Romsdal is a
traditional district in the Norwegian county
Møre og Romsdal
Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is t ...
, located between
Nordmøre and
Sunnmøre. The district of Romsdal comprises
Aukra,
Fræna,
Midsund,
Molde
Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord.
The administrative centre of t ...
,
Nesset,
Rauma,
Sandøy, and
Vestnes. It is named after the valley of
Romsdalen, which covers part of Rauma.
The largest town is
Molde
Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord.
The administrative centre of t ...
, which is also the seat of
Møre og Romsdal County Municipality
Møre og Romsdal County Municipality ( no, Møre og Romsdal fylkeskommune) is the democratically elected regional governing administration of Møre og Romsdal county in western Norway. The main responsibilities of the county municipality include ...
.
Åndalsnes is a town located near the mouth of the river
Rauma in the
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...
of
Rauma. The
Rauma Line comes from
Dombås and terminates at Åndalsnes.
Naming
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 settlement ...
form of the name was ''Raumsdalr''. The first element is the genitive case of a name ''*Raumr'', probably the old (uncompounded) name of
Romsdal Fjord
Romsdalsfjord or Romsdal Fjord ( no, Romsdalsfjorden) is the ninth-longest fjord in Norway. It is long and located in the Romsdal district of Møre og Romsdal county. It flows through the municipalities of Molde, Ålesund, Vestnes, and Rauma. T ...
, again derived from the name of the river
Rauma, i.e. "The Dale of Rauma". The name ''Rauma'' is itself a mystery, but a tantalizing clue may be found in the works of the
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
historian
Jordanes
Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history ('' Romana'') an ...
. He mentions a tribe called "Raumii", which might be the origin of both the landscape
Romerike (o.no ''raumariki'') and the river Rauma.
The Norwegian comedy group KLM (named after the surnames of the three comedians
Trond Kirkvaag,
Knut Lystad and
Lars Mjøen), in thei
feuilletonseries ''
Brødrene Dal'' (''The Brothers Dale'' – as in ‘valley’), named their three protagonists after the valleys
Gausdal
Gausdal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Segalstad bru. Other villages in Gausdal include Follebu, Forse ...
, Romsdal and
Brumunddal
Brumunddal is a town in Ringsaker Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of the municipality. It is located on the shores of the lake Mjøsa, about north of the town of Hamar. The town is a small, densely ...
.
Geography
The valley of Romsdalen, through which the
Rauma river passes to the
Romsdalfjord
Romsdalsfjord or Romsdal Fjord ( no, Romsdalsfjorden) is the ninth-longest fjord in Norway. It is long and located in the Romsdal district of Møre og Romsdal county. It flows through the municipalities of Molde, Ålesund, Vestnes, and Rauma ...
. It is surrounded by the
Romsdalsalpene mountain range. The 1,550 meter tall
Romsdalhorn has been compared to the
Matterhorn
The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...
.
Trolltindane peaks stands opposite across the Rauma. The North Face of
Trollryggen peak (1,740 m),
Trollveggen (
Troll Wall
The or is part of the mountain massif Trolltindene (Troll Peaks) in the Romsdalen valley in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located to the south of the towns of Åndalsnes and Molde inside the Reinheimen National ...
), is the tallest vertical
cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...
in Europe. Norway's most famous hair-pin road is
Trollstigen, or "Troll's Trail", which leads to the south out of
Åndalsnes to the
Geirangerfjord.
The Rauma river originates in
Lesjaskogsvatnet, a lake with outlets at both ends, in the adjacent mountain municipality of
Lesja. A dam was constructed by the
Lesja Iron Works
Lesjaverk is a village in Lesja Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It lies in the upper Gudbrandsdal valley approximately northwest of Dombås and about east of the village of Lesjaskog. The village lies along the European route E136 h ...
in the 1660s to improve transportation obstructed the Rauma and caused the water to flow both west to the Rauma and eastward into the river
Lågen.
History
Legendary history
According to legend, Romsdal is an
eponym
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
after
Raum the Old, son of the equally eponymous
Nór
Nór (Old Norse Nórr) is according to the Orkneyinga Saga the eponymous founder of Norway.
Icelandic accounts
Source material
Nór of Norway appear in “Fundinn Nóregr” (‘Norway Founded’), hereafter called F, which begins the '' Orkne ...
who appears in ''
Hversu Noregr byggðist
''Hversu Noregr byggðist'' ( non, How Norway was inhabited) is an account of the origin of various legendary Norwegian lineages, which survives only in the ''Flateyjarbók''. It traces the descendants of the primeval Fornjót, a king of ''"Gotla ...
'' as the legendary founder of Norway. Jøtunbjørn the Old was the son of Raum the Old and Bergdis, a giant's daughter. He inherited Raumsdal (modern: Romsdal) from his father, and was himself the father of King Raum, who was the father of Hrossbjörn, who was the father of Orm Broken-shell, who was the father of Knatti, who had two sons: Thórolf and Ketill Raum (in one version, Thórolf and Ketill Raum are sons of Orm). According to legend, among Thórolf's descendants came some of the first settlers of
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
.
The
Laxdæla saga says that Raumsdal was the home of
Ketill Flatnose, a descendant of Ketill Raum. In the 850s, Ketil was a prominent chieftain. He conquered the
Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...
and the
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = " O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europ ...
. Some sources refer to him as "King of the Sudreys" (Hebrides), but there is little evidence that he himself claimed that title. Harald Fairhair appointed him the ruler of these islands, but he failed to pay tribute to the Norwegian king and was outlawed. He and his family left Norway and fled westwards across the sea, to
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, then
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
, where he married off his daughter,
Aud the Deep-Minded
The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Island ...
, to
Olaf the White,
king of Dublin. Aud went eventually to Iceland where she began that country's shift to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
.
9th century
Before
Harald Fairhair
Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagre Modern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first King of No ...
, Romsdal was a
petty kingdom
A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into ...
.
Ragnvald Eysteinsson (''Ragnvald Mørejarl'') was
jarl
Jarl is a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. ''Jarl'' could also mean a sovereign prince. For example, the rulers of several of the pet ...
of Møre, which was roughly equivalent to today's
Møre og Romsdal
Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is t ...
. He died at the
Orkney Islands
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) no ...
. He was son of King Eystein "Glumra (the Noisy)" Ivarsson of
Oppland
Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The c ...
, and a contemporary of Harald Fairhair who he supported in the unification process and from whom he received his
fiefdom. He is likely to have resided on or nearby the important township of
Veøya
Veøya (or Veøy) is an island in Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located at a junction of the three main branches of Romsdal Fjord between the island of Sekken and the mainland near the village of Nesjestranda. T ...
, Romsdal's
Viking Era
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the ...
hub for commerce and communication. The legend says Ragnvald was the one to cut the hair of Harald Fairhair after he became king over all of Norway.
Ragnvald Eysteinsson was the father of several sons. With Ragnhild Rolfsdatter, he had the sons: Tore (''Thorir Ragnvaldsson'') who inherited the earldom after his father's death and Hrolf Ganger (''Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson''). Although historians are quite divided its accuracy in this regard, the ''
Orkneyinga saga'' claims Hrolf Ganger is identical to
Rollo of Normandy ancestor of
William I of England
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
.
Turf-Einar (''Einarr Ragnvaldsson''), a son by a concubine, was an ancestor of the
Norse Earls of Orkney.
12th century
In 1122, while staying as a guest at the village of
Hustad in Romsdal, King
Eystein I was taken ill and died. His body was taken in impressive funeral procession to burial at
Nidaros
Nidaros, Niðarós or Niðaróss () was the medieval name of Trondheim when it was the capital of Norway's first Christian kings. It was named for its position at the mouth (Old Norse: ''óss'') of the River Nid (the present-day Nidelva).
Althou ...
.
At
Veøy
Veøy is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. It initially consisted of all of the present-day Vestnes Municipality, as well as the southern part of Molde Mun ...
, an island in the middle of the Romsdalfjord, there had been in time immemorial a religious site. At the close of the 12th century, Veøy gamle kirke, a church dedicated to
St. Peter
) (Simeon, Simon)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire
, death_date = Between AD 64–68
, death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire
, parents = John (or Jonah; Jona)
, occupation ...
, was constructed over an ancient site of pagan worship.
17th century
During the 1600s, Romsdal market (''Romsdalsmarkedet'') was opened as a trading center at Devold on the Rauma river upstream from
Åndalsnes. This was an important outlet for the ironworks at
Lesja, providing an outlet for their products as well as a source of supplies. Molde later inherited the role as the principal market town for the region.
A
Scottish mercenary force landed in Romsdal at
Isfjorden on its way to Sweden. The incursion was stopped at the
Battle of Kringen
Battle of Kringen ( no, Slaget ved Kringen) involved an ambush by Norwegian peasant militia of Scottish mercenary soldiers who were on their way to enlist in the Swedish army for the Kalmar War.
The battle has since become a part of folklore ...
.
In the 1658
Treaty of Roskilde
The Treaty of Roskilde (concluded on 26 February ( OS), or 8 March 1658) ( NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish city of Roskilde. After a devastating defeat ...
, the
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, an ...
region of Norway was ceded to Sweden, down to the north bank of the Romsdalfjord. The Romsdal farmers defied the Swedish taxes and military conscription, and the Swedish governor was forced to send a full company of soldiers, and 50 cavalry besides, to collect taxes. Following the attack on
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...
and the city's successful defence, and the reconquest by Norwegian forces of
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, an ...
, the
Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660 restored that province to Norway. The few months of experience with Swedish taxation and conscription left such a bitter taste that it strengthened Norwegian unity and patriotism, making resistance to Swedish invasions of Norway stronger over the next 80 years.
20th century
After the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
German Military
invasion of 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 th ...
in April 1940,
British troops landed in Åndalsnes as a part of a pincer movement to retake the key mid-Norwegian city of
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, an ...
.
[David Brown (2013) ''Naval Operations of the Campaign in Norway, April–June 1940'' (London: Routledge) ]
See also
*
Nordmøre
*
Sunnmøre
References
Related Reading
*Welle-Strand, Erling (1996) ''Adventure Roads in Norway'' (Nortrabooks)
*
Stagg, Frank Noel (1954) ''West Norway and its Fjords'' (George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.)
*
Stagg, Frank Noel (1953) ''The Heart of Norway'' (George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.)
{{coord, 62, 40, N, 7, 50, E, region:NO_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title
Districts of Møre og Romsdal
Petty kingdoms of Norway