Frøya is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Frøya Municipality Frøya is the westernmost List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Fosen Districts of Norway, region and consists of the Frøya (island), island of Frøya, which lies nor ...

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The island makes up about 63% of the land area of Frøya Municipality. The island lies in a large

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

of islands in the Frøyhavet sea, just northwest of the entrance to the

Trondheimsfjorden The Trondheim Fjord or Trondheimsfjorden (), an inlet of the Norwegian Sea, is Norway's List of Norwegian fjords, third-longest fjord at long. It is located in the west-central part of the country in Trøndelag county, and it stretches from Ørl ...

. The

Frøyfjorden Frøyfjorden is a strait between the islands of Frøya and Hitra in Trøndelag county, Norway. The long strait is rather shallow, only about at its deepest. The Frøya Tunnel goes beneath the fjord from Hammarvika in Frøya Municipality to th ...

lies to the south of the island and separates it from the large island of

Hitra Hitra may refer to: Places * Hitra Municipality, a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Hitra (island), an island within Hitra Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Hitra Church, a church in Hitra Municipality in Trøndelag county, Nor ...

. The island is rocky with heather-covered

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of Habitat (ecology), habitat found in upland (geology), upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and the biomes of montane grasslands and shrublands, characterised by low-growing vegetation on So ...

as well as marshes and lakes. There are no naturally forested areas on the island. The highest point on the island is Besselvassheia, at above sea level. The southern and eastern coasts are relatively smooth, but the northern coast is very jagged with many

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

s and coves. Sletringen Lighthouse lies at the southwestern tip of the island. The island is connected via the

Frøya Tunnel The Frøya Tunnel () is an undersea tunnel connecting Frøya Municipality and Hitra Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The tunnel, on county road 714, is located about south of the village of Sistranda on the island of Frøya (island), F ...

to the neighboring island of Hitra. The island of Hitra is then connected to the mainland by the Hitra Tunnel.

Name

The name of the island (and municipality) comes from

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

. Although ''Frøya'' is a variant of the name of the Norse goddess

Freyja In Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a char ...

, the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

form of the name of the island was ''Frøy'' or ''Frey'' (the ending ''-a'' in the modern form is actually the feminine definite article – so the meaning of ''Frøya'' is 'the Frøy'). Therefore, the name of the island probably has the same root as the name of the Norse god

Freyr Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested Æsir, god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, prosperity, fair weather, and good harvest. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was ...

, brother to Freyja. The names originally were titles: "

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

" or "

lady ''Lady'' is a term for a woman who behaves in a polite way. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the female counterpart of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. "Lady" is al ...

". The oldest meaning of the common word was "(the one) in front; the foremost, the leading" and here in the sense "the island in front of

". Until 1906 the island and municipality name was spelled ''Frøien'' (''-en'' is the masculine definite article in Norwegian).

Media gallery

Flatval, Frøya - panoramio.jpg, Flatval Gammelhuset på Frøya - panoramio.jpg, House on Frøya Fylkesveg 451 i Soer-Troendelag.jpg, Road on Frøya Husvika - panoramio.jpg, Husvika Sistranda, Frøya, Norway.jpg, Sistranda Frøya, Nórsko, apríl 2016 - panoramio (7).jpg, Plantlife on Frøya Two of everything.jpg, Houses in Titran Titran in the evening.jpg, View of Titran

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Froya (island) Islands of Trøndelag Frøya, Trøndelag

Name

Media gallery

See also

References