchcraft, and magic, Grettir performs heroic deeds, including battles against monsters and ghosts; ironically, these deeds benefit the very society with which he is so often at odds. After his murder, he is avenged by his brother, Thorsteinn. The Grettis Saga presents complex characters with rich, wide-ranging personalities. Although much critical interest in the tale derives from its similarities to Beowulf, it continues to gain new respect and new readers in its own right. It is also invaluable to historians and folklorists for its vivid, highly detailed descriptions of Viking ways and for help in understanding their perception of the individual and society.
omacl.org/Grettir/gr19-31.html
The term fylgja is thought to be related to the Old Norse verb fylgja, which means 'to follow'. The fylgja normally takes on two distinct forms. The first, which for the purposes of this article, I'll label as the “animal fylgja”, (as opposed to fylgja which for this article will signify the fylgja that is in the form of a woman) is normally in the form of an animal. This animal usually conforms to the person's personality, i.e. a sly person might have a fox for an animal fylgja. The life and well being of the person the animal fylgja is attached to depends on the well being of his or her animal fylgja. There is no evidence of the animal fylgja surviving the death of the person it is attached to. The fylgja, on the other hand, is normally in the form of a female who attends to the individual until death and survives him, at which time the individual is able to enter her abode and she is able to attach herself to another, often someone in the same family. Although both of these are labeled under the same name (fylgja and fetch) we can be fairly certain that they are indeed two different “beings”, for lack of a better word. Furthermore it's my contention that the fylgja is actually dísir. According to Jochens, fylgjur were always considered female, whether animal or human. In animal form it always represented the person it was attached to. She also states that women and men could have animal fylgjur but only men had fylgjur. It is her contention that the two kinds of fylgjur were unconnected in their origin. The animal form came from “ancient roots in primitive thinking,” and the female form “probably is linked with ancestor worship.
Like dísir and valkyries fylgjur were involved with battle. In Ljósvetninga Saga (XXX) The misfortunes of Eyjólfr are attributed to the fact that the fylgjur of their enemies were more powerful than the fylgjur of their own.
To see ones fylgja many times meant that one was fey, or destined to die soon. Again here is another common trait shared with the dísir. “In Scandinavian paganism the presence of the guardian spirit often went unnoticed until the time of ones death: in the Eddaic poem Helgaqviða Hjörvarðzsonar, for instance, the hero Helgi's female guardian spirit (fylgior) appears in the form of a woman riding a wolf with snakes for reins.” (38) It is interesting to note here that this description of fylgjur is almost exactly the same as early descriptions of valkyries. Another name for fylgjur what was used is fylgjukona, which could be translated as “following woman.” Jochen's tells us that fylgjukona became visible to others only when the one she was attached to was going to die in order to attach herself to another. (39) It's very easy to see here the similarities between fylgjur and dísir.
Here I would like to quote a section from Gísli's Saga:
“In his dreams he visits the hall of someone he calls his better dream-woman and there finds many others who welcome him. There are fires burning in the hall and he is told the number of fires in the hall is equal to the number of years he has to live. His guide gives him moral counsels. Later on his dreams become worse as another women comes to him “covered in men's blood' and washes him in it. The first women comes to him after this and she is called his bride and carries him away with her on a gray steed, and takes him to a hall in which there is a soft bed and pillows of down. She tells him that he will come her after he dies, saying, “Here shall you certainly come when you die … then shall the chieftain possess these riches and the woman also…” The other woman gets angry with this and swears it will not be so. She is the last to visit Gísli before his death and when she finally appears she covers him in blood and wraps him in blood-stained garments.”
Ref:
Old Norse Images of Women by Jenny Jochens 1996.
The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature by Hilda Roderick Ellis (Davidson) 1968,
Best
Rig