Hallingdal ( en, Halling Valley) is a
valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...
as well as a
traditional district located in the traditional and electoral district
Buskerud
Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...
in
Viken county
Viken may refer to:
*Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region
*Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020
*Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden
*Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...
in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
. It consists of six municipalities:
Flå
Flå is a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Flå. The municipality of Flå was established when it was separated from the municipality of Nes on 1 January 1905. The municipal ...
,
Nes
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
,
Gol,
Hemsedal
Hemsedal is a municipality in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hallingdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Trøym. Hemsedal lies on the Norwegian National Road 52 (Rv 52). Hemseda ...
,
Ål and
Hol.
Hallingdal is one of the major valleys of eastern Norway, on an area of 5,830 square kilometers. Hallingdal lies in the northern part of the county of Buskerud. The valley stretches from
Gulsvik
Gulsvik is a village in the municipality of Flå in Buskerud, Norway. It is located in Hallingdal at the north end of Lake Krøderen.
The center of the village lies at Gulsvik Rail Station. Bergensbanen railway terminated at Gulsvik Station fr ...
by
Lake Krøderen to the border with
Hordaland
Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Munici ...
and
Sogn og Fjordane
Sogn og Fjordane (; English: "Sogn and Fjordane") was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the cou ...
. Central to the geography is relatively flat mountain area which lies above sea level. The valley is V-shaped and is drained by the Hallingdal River which originates in the western parts of
Hardangervidda
Hardangervidda ( en, Hardanger Plateau) is a mountain plateau (Norwegian: ''vidde'') in central southern Norway, covering parts of Vestland, Vestfold og Telemark, and Viken counties. It is the largest plateau of its kind in Europe, with a cold ye ...
and flows eastwards later southwards through Hallingdal.
Etymology
The
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
form of the name was ''Haddingjadalr''. The first recorded case beginning with ''Hall-'' is from 1443. The first element seems to be the genitive case of the name of the people ''
Haddingjar'' or of the male name ''Haddingi''. In
Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey") is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes ...
, a man named ''Haddingr'' is mentioned as the king of Hallingdal. Compare with the first element in ''Gudbrandsdalen'' '
Gudbrand Valley'. In both cases the name is probably derived from the word ''haddr'', meaning 'woman's hair' and the name can consequently be interpreted as meaning 'the long haired ones'. The last element is ''dalr'' which means 'valley, dale'.
History
From early on, Hallingdal prospered from trading with
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...
, produced from local marshlands, and developed trading routes throughout the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
. In later centuries, Hallingdal farmers traded cattle over the mountains from west to east. As the soil in the valley could be barren, trading was necessary. Ancient routes went to
western Norway
Western Norway ( nb, Vestlandet, Vest-Norge; nn, Vest-Noreg) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrativ ...
(''Vestlandet'') through
Valdres
Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre Sl ...
and Hallingdal and down
Røldal
Røldal is a village in the municipality of Ullensvang in Vestland county, Norway. The village lies in the Røldal valley along the Storelva river on the north end of the lake Røldalsvatnet. Røldal is located about southeast of the town of ...
to
Odda. Reflecting this route, Hallingdal and its neighboring valley of Valdres were originally populated by migrants from Vestlandet and spoke a western
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
. The actual migration routes are hard to map, and the migrants may have intermixed with local hunters from the mountains around the valley. In recognition of this, Cardinal
Nicholas Breakespear, (later Pope Adrian IV) who was in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
as
papal legate in 1153, included these two valleys in the
Diocese of Stavanger.
Administration
The municipalities within Hallingdal include
Flå
Flå is a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Flå. The municipality of Flå was established when it was separated from the municipality of Nes on 1 January 1905. The municipal ...
,
Nes
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
,
Gol,
Hemsedal
Hemsedal is a municipality in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hallingdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Trøym. Hemsedal lies on the Norwegian National Road 52 (Rv 52). Hemseda ...
,
Ål and
Hol which cooperate through the Hallingdal Regional Council (''Regionrådet for Hallingdal''). The area is within the jurisdiction area of the Hallingdal District Court (''Hallingdal tingrett'').
Local culture
Art
Hallingdal has developed its own style of
rosemaling
Rose-painting, , or is a Scandinavian decorative folk painting that flourished from the 1700s to the mid-19th century, particularly in Norway. In Sweden, rose-painting began to be called , c. 1901, for the region where it had been most popular ...
with a distinct symmetric style, different from those of
Telemark
Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...
and
Valdres
Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre Sl ...
. The valley also fostered a number of known painters during the 18th and 19th century. The parents of Norwegian romanticist painter
Hans Gude
Hans Fredrik Gude (March 13, 1825August 17, 1903) was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters. He has been called a mainstay of Norwegian National Roma ...
lived in Hallingdal until 1852, and Gude painted many of his works there.
Music
The music of Hallingdal is traditionally dominated by the
hardanger fiddle
A Hardanger fiddle ( no, hardingfele) is a traditional stringed instrument considered to be the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than ...
, which was taken into use from c. 1750. The dance tunes of the valley have a distinct pattern, following three different lines of tradition, one in the south, at
Nes
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
, and two in the area of
Ål. The tunes from Ål are recognized by a distinct rolling on the fiddle-bow, and the tunes are fairly old.
From early on, Hallingdal also developed a tradition for
langeleik
The ''langeleik'', also called langleik, is a Norwegian stringed folklore musical instrument, a droned zither.
Description
The langeleik has only one melody string and up to 8 drone strings. Under the melody string there are seven frets per o ...
, partly replaced by the fiddle. The folk music tradition is held alive even today in the valley. After the opening of the
Bergen Line
The Bergen Line or the Bergen Railway ( no, Bergensbanen or nn, Bergensbana), is a long scenic standard gauge railway line between Bergen and Hønefoss, Norway. The name is often applied for the entire route from Bergen via Drammen to Osl ...
Railway between Oslo and Bergen, the
accordion came into more frequent use. Many fiddle tunes were adapted to the new instrument – usually a diatonic button accordion. Hallingdal is the most common area where the old fiddle music were adapted like this in local tradition.
The
Halling is the name of an old folk dance that is traditionally used in Norway. Each dancer is alone, in contrast to the more common couple's dances. The climax of the dance is known as thrown Halling, where the goal is to kick down a hat from a stick. The dance is often called ''Lausdans'' meaning "loose dance" in Hallingdal and Valdres, but is known as the Halling in most other valleys.
Dialect
The
Halling dialect is the distinctive regional dialect of Hallingdal. It has many features in common with
Valdresmålet, the regional dialect common to neighboring
Valdres
Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre Sl ...
. Differences exist within the dialect, generally between the lower and upper parts of the valley. Here, as elsewhere, regional dialects are under strong pressure to change due to outside forces such as mass media and increased mobility in society.
See also
*
Hallingdalselva
*
Hallingdal Museum Hallingdal Museum Nesbyen (formerly Hallingdal Folkemuseum) is an open-air museum at Nesbyen within Nes in Viken county, Norway.
Hallingdal Folk Museum was founded in 1899. It is one of the oldest open-air museums in Norway. The museum has 30 h ...
*
Hallingmål-Valdris
References
External links
{{Wikivoyage
Hallingdal Regional Council websiteRosemaling in the Hallingdal Style
Districts of Viken
Valleys of Viken
Old roads of Norway