Norddal is a former municipality in

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 ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, 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 ...

. It merged with

Stordal Stordal is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It merged with Norddal municipality to establish the new Fjord municipality in 2020. It was part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre of the municipality wa ...

municipality to establish the new

Fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icel ...

municipality in 2020. It covered the easternmost part of the Sunnmøre

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

along the border with Oppland county. The municipal center of the municipality was the village of Sylte (also known as '' Valldal'') in the Valldalen valley. Norddal covered an area with several distinct

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 ...

s and villages: Eidsdal and Norddal (Dalsbygda) in the south; Tafjord in the east; and Fjørå/Selboskarbygda and Sylte in the Valldalen valley in the north.

Norwegian County Road 63 Norwegian County Road 63 ( no, Fylkesvei 63 or ) is a Norwegian county road in Møre og Romsdal county and a very small part in Innlandet county, Norway. It begins at Norwegian National Road 15 along the lake Langvatnet in Skjåk Municipality in ...

traverses the municipality from south to north, going through several tunnels in the mountains including the

Stordal Tunnel The Stordal Tunnel ( no, Stordalstunnelen) is a long road tunnel in Fjord Municipality, Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The tunnel is located on Norwegian County Road 650, on the eastern shore of the Storfjorden. The tunnel goes through the ...

. The

Heggur Tunnel The Heggur Tunnel ( no, Heggurtunnelen) is a road tunnel in Fjord Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The long tunnel was built in 1982 to connect the isolated village of Tafjord to the rest of Norway's road network. The village is a ...

connects the isolated village of Tafjord with the rest of the municipality. At the time if its dissolution in 2020, the municipality is the 116th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Norddal is the 345th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,670. The municipality's

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

is and its population has decreased by 5.2% over the last decade.

General information

The

prestegjeld A ''prestegjeld'' was a geographic and administrative area within the Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of ...

of Norddal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 Janu ...

law). Historically, the district of Sunnylven was part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of Norddal, but on 1 January 1838 when Norddal municipality was established, Sunnylven was established as its own municipality, separate from Norddal. The municipal borders have not changed since that time. On 1 January 2020, the neighboring municipalities of Norddal and

were merged into the new

Fjord Municipality Fjord is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnmøre. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of ...

Name

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 just ''Dalr'', identical with the word ''dalr'' which means "valley" or "dale". The first element ''Nord-'' meaning "northern" was added around the year 1600. The parish church is still sometimes called Dale Church. Before 1918, the name was written ''Norddalen''.

Coat of arms

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

was granted on 16 February 1990. The arms show a red twig of a

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

plant on a yellow background. Norddal has a tradition for producing

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

s such as apples, pears, and

berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, ras ...

, notably strawberries.

Churches

The

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church ...

had one parish () within the municipality of Norddal. It is part of the Austre Sunnmøre prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or reside ...

) in the Diocese of Møre.

History

Valldal is mentioned in the historical books of

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

. While escaping the Danish army, Olav Haraldsson, later to become St. Olav, went ashore in Valldalen during the winter 1028/1029. Here, he supposedly came across a troublesome "

sea serpent A sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of dragon sea monster described in various mythologies, most notably Mesopotamian ( Tiamat), Judaeo-Christian (Leviathan), Greek (Cetus, Echidna, Hydra, Scylla), and Norse ( Jörmungandr). Mythology and f ...

" which he tossed onto the mountainside and can today be seen as a lighter rock pattern above the town centre Sylte. On his journey up the valley towards Trollstigen, he received help from the farmers at Grønning to pass a rocky section called Skjærsura. For this help he deemed that the seed crop would never suffer from frost. Also, a natural spring in Valldal is named after St. Olav and is said to have a healing effect. In 2008,
memorial stone
was erected at the farm Døving, about up the valley from the sea, where the first church and cemetery is believed to have been located.

Government

The

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

() of Norddal was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featu ...

breakdown for the final municipal council was as follows:

Geography

The municipality lies around the

Norddalsfjorden Norddalsfjorden is a branch off of the main Storfjorden in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The fjord is located in Fjord Municipality and a small part is also in Stranda Municipality. The fjord is long, when you include the Tafjorden arm that ...

and the

Tafjorden Tafjorden is an inner branch of the Norddalsfjorden/ Storfjorden in Fjord Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site West Norwegian Fjords. The fjord is located southeast of the village of Sylte, ...

which flow west to east. They are the innermost branches off the main Storfjorden.

Stranda Municipality Stranda is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Stranda. Stranda consists of three smaller villages and one larger central vil ...

lies to the west and south, Skjåk Municipality lies to the southeast, Rauma Municipality lies to the east and north, and Stordal Municipality lies to the northwest. The main Valldalen valley runs to the northeast from the fjord. The valleys are surrounded by the Tafjordfjella mountain range. The mountains

Puttegga Puttegga or Pyttegga is the highest mountain in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It lies on the border of Fjord Municipality and Rauma Municipality. It is located just northwest of the mountain Karitinden, inside Reinheimen National Park. The ne ...

Karitinden Karitinden is a mountain in the Tafjordfjella mountain range inside Reinheimen National Park on the border of Innlandet and Møre og Romsdal counties in Norway. The top of the mountain is a tripoint border junction for Skjåk Municipality (in ...

, and Tordsnose sit on the eastern border of the municipality. The mountain Høgstolen lies in the northern part of the municipality. Reinheimen National Park is located partially in the municipality of Norddal.

References

External links

*
Destinasjon Geirangerfjord - Trollstigen
*
Municipal fact sheet
from Statistics Norway {{authority control Fjord (municipality) Former municipalities of Norway 1838 establishments in Norway 2020 disestablishments in Norway Populated places disestablished in 2020