▪ I. ‖ jarl, n. Hist.
(jɑːl)
Also yarl.
[ON. (= OE. eorl earl), orig. ‘a man of noble birth’; hence used as the title of hereditary Norse and Danish chieftains; later, of the royal liegemen next in rank to the king whom they followed.]
An old Norse or Danish chieftain or under-king.
Applied by modern historians to those of Scandinavia, and to those of Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles of Scotland. The OE. contemporary form was eorl, applied to Danish leaders and to viceroys or governors of the great divisions of the kingdom under Cnut, whence earl, q.v.
| 1820 S. Turner Anglo-Sax. (ed. 3) I. iv. iii. 479 Then humble kingdoms, jarlls, and nobility appeared. 1829 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) II. 40 These northern districts [of Scotland] had for many centuries been more accustomed to pay their allegiance to the Norwegian yarls, or pirate kings. 1839 Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 38 Five Danish Kings and seven Iarls were slain. 1861 J. A. H. Murray Week in Orkney 12 Sigurd, the first Jarl, in alliance with Thorstein the red, Norse Jarl of the Hebrides, conquered all Scotland north of the Grampians. |
Hence ˈjarldom, the territory governed by a jarl; ˈjarless, the wife of a jarl; ˈjarlship, the office or function of a jarl.
| 1820 Turner Anglo-Sax. (ed. 3) I. iv. iii. 480 Among their little kingdoms and jarlldoms. 1847 I. A. Blackwell in Percy's Transl. Mallet's North. Antiq. 141 note, We are not told whether Sigurd's fair Countess or Jarless accompanied him. 1861 J. A. H. Murray Week in Orkney 11 Ridding them of the piratical Vikings, and bestowing the jarlship of them upon Sigurd brother to Rognvald. Ibid. 28 When Rolf the Ganger, the third successor to the Jarldom, found Orkney too narrow a sphere. |
▪ II. † jarl, v. Obs. rare.
Also iarle.
[app. a derivative of jar v.1]
intr. To quarrel, fall out.
| 1580 Sidney Lett. R. Sidney 18 Oct. in A. Collins Sidney Collect. Lett. (1746) I. 285 The odd 30l. shall come with the Hundred, or els my Father and I will iarle. a 1586 ― Arcadia ii. (1622) 224 What if Lælaps a better morsell find Then you earst knew? rather take part with him Then iarle. |