Jostedalen is a river valley in

Luster Municipality Luster is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative centre is the village of Gaupne. Other villages in Luster include Fortun, Hafslo, Indre ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

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 long valley runs from the

Lustrafjorden The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden (, ), nicknamed the King of the Fjords (), is the list of Norwegian fjords, longest and deepest fjord in Norway. Located in Vestland county in Western Norway, it stretches inland from the ocean to the small village ...

at the village of

Gaupne Gaupne is the administrative center of the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located along the Gaupnefjorden, an arm of the Lustrafjorden, about north of the village of Hafslo. The village of Veitastrond is lo ...

, to the north along the river

Jostedøla Jostedøla (or ''Jostedalselva'') is a river which runs through the Jostedalen valley in Luster Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The Jostedøla river begins near the ''Fåbergstølen'' mountain farm where the runoff from the great Josted ...

and along the eastern side of the

Jostedal Glacier Jostedal Glacier or is the largest glacier in continental Europe. It is in Vestland county in Western Norway. Jostedalsbreen lies in the municipalities of Luster, Sogndal, Sunnfjord, and Stryn. The highest peak in the area is Lodalskåpa at a ...

. The valley is deep, but the valley floor lies over long stretches of flat river plains interrupted by steep steps. In the north, the landscape gets pretty wild. The

Jostedalsbreen National Park Jostedalsbreen National Park () is a national park in Norway that encompasses the largest glacier on the European mainland, Jostedalsbreen. The park was established by royal decree on 25 October 1991, and then in 1998, it was enlarged to the nort ...

surrounds the valley, which brings a lot of

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

to the area. The Nigardsbreen glacier is also accessible from the valley. Historically, most of the valley was part of the old municipality of Jostedal from 1838 until its dissolution in 1963 when it was merged into

Name

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 was probably . The first element is then the genitive of ''Jastra'' (the old name of the river

) and the last element is ''dalr'' 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 river name is probably derived from ''jǫstr'' which means "

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

". The water in the river comes from glaciers, and in summer time the river gets "frothy" or "foamy" due to all of the melting ice and the many waterfalls.

Transportation

The route through Jostedal, Norwegian highway 604, brings one directly to the foot of Nigardsbreen, a tongue of Jostedalsbreen glacier and the museum Breheimsenteret. There is also a bus connection to the glacier in summer. The road through Jostedalen offers some of the most magnificent views of the Norwegian

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 ...

landscape with towering mountains and spectacular

waterfall A waterfall is any 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 seve ...

s. At the end of the road is the breath-taking sight of the blue ice at the mouth of the Nigardsbreen glacial tongue.

Geography

The Jostedalen valley empties into the Gaupnefjord at the village of

. The Gaupnefjord is an arm of the

, which is an arm of the famous

Sognefjord The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden (, ), nicknamed the King of the Fjords (), is the list of Norwegian fjords, longest and deepest fjord in Norway. Located in Vestland county in Western Norway, it stretches inland from the ocean to the small village ...

, the second largest fjord in the world. There are three major glacial lakes in the area: Tunsbergdalsvatn, Nigardsbrevatn, and Styggevatn (''vatn'' is Norwegian for lake). Other lakes in Jostdedal include Austdalsvatnet and Styggevatnet. The river

runs through the valley up to its

headwater The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

s at the

Jostedalsbreen Jostedal Glacier or is the largest glacier in continental Europe. It is in Vestland county in Western Norway. Jostedalsbreen lies in the municipalities of Luster, Sogndal, Sunnfjord, and Stryn. The highest peak in the area is Lodalskåpa a ...

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

, a plateau glacier which is the

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an mainland's largest with an area of .

and

Breheimen National Park Breheimen National Park () () is a national park that was established in 2009. The park is located in Skjåk Municipality and Lom Municipality in Innlandet county and in Luster Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The park covers of the B ...

are located on either side of the Jostedalen valley.

Farms of Jostedalen

Historically, and still occurring in present times, when owners of farms are no longer young enough to operate the farm, the title is either passed down to a younger family member or sold to a neighbour. Traditionally, the new operators of the farm assume the farm name as their new surname, and are often burdened with caring for the previous owners as part of the sale or transfer of title. Most of the farms near the village of Jostedal have been in operation for centuries:

References

External links

* *https://web.archive.org/web/20080706032251/http://www.jostedal.com/ {{Authority control Luster, Norway Valleys of Vestland