Karl

Origin

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Full definition of karl

Noun

1. (historical) A medieval Scandinavian freeman.
• a. 1936, Ian B Stoughton Holbourn, The Isle of Foula: A Series of Articles on Britain’s Loneliest Inhabited Isle Chapter Udal Property and the Kings of Foula, Whatever its object the runrig system was not udal tenure, and therefore it appears to me to show a settlement of the unfree. Whether these were the karls or the thralls is the only problem, and I incline to think that there is little room for doubt that these were the karls. The thrall may have had a scrap of ground and kept pigs, but there is no evidence that he had agricultural land. In short the modern cottar is the descendent of the thrall and the crofter of the karl.
• 1993, Philippa Wingate; Anne Millard, The Viking World Chapter Viking society and government, The largest group in Viking society were the karls, who were free men and women. Many karls owned their own farmsteads; others rented land from rich landowners.
• 2016, Louise Spilsbury, The Vikings: Dig Up the Secrets of the Dead Chapter Powerful Kings and Suffering Slaves, There were three kinds of Viking: thralls, karls and jarls. Thralls were the slaves. They were owned by karls and jarls. They did most of the hard work and the worst, dirtiest jobs. The karls were ordinary folk like farmers, craftsmen, blacksmiths and hunters.