Ryfylke is a traditional district in the northeastern part of

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

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 district, encompassing about 60% of the county's area is located northeast of

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

and east of

Haugesund Haugesund () is a municipalities of Norway, municipality and List of towns and cities in Norway, town on the North Sea in Rogaland county, Norway. As of December 2023, the municipality of Haugesund has a population of 37,855. The vast majority of ...

. It includes the mainland, which is northeast and east of the Boknafjorden and east of the

Høgsfjorden Høgsfjorden is a fjord in Rogaland county, Norway. It lies in the municipalities of Stavanger, Sandnes, Strand, and Gjesdal. The innermost part of the fjord is located at the village of Frafjord in the municipality of Gjesdal. It flows west ...

. It also consists of the islands on the south side of the Boknafjorden. To the east, Ryfylke borders the districts of

Setesdal Setesdal (; older name: Sætersdal) is a valley and a traditional district in Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes. The Otra river flows through the val ...

and Sirdal, to the south is

Jæren Jæren is a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Rogaland county, Norway. The other districts in Rogaland are Dalane, Ryfylke, and Haugalandet. Jæren is one of the 15 districts that comprise Western Norway. At about , Jæren is the large ...

, and to the west is

Haugaland Haugaland or Haugalandet is a traditional district situated on the western coast of Norway. Haugaland is one of the 15 traditional districts located within the Vestlandet region. Geographically, Haugaland is a peninsula between Bømlafjorden i ...

et. Ryfylke is one of the 15 districts in

Western Norway Western Norway (; ) is the Regions of Norway, region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the Counties of Norway, counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrative fu ...

. Ryfylke comprises the contemporary municipalities of Sauda,

Suldal Suldal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the northeast corner of Rogaland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Ryfylke. Since 1965, the administrative centre of ...

, Hjelmeland, Strand, Kvitsøy, the eastern island portion of

, the Forsand part of

Sandnes Sandnes () is a city and municipality in Rogaland, Norway. It lies immediately south of Stavanger, the 4th largest municipality in Norway, and together the Stavanger/Sandnes area is the third-largest urban area in Norway. The urban city of Sand ...

, and eastern

Gjesdal Gjesdal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ålgår ...

. There are no large cities in Ryfylke, but there are two large towns, Sauda and Jørpeland. Scenic attractions include the Lysefjord with the mountains of Preikestolen ("Pulpit Rock") and Kjerag. The landscape of Ryfylke is characterized by high mountains in the interior; the highest and wildest are located in the north and are formed by hard,

igneous rock Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...

. At Haukalivatnet Lake (near Lysefjorden), there is a distinct end moraine presumably created by a prehistoric glacier. This moraine led professor

Jens Esmark Jens Esmark (31 January 1763 – 26 January 1839) was a Danish-Norwegian professor of mineralogy who contributed to many of the initial discoveries and conceptual analyses of glaciers, specifically the concept that glaciers had covered larger ...

(in 1824) to formulate the theory of an

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

over Scandinavia and other parts of the world. Esmark believed that climate change due to changes in Earth's orbit caused the ice ages.Hestmark, G. (2018)
Jens Esmark's mountain glacier traverse 1823− the key to his discovery of Ice Ages
''Boreas'', 47(1), 1-10.

Etymology

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 ''Rygjafylki''. The first element is the

genitive 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 ...

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

of ''rygir'', which means "person that eats rye", and the last element is '' fylke'', which means "people" and has the same origin as German ''volk''.

References

External links

Lysefjord and LysebotnDestination RyfylkeMap hikingRyfylkemuseeet The Ryfylke Museum
Districts of Rogaland Sauda Suldal Hjelmeland Strand, Norway Sandnes Stavanger Kvitsøy {{Rogaland-geo-stub