Ivy League Enjoy English 常春藤生活英語 – 八月 2019

doppelgänger is supposed to

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be a person^ s exact

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double. The word has been

borrowed from

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German and is often translated as double walker. In the past,

the appearance

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of a doppelgänger was never good news, though.

In traditional myths

ź

and legends

ź

, a doppelgänger was a type of ghost or spirit.

Seeing a doppelgänger usually meant something bad would happen. In many legends,

seeing one s own double meant that death was near. In other stories, seeing someone

else^ s double meant something bad could happen to that person.

(^) Before the German word (^) doppelgänger (^) became common, the English word
fetch was used to describe seeing a spirit copy
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of one s self. Other cultures
also had their own words for a similar
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spirit or creature
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. In Egypt, it was called

a ka, which was a spirit that had all the same memories as the person it copied

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.

The ka could be found causing all kinds of trouble in folklore

ź

. In Norse
ź
and

Finnish

ź

mythology

ź

, a similar being would appear to show people their near future.

The doppelgänger is also considered a version

ź

of the Ankou, a sign of death in

Breton

ź

folklore. In all of these cultures legends, it was always a bad sign to see your

doppelgänger.

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