Namdalen () is a traditional district in the central part of

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 ...

, consisting of the municipalities of

Namsos Namsos may refer to: Places *Namsos Municipality, a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway *Namsos (town) Namsos is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the administrative center of Namsos Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. ...

Grong Grong may refer to: Places *Grong Municipality, a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway *Medjå Medjå or Grong is a village which serves as the administrative center of Grong Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located along th ...

Overhalla Overhalla is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ranemsletta (also called ''Overhalla''). Other villages include Melen, Hunn, Skogmo, ...

Røyrvik Røyrvik may refer to: Places *Røyrvik Municipality, a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Røyrvik (village), a village in Røyrvik Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Røyrvik Church, a church in Røyrvik Municipality in Trøndel ...

, Nærøysund,

Høylandet Høylandet (a Norwegian word meaning ''the highlands'') may refer to: Places * Høylandet Municipality, a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Høylandet (village), a village in Høylandet Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Høyland ...

Flatanger Flatanger is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is Lauvsnes. Other villages include Jøssund, Hasvåg, and Vik. The municipality is the 216th largest b ...

Lierne Lierne may refer to: Places *Lierne Municipality, a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Lierne National Park, a national park in Trøndelag county, Norway Other *Lierne (vault) In Gothic architecture, a lierne is a tertiary rib connecti ...

, Leka, and

Namsskogan Namsskogan may refer to: Places *Namsskogan Municipality, a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Namsskogan (village), a village within Namsskogan Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway * Namsskogan Familiepark, a zoo and amusement park i ...

, all in

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

county. The district has three

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Rørvik Rørvik is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and administrative centre in Nærøysund Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is on the eastern side of the Vikna archipelago on the island of Inner-Vikna. The town has a population ...

and

Kolvereid Kolvereid is a town in Nærøysund Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The town of Kolvereid is located at the west end of the Kolvereidvågen bay, off of the inner part of the Foldafjord. The Norwegian County Road 770 runs through the t ...

. The whole district covers about and has about 35,000 residents (2009). The district surrounds the Namdalen valley and the river

Namsen or is one of the longest rivers in Trøndelag county, in the central part of Norway. The long river flows through the municipalities of Røyrvik, Namsskogan, Grong, Overhalla, and Namsos before emptying into the Namsenfjorden. The river is t ...

, one of the best

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 ...

rivers in

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 ...

(only the Tana river in

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

yields a larger catch of salmon).

Agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

have always been important in Namdalen.

Norway spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very clo ...

is the most prevalent tree species. The

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

fields in the lower part of the valley are among the most northern in Norway. Part of the forest in the coastal and lowland part of the valley belong to the

Scandinavian coastal conifer forests The Scandinavian coastal conifer forests or Norwegian coastal conifer forest is a Palearctic ecoregion in the temperate coniferous forests biome, located along the coast of Norway. Within it are a number of small areas with botanical features and ...

type, while the upper part of the valley has long and cold winters. In the early

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, before

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair (; – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first Monarchy of Norway, King of Norway. Supposedly, two ...

, Namdalen was a

petty kingdom A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into t ...

. The former

Namdal District Court Namdal District Court () was a district court in Trøndelag county, Norway. The court was based in the town of Namsos in Namsos Municipality. The court existed until 2021. It served the municipalities of Flatanger, Fosnes, Grong, Høylandet, ...

covered the same general area.

European route E6 European route E6 (, , or simply E6) is the main north–south thoroughfare through Norway as well as the west coast of Sweden. It is long and runs from the southern tip of Sweden at Trelleborg, into Norway and through almost all of the countr ...

and the

Nordland Line The Nordland Line (, ) is a railway line between Trondheim and Bodø, Norway. It is the longest in Norway and lacks electrification. The route runs through Trøndelag and Nordland counties, carrying a combination of commuter, long-haul passenge ...

run throughout the valley.

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 ''Naumudalr''. The first element is the genitive case of the river name ''Nauma'' (now

) 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 meaning of the river name is unknown.

Namdalen in Literature

Namdalen is the location of many of the stories of

Olav Duun Olav Duun (21 November 1876 – 13 September 1939) was a writer of Norwegian fiction. He is generally recognized to be one of the more outstanding writers in Norwegian literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twenty-fo ...

, a well-known early twentieth century Norwegian author. His most famous works, the

hexalogy A hexalogy (from Greek ἑξα- '' hexa-'', "six" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is made up of six distinct works. The word apparently first appeared in English as a borrowing from German, in ...

known as '' The People of Juvik'' (''Juvikfolket''), takes place on the fictional farm of Haaberg, as well as other locations in Namdalen.

References

Districts of Trøndelag Petty kingdoms of Norway Valleys of Trøndelag {{Trøndelag-geo-stub