Selfors is a neighborhood in the town of

Mo i Rana (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ) or (and unofficially , ) is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city, and the administrative centre of Rana Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the Helgeland region of Nordland, just sou ...

Rana Municipality or is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Mo i Rana, which houses the National Library of Norway. Other population centers in R ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

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 ...

. Selfors sits on the northern shore of the river Ranelva in the northeastern part of the town of

. The

European route E06 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 ...

highway passes through the neighborhood. Selfors has been inhabited since the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. The Helgeland Hospital Mo i Rana, the local branch of the Helgeland Hospital, is located on Selfors. There are also two daycare centres, a primary school, and school with secondary classes. In connection with the expansion of the ''Norsk Jernverk'' iron and metal industry company in 1946, Selfors Church was originally built by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. It was built in 1971 and constructed mainly out of glass and wood. It seats 200. Since 1976, however, it has also been used by the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

. Additionally, Selfors has a grocery store (which includes the local post office); a flower shop; a store for hunting, fishing and outdoor life; a petrol station; and an inn located along

. There are six housing cooperatives in Selfors, owned by ''Mo og Omegn Boligbyggelag''.

Transportation

The Selfors Bridge over the Ranelva river on the E6 highway connects Selfors with the town centre of

. The first bridge at Selfors was built in 1914. On 18 May 1940, it was blown up by the resistance in order to slow down the northward advance of the German occupation forces. It was, however, quickly rebuilt, and was used until it was torn down on 17 March 1965. A new bridge was then built, and is still in use today. Before the opening of the new bridge between Mjølan and Ytteren, Selfors Bridge was the only road connection between

and the northern suburbs of Ytteren and Båsmoen. The hillsides and mountains at Selfors are a popular terrain for outdoor activities. ''Varmosletta'', ''Skarvatnet'', and ''Kvitbergan'' ("the white cliffs") are located in untouched nature.

History

Selfors farm

''Selfors farm'' was one of the oldest farms in the area and it played a central role at that place until 1680. The farm was located along the river Ranelva on the western parts of the present-day village of Selfors, near the

Ranfjorden RanfjordenIn English this means ''the Ran fjord''; the ''-en'' in the full name is a suffix meaning 'the' in Norwegian. is a fjord in the Helgeland district of Nordland county, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic ...

and Fossetangen. ''Selfors farm'' is mentioned in "the farm book of Aslak Bolt" in 1430, written by Aslak Harniktsson Bolt (ca.1380−1449), the

Archbishop of Nidaros The Archdiocese of Nidaros (or Niðaróss) was the metropolitan see covering Norway in the later Middle Ages. The see was the Nidaros Cathedral, in the city of Nidaros (now Trondheim). The archdiocese existed from the middle of the twelfth cent ...

. Aslak Bolt wrote: ''"af selfosse 1/2 spann"'' Selfors thus paid 1/2 bucket of butter to the Archbishop of the

Diocese of Nidaros Nidaros is a diocese in the Lutheran Church of Norway. It covers Trøndelag county in Central Norway and its cathedral city is Trondheim, which houses the well-known Nidaros Cathedral. Since 10 September 2017, the Bishop of Nidaros is Herborg ...

. The

Leidang The institution known as ''leiðangr'' (Old Norse), ''leidang'' ( Norwegian), ''leding'' ( Danish), ''ledung'' ( Swedish), ''expeditio'' (Latin) or sometimes lething (English), was a form of conscription ( mass levy) to organize coastal fleets for ...

census during the years 1566−1567 does not mention the farm. It had probably not ceased to exist, but was rather forgotten, since the farmer during the census in 1610 was registered as a sailor and in 1612 as a

bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...

. In the 17th century ''Selfors farm'' belonged to the Hemnes Church parish.

Name

The name ''Selfors'' was first mentioned in 1430. It has been interpreted as ''Sel-foss'' ( Norwegian for "the pinniped waterfall"), meaning a waterfall where

pinniped Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely range (biology), distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals. They comprise the extant taxon, extant families Odobenidae (whose onl ...

s lived. It also has been connected with the

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

word ''saelhtie'', meaning "ocean". This interpretation of "Sel-foss", however, is doubtful. In the old dialect of

Rana Rana may refer to: Astronomy * Rana (crater), a crater on Mars * Delta Eridani or Rana, a star Films * Rana (2012 film), an Indian Kannada-language action drama * Rana, a 1998 Telugu-language action film directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy * R ...

they never used the name "sel" for

s, but rather used "købbe". ''Købbforsen'' which literally means "the pinniped waterfall", is located in another place in Rana Municipality. The name could also be seen in connection with ''sele'' ("silent flowing and deep water"), similar to the Swedish place names of

Lycksele Lycksele (; ; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a locality and the seat of Lycksele Municipality in Västerbotten County, province of Lapland (Sweden), Lapland, Sweden with 8,513 inhabitants in 2010. History Until the 1600s there were no settled ...

, Sorsele, and

Åsele Åsele () is a locality and the seat of Åsele Municipality in Västerbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 1,798 inhabitants in 2010. Its elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height ab ...

. Selfors may then mean "a waterfall in a river with silent flowing, deep water". The waterfall is located at Fossetangen, and the "silent flowing, deep water" might be to river Ranelva.

Media gallery

Kvitbergan

Photos from the mountains around Selfors, taken in November 2005: File:Kvitbergan A.JPG, Kvitbergan File:Kvitbergan B.JPG, Kvitbergan File:Kvitbergan C.JPG, Kvitbergan File:Kvitbergan 01.JPG, Gruben seen from Kvitbergan File:Kvitbergan 02.JPG, Gruben seen from Kvitbergan File:Kvitbergan 03.JPG, Mo i Rana seen from Kvitbergan File:Kvitbergan 04.JPG, Mo i Rana seen from Kvitbergan File:Kvitbergan 05.JPG, File:Kvitbergan 06.JPG, File:Kvitbergan 07.JPG, File:Kvitbergan 08.JPG, File:Kvitbergan 09.JPG, File:Kvitbergan 10.JPG, The wetland area towards Langvatnet File:Kvitbergan 11.JPG, The wetland area towards Langvatnet

References

{{Authority control Rana, Norway Villages in Nordland