Storselsøya (also known as Selsøya or Hestmona) is an

island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, ...

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 island is divided between two municipalities:

Rødøy Rødøy is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vågaholmen. Other villages include Gjerøy, Jektvika, Kilboghamn, Melfjord ...

in the north and

Lurøy Lurøy is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lurøy, located on the island of Lurøya. Other villages in Lurøy include Aldr ...

in the south. The island of Nesøya lies to the west, the island of Lurøya lies to the south, and the mainland village of

Tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United States ...

lies to the east. The northern and eastern parts of the island are flat and marshy. The Arctic Circle crosses the northern part of the island. There are ferry connections to the surrounding islands and to the mainland at Jektvika. The tall mountain Hestmonkallen is located in the southwest.

Name

The name of the island has varied over time and not all have agreed on the name. In 2014, the appeal board for the

Norwegian Language Council The Language Council of Norway ( no, Språkrådet, ) is the consultative body of the Norwegian state on language issues. It was established in 2005 and replaced the Norwegian Language Council (, ) which existed from 1974 to 2005. It is a subsidiar ...

made a final decision on the name of the island. They decided that the main name of the island would be ''Storselsøya'' and that name would also refer to the northern part of the island in Rødøy Municipality. ''Hestmona'' would be an official name that refers to the southern part of the island. The board also approved ''Selsøya'' as an alternate name. A minority on the appeal board wanted ''Hestmannøy'' to refer to the southern part in Lurøy Municipality, but that was not approved. Historically, the island was known as Hestmona because of the main mountain on the island was known as ''Hestmonkallen''.

References

Islands of Nordland Rødøy Lurøy {{Nordland-island-stub

Name

See also

References