Åsnes

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Åsnes kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms of Åsnes kommune
Coat of arms
Official logo of Åsnes kommune
Hedmark within
Norway
Åsnes within Hedmark
Åsnes within Hedmark
Coordinates: 60°39′13″N 12°9′11″E / 60.65361, 12.15306
Country Norway
County Hedmark
District Solør
Municipality ID NO-0425
Administrative centre Flisa
Government
 - Mayor (2007) Lars Petter Heggelund (V)
Area (Nr. 100 in Norway)
 - Total 1,041 km² (401.9 sq mi)
 - Land 1,004 km² (387.6 sq mi)
Population (2004)
 - Total 7,581
 - Density 8/km² (20.7/sq mi)
 - Change (10 years) -5.6 %
 - Rank in Norway 127
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Official language form Bokmål
Data from Statistics Norway
Website: www.asnes.kommune.no

Åsnes is a municipality in the county of Hedmark, Norway. Flisa is the largest town in Åsnes with around 2100 people.

The municipality of Åsnes og Våler was divided in 1854.

The municipality is bordered on the north by Våler, in the south by Grue, and in the west by Nord-Odal and Stange. To the east it borders the Swedish municipality of Torsby.

Finnskogen or the Finn's forest is a belt about 32 km (20 miles) wide which runs continuously northwards along the border between Norway and Sweden in 6 Norwegian municipalities including Åsnes.

Åsnes used to be part of a grander district called Hof, in the late 19th century this district was divided into tree municipalities Hof, Åsnes and Våler. Åsnes lays beetween Hof and Våler, and has more arable land than the two others and thus is a bigger population basis. In 1963 Hof was united with Åsnes. There has been talk about further municipality merging but the neighboring municipalities Grue and Våler have rejected Åsnes in favor of bigger municipalities.

[edit] The name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old farm Åsnes (Norse Ásnes), since the first church was built here. The first element is áss m 'mountain ridge', the last element is nes n 'headland'. (The headland is made by the river Glomma, and the farm is lying beneath a hill.)

[edit] Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. It shows three hooks for log driving.

(See also the coat-of-arms for Fet, Jondal, Marker and Nordre Land.)

Åsnes is also a manufacturer of skis, located in Fjaler, Norway