Hamingja

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The Hamingja was a kind of female guardian angel in Scandinavian mythology. It was believed to accompany a person and to decide his luck and happiness. Consequently, the name was also used to signify happiness, and this is what it means in modern day Icelandic. When a person died, the hamingja passed to a dear relative and so the hamingja accompanied a family during several generations and decided its luck and happiness. It was even possible to lend one's hamingja to a friend which happened when Hjalti Skeggiason was about to go on a dangerous voyage and asked king Olaf the Holy to borrow his hamingja.

It usually appeared during sleep in the form of an animal, but it could also be the spirit of a sleeping person which appeared in the form of an animal.

See also:

• Fylgja
• Valkyrie
• Dísir
• Norns

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