In traditional Christian theology, there are three separate parts that make us who we are: body, mind, and spirit. Thanks to St. Paul, most Christians share the belief that these three are at war with one another. Our spirits struggle to triumph over our bodies (flesh) as well as our minds (our thoughts and desires). As far as I’m concerned, it’s downright exhausting. It’s also contradictory to my lived experience. The Christian mystic and Buddhist in me is always seeking to bring these three into harmony with one another. Most of the time, I’m fairly successful in this endeavor. I do not view the body as evil or weak. In fact, it is the temple where the Divine chooses to dwell. Furthermore, we cannot neatly separate these three things since they are intertwined with each other. If I’m constantly thinking negative thoughts, it tends to show up in illness in my body. If I’m having a spiritual crisis, it clouds my judgment and scrambles my thoughts. I think you get the point.

Recently, I did a deep dive into traditional Norse spirituality and its concept of the self. While there is no standardized set of components, there are four that consistently come up in the source materials I examined. They present a very different view of what makes us who we are. I’ll cover them briefly in this post and then I’ll go into more detail later. I don’t completely resonate with this set of components either, but I found them utterly fascinating. They are quite different from the traditional Christian view.

The four components that make up the self are hamr, hugr, fylgja, and hamingja. While these four parts exist together, they can also detach themselves from one another in certain circumstances. This makes them a lot more flexible and fluid than the traditional Christian view of the self.

HAMR—Hamr is literally translated into English as “skin,” but it is much more than that. Arith Härger, who runs an excellent self-titled YouTube channel, says “There is a clear difference between the lik (body) and the hamr which is the appearance of that body.” So think of the hamr as our “form” or “appearance” that can be changed by the hugr (mind). Therefore, it is not necessarily a fixed or static thing. The best example of this in Norse thought are the berserkir, warriors who believed they could change their hamr into the form of a bear or wolf.

HUGR—Hugr is best translated as “mind” or “thought.” It’s what forms our personality and includes our emotions, intuition and will. It was believed that people with a strong hugr were able to affect someone else just by thinking about them. The hugr leaves the body upon death.

FYLGJA—A fylgja can be thought of as a guardian spirit or guide. It was believed they often took on the form of an animal that reflected the owner’s personality such as a raven if they were smart or a fox if they were a bit of a trickster. They could also take the form of a human. A flygja could travel away from the body and warn their owner of spending danger. It could also appear in the dreams of another person the owner was going to interact with the following day. This is the most fascinating aspect of the self and I will definitely discuss it in more detail in a later post.

HAMINGJA—The hamingja is the mount of power and illumination a person possesses. Some people think of it as luck or good fortune, but I believe it goes much deeper than this. It’s the skills, intelligence, and strengths a person has that can be used to influence wealth, power and success. An individual’s hamingja could also be passed on to their descendants when they died. Most sources I’ve read say this part of the self was always female, even for men.

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