Herefoss is a village in

Birkenes Birkenes is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Birkeland, where about half the municipal population lives. Other villag ...

municipality in

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("sou ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a 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 Jan Mayen and t ...

. The village is located on the northeastern end of the Herefossfjorden which is a large lake on the river

Tovdalselva Tovdalselva (also known as the ''Tofdalselva'', ''Tovdalsåna'', ''Tovdalsåni'', literally: the ''Tov valley river'') is long and is one of the longest rivers in Southern Norway. The river flows through Agder county from the mountains on the nor ...

. The Norwegian National Road 41 runs through the village connecting it to Søre Herefoss, about to the south, and to

Hynnekleiv Hynnekleiv is a village in Froland municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located at the junction of the Norwegian National Road 41 and the Norwegian County Road 42. The Sørlandsbanen railway line runs through the village as well, ...

in Froland, about to the north. The lake Uldalsåna lies about to the northwest. Herefoss used to have a train station along the Sørlandsbanen railway line. It was opened on 22 June 1938, but the use was discontinued in 1989. The station building is still standing. The village was the

administrative centre An administrative center 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 administrative language (such as Belgium, L ...

of the old municipality of Herefoss which existed from 1838 to 1967 when it was merged into

. Herefoss Church is located in the village.

Name

The first documented occurrence of the name ''Hegrafoss'' stems from 1487, and the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is 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 of Scandinavia and t ...

form of the name must then have been ''Hegrafors''. The first element is 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 can ...

of the bird name ''hegri'' (

grey heron The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern ...

) (same as the local river name, Hegra), and the last element is ''fors'' which means "

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

". Later, it was spelled ''Heirefos'' and ultimately ''Herefoss''.

History

Herefoss was historically the seat of public officials in this region. The ''fogd'' resided here from 1680 to 1820, and the ''sorenskriver'' (district judge) also lived here from 1724 to 1852. Herefoss was established as a

prestegjeld A ''prestegjeld'' was a geographic and administrative area within the Church of Norway (''Den Norske Kirke'') roughly equivalent to a parish. This traditional designation was in use for centuries to divide the kingdom into ecclesiastical areas that ...

in 1875. Herefoss Church was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

Jacob von der Lippe in 1865.

Notable residents

* Øyvind Bjorvatn, a local

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Nils Pedersen Igland Nils Pedersen Igland (1833–1898) was a Norwegian farmer and politician for the Conservative Party. He was born in Herefoss municipality. In 1856 he married Åse Terjesdatter Helleland, and the couple had three children. His wife dying in 1869, h ...

, a local politician

References

External links

* {{use dmy dates, date=November 2020 Villages in Agder Birkenes