Goksjø is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

on the border of

Larvik Municipality Larvik () is a municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. Other main population centres in the municipality include the ...

and

Sandefjord Municipality Sandefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sandefjord ...

Vestfold Vestfold () is a county and a current electoral district in Norway. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it borders Buskerud and Telemark counties. The county administration is located in Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, and the larg ...

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 lake is located about to the northwest of the town of Sandefjord and about to the south of the village of

Kodal Kodal is a village in Sandefjord Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The village is located about to the north of the city of Sandefjord and about to the south of the village of Andebu. The village has a population (2022) of 1,059 an ...

. The lake Goksjø measures from north to south and it has a circumference of about . At its deepest, Goksjø is no deeper than . Goksjø sits at an elevation of above sea level. It is the largest lake in Sandefjord, and the third-largest in Vestfold County. The lake is surrounded by rural agricultural lands, and flooding occurs on a regular basis. The lake is used for ice-skating, canoeing, swimming, fishing, and other recreational activities. Fish species found here include

Northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

European perch The European perch (''Perca fluviatilis''), also known as the common perch, redfin perch, big-scaled redfin, English perch, Euro perch, Eurasian perch, Eurasian river perch, Hatch, poor man's rockfish or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the ...

, Ide,

Common dace The common dace (''Leuciscus leuciscus'') is a species of freshwater and brackish water ray-finned fish from the family Leuciscidae which is native to Europe but which has been introduced to other parts of the world. It is a quarry species for co ...

European eel The European eel (''Anguilla anguilla'') is a species of eel. Their life history was a mystery for thousands of years, and mating in the wild has not yet been observed. The five stages of their development were originally thought to be differe ...

Salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

and

Brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

. The rivers Storelv and Skorgeelva (the two most important inlets) both flow into the northern part of the lake. The river Hagneselva is the only outlet on the lake and it is located on the northwestern part of the lake. The river flows out of the lake and later joins the lake Åsrumvannet and then it eventually flows into the river

Numedalslågen Numedalslågen is a river in Norway. It is considered to be the second longest river in Southern Norway. It is located in the Numedal valley which runs through the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud and Vestland. At long, it is of the longest rivers ...

. The lake's most important inlet is the river Storelv, which flows from the lake Askimvannet in

Andebu Andebu is a former municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution on 1 January 2017. The area is now part of Sandefjord Municipality. The administrative centre was the village of Andebu. Othe ...

Name

The lake name comes from 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 ...

name . The first element is derived from the old male name which may have been corrupted to ''Gok'' over the centuries. The last element is which means "

sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

" or "lake".

Name

See also

References

Further reading