Was a Jarl ever equivalent to a king?

Factual Questions
1

Was there ever a time or place where a was Jarl equivalent to a king? I’ve read jarl equated to a king, called a stand in for a king or just the equivalent of a duke or earl in second place to a king.

2

Jarl was a Norwegian noble title in a time when the formalism of feudalism in Norway was only just developing. Most of the time they ruled parts of the kingdom under a king and the list of Norwegian rulers distinguish between de jure rulers, who were kings, and de facto rulers, who stayed jarls. But that’s only post unification. Pre-unification the jarls were nobles with no one over them, equivalent more to a petty king or chieftain.

3

Isn’t Jarl equivalent to Earl (the title) in English?

4

Sorta. The words have the same (hazy) origin in proto-Germanic, but was pronounced eorl in Anglo-Saxon Britain, seems to have arrived first with the Jutes in Kent and had a slightly different meaning as a more general term for noblemen. Jarl was introduced by Canute much later and eventually replaced ealdorman which had been centuries had designated an appointed high rank below a king, eventually with magisterial and defensive authority over one or more (usually more) shires. The title ealdorman slowly disappeared and jarl merged/morphed with it and the native eorl to become earl, which pre-Norman Conquest was translated in Latin as dux, i.e. “duke” and was essentially identical to the old ealdorman. Post-Conquest it was downgraded to comes or “count” with rather less scope or authority than it had held under the Danes or Saxons.

5

Thanks. I should have known it was more complicated than that.

6

Thanks Naita. Was the word ‘konge’ on the same level as 'petty chieftain/jarl?

7

Konge is literally “king”, but before unification there is likely to have been some local rulers that used that title and were at the same level as the autonomous jarls. It’s uncertain though, because what we know of that era is strongly polluted by hagiography for the early kings of all of Norway.

8

Damn, I played Skyrim and that whole time I thought Jarl was some made up fantasy title for the game. Oops.