Section VIII Folker
Of all the champions of Burgundy, none is more full of gallantry and bonhommie than Folker, the mighty fiddler of Alsace, a true knight, always equally ready for music or for fighting. If the Nibelungenlied be really another form of the Eddaic myth, Folker may answer to Bragi, the god of poetry, but he has his own individual character of blithe undaunted courage. Even when the terrible battle has begun, and the heroes find themselves hemmed in by Chriemhild’s warriors, Folker fiddles on, until he dies by the hand of Hildebram.
Folker’s name is from our own word folk, the near relation of the Latin vulgus, whose progeny are found all over Europe in vulgar, vulgo, foule, &c. Most likely Folkvard is really the right version, and would mean people’s guard, and Folker is rather its corruption than independently the people’s warrior, and the same with Folko; they are, therefore, all thrown together in the following table.
| English. | German. | Frisian. | Nor. |
| Fulk | Volquard | Folkert | Folkvard |
| French. | Volkvart | Foke | Folke |
| Fulcher | Folkward | Fokko | Fokke |
| Feuquiers | Folquhard | ||
| Foulques | Folkhard | ||
| Fouques | Folker | ||
| Folko | |||
| Fulko |
In the Foulques stage, this name was home, alternately with Geoffroi, by the counts of Anjou, and with the strange soubriquets of Nerra and Réchin. One of these counts, the grandfather of our Henry II., became king of Jerusalem; but our English Angevins did not perpetuate the name; and though six Fulcos are recorded in Domesday, Fulk never took root in England, and is chiefly remembered because it belonged to Fulk Greville, the friend of Sydney. It was, in fact, with all its varieties, chiefly Burgundian.
Germany shows a few other forms: Folkwin, or Volquin, which exactly answers to Demophilos, or Publicola; Folkrad, Folkrich, and Folkmar; also Folkbert, which some prefer to Wilibert, as the origin of the Savoyard Filiberto, and our Fulbert.135
Notes
135. Nibelungenlied; Weber and Jamieson; Munch; Michaelis.