Gransherad is a former municipality in

Telemark Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...

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 municipality existed from 1860 until its dissolution in 1964. The area is now part of

Notodden Municipality is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Aust-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Notodden. Other population centres include the villages of Bolkesjø, Gra ...

(in

) and

Kongsberg Municipality Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production and fore ...

(in

Buskerud Buskerud () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Innlandet, Vestland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardanger ...

). The

administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

was the village of

Gransherad Gransherad is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1860 until its dissolution in 1964. The area is now part of Notodden Municipality (in Telemark) and Kongsberg ...

where Gransherad Church is located.

History

''Grandsherred'' (later spelled ''Gransherad'') was established as a municipality in 1860 after the parish of Hovin (population: 815) in southeastern

Tinn Municipality Tinn is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional districts of Aust-Telemark and Upper Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Rjukan. Some of the villages in Tinn include Atr� ...

and the parish of Grandsherred (population: 1,310) in western

Hjartdal Municipality Hjartdal is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Upper Telemark and Aust-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sauland. Other villages in the municipality ...

were merged to form the new municipality. On 1 January 1886, the growing municipality was divided based on its "old" borders, with the old parish of Hovin (population: 885) becoming its own municipality. This left the remainder of Gransherad with a population of 1,393 residents in the now-smaller municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee () was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ...

. On 1 January 1964, the upper Jondalen valley area (population: 132) of eastern Gransherad was transferred to the neighboring

(in

county). Also on the same date, Gransherad municipality was dissolved and the following areas were merged to form a new, larger

: *the rest of Gransherad Municipality (population: 1,115) *all of Heddal Municipality (population: 4,844) *the

Rudsgrendi Rudsgrendi or Rugsgrend is a village in Notodden Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The village is located on the western shore of the large lake Tinnsjå, halfway between the village of Gransherad and the town of Rjukan. On the opposite si ...

area of Hovin Municipality (population: 21) *the town of Notodden (population: 7,523)

Name

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 an old name for the area (). The first element of the

genitive case 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 ca ...

of the name , an old name for a local valley and/or farm area. The first part of this is derived from the word which means "

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

" and the last part of this is identical to the word which means "

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing 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 over ...

" or "dale".The last element of the word is which means "rural district". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled ''Gransherred''. In 1867, the spelling was changed to ''Grandsherred''. This was short-lived, however, because in 1888, the spelling was changed back to ''Gransherred''. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to ''Gransherad'', using the

Nynorsk Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

spelling instead of the

Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is one of the official written standards for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most used written form of Norwegian today, as it is adopted by 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. There is no cou ...

spelling.

Government

During its existence, this municipality was governed by a

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, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

was

indirectly elected An indirect election or ''hierarchical voting,'' is an election in which voters do not choose directly among candidates or parties for an office ( direct voting system), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the o ...

by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council

The

of Gransherad was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, 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 oft ...

Notable people

Klaus Egge Klaus Egge (July 19, 1906 – March 7, 1979) was a Norwegian composer and music critic. Background Egge was born in Gransherad, Telemark, Norway. He was the son of Rasmus Klausen Egge (1874-1962) and Rakel Abrahamsdatter Iversen (1877-1986). He ...

, a composer who was born in Gransherad

References