Gjerdrum () is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 ...

. It is part of the

traditional region A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

Romerike Romerike is a Districts of Norway, traditional district located north-east of Oslo, in what is today south-eastern Norway. It consists of the Akershus municipalities Lillestrøm, Lørenskog, Nittedal, Rælingen and Aurskog-Høland in the southern ...

. Gjerdrum borders the municipalities of

Nannestad Nannestad is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Teigebyen. History Nannestad was established as a municipality on 1 Janua ...

Nittedal Nittedal is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and city in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of ...

, and

Ullensaker Ullensaker is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Jessheim. I ...

, and

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Akershus county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger ...

. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ask.

Name and coat of arms

The municipality (originally the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

) is named after the old Gjerdrum farm ( Norse ''Gerðarvin''). The first element is the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

of a river name ''Gerð'' and the last element is ''vin'' '

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

'. The river name is derived from the Norse word ''garðr'' meaning '

fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or net (textile), netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its ...

' and so the meaning is 'the river whose function is a fence (or as a border)'. The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is from modern times. They were granted in 1993. The arms show a traditional Norwegian form of

roundpole fence The roundpole fence is a wooden fence typical to the countryside in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia (, ', or '; ; , ', or '; or '). It is normally made from unbarked and unsplit youngish trees, mostly spruce or Juniperus communis, juniper. ...

. The arms are also

canting ' (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: , Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, VOS Spelling: , ) is a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax () in the batik-making process in Indonesia, more precisely (). Traditional consists of copper wax-con ...

because the name of the municipality refers to a fence.

History

Gjerdrum was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () was the name of a Norwegian self-governing municipality. The name was used from the establishment these municipalities in 1838 until the name fell out of use in 1863. The municipalities had their legal basis from two laws enacted on 14 Jan ...

Store norske leksikon The ''Great Norwegian Encyclopedia'' (, abbreviated ''SNL'') is a Norwegian-language online encyclopedia. It has several subdivisions, including the Norsk biografisk leksikon. The online encyclopedia is among the most-read Norwegian publishe ...

says that artefacts indicate that humans have lived in Gjerdrum since

ancient times Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

; furthermore the names of places also indicate the same.

2020 landslide

On 30 December 2020 a

quick clay Quick clay, also known as Leda clay and Champlain Sea clay in Canada, is any of several distinctively sensitive glaciomarine clays found in Canada, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the United States, and other locations around the world. The cla ...

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

occurred in the village of Ask within Gjerdum municipality. 10 people died. The slide measured , injured 10 people (including one seriously), left 10 unaccounted for and led to 1,000 being evacuated from the village, with several homes having been destroyed in the slide.

Geography

Gjerdrum lies on the southwestern part of the Romerike Plain (''Romerikssletta''); this eastern part of the municipality lies at a low altitude and is covered by significant layers of clay that was deposited, towards the end of the previous ice age. The quick-clay at Gjerdrum was deposited (in a

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 ...

) around 8,000 or 9,000 years ago, when the sea level was around 200 meters higher.

Demographics

In 2021, 1258 inhabitants were immigrants or Norwegian-born to immigrant parents. 264 inhabitants had Polish parents or were Polish themselves; 173 had Lithuanian parents or were Lithuanian.

Sports

The local sports team is Gjerdrum IL.

People from Gjerdrum

Christian Krohg Christian Krohg (13 August 1852 – 16 October 1925) was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist. Krohg was inspired by the realism art movement and often chose motifs from everyday life. He was the director and s ...

(1777–1828) politician, cabinet member, MP * Olaf Devik (1886 in Gjerdrum – 1987) meteorologist and physicist * Daniel Franck (born 1974) a snowboarder, silver medallist in the men's halfpipe in the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

* Petter Fagerhaug (born 1997 in Gjerdrum) cross-country mountain biker * Kristoffer Skjerping (born 1993) a former road racing cyclist, lives in Gjerdrum * Helene Spilling (born 1996), a professional dancer

Gallery

File:Gjerdrum kirke2.JPG, Gjerdrum kirke File:Gjerdrumungdomsskole.JPG, Gjerdrum ungdomsskole File:Akershus IMG 8670 Kråkfoss.JPG, River Leira by Kråkfoss waterfalls

References

External links

* *
Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All rele ...

*
GIL football
{{Authority control Municipalities of Akershus