Folkvid the Lawspeaker
Folkvid was the
lawspeaker of
Värmland during the last half of the
12th century. He is only known from the so-called
Bagler sagas, where he is only mentioned by virtue of his marriage to Cecilia, the bastard daughter of the Norwegian king
Sigurd Munn. The marriage was arranged by the
earl Erling Skakke and it was annulled in
1184 by the archbishop of
Nidaros, on the initiative of Cecilia's half-brother, king
Sverre I of Norway.
He was the father of
Haakon the Crazy an
earl whose son was a claimant for the Norwegian throne.
Most Swedish historians have refused to accept the historical existence of Folkvid, which probably is due to lack of information in the poor Swedish sources from the time.