Long before they were called Doppelgänger, the Vikings (1200-1800) recognized these entities as vardøger, ghostly beings that preceded their living counterparts, taking their places at various activities. In Germany, the word is capitalized and spelled Doppelgäenger although the rest of the world has put the word in lower case and dropped the umlaut from the "a" as well as the second "e". The German definition "double goer" was meant to describe a person who had the apparent ability to be in two places at once.2