The term ‘Fylgja’ literally means “follower” (“one who follows”). In fact, “Fylgja” is a term that later Europeans coined for a witch’s “familiar” (or a “fetch”). A Fylgja can take either an animal, or a human shape (if human, it will usually show up as a pretty young woman, or a crone). Sometimes the Fylgja belongs to an individual, and sometimes it belongs to the ancestral line (a “kin-fetch”); if so, the shape that it takes represents that family.