View of the island (looking west) |
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Location in Møre og Romsdal |
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Ulstein and Hareid, Norway |
| Area | 165 km2 (63.7 sq mi) |
| Length | 20 km (12 mi) |
| Width | 15 km (9.3 mi) |
| Highest elevation | 697 m (2,287 ft) |
| Highest point | Blåtind |
| Norway | |
| County | Møre og Romsdal |
| Municipalities | Hareid and Ulstein |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 11,687 (as of 2008) |
Hareidlandet is an island in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the municipalities of Hareid and Ulstein. The 166-square-kilometre (64 sq mi) island has a population (2008) of 11,687. The island is mentioned by Snorri in his reports about the Battle of Hjörungavágr (today this is Hjørungavåg) in 986 where Haakon Jarl defeated Bue Digre and the Jomsvikings. The island is then referred to as Höð.
The island is home to a town, Ulsteinvik, and several larger villages: Eiksund, Haddal, Hasund, Brandal, Hareid, and Hjørungavåg. The island is connected to the mainland via the Eiksund Bridge to the island of Eika which in turn is connected to the mainland through the Eiksund Tunnel. On the west side, the island has bridge connections to the islands of Dimnøya and Gurskøya.[1]
The main belief amongst linguists and historians is that the name Hareidlandet is derived from Höð. There are many theories about the meaning of the name Höð. One of the most plausible theories is that Höð was a reference to a central place of worship for the Norse god Höðr (the blind god who unwittingly killed Baldr, the Norse god of light, beauty and fertility). A different theory states that the name is derived from the Norse word for battle, hoð, and that it either is a reference to the Battle of Hjörungavágr that was fought on the island, or to a certain warrior or warrior tribe inhabiting it. The name may also be a derivative of the Norse word for goat, hod.
The Norse name of the island was actually adopted by the local association football team of the municipality Ulstein, IL Hødd (an abstraction of Höð), when the team was established in 1919.
Theories on how the name Höð over the course of time became Hareidlandet are many and often diverging. Some linguists claim that the name Hareid is derived from the genitive form of höð, "haðar", and the word eid, which is the Norwegian word for a piece of land dividing two areas of water (e.g. a strip of land dividing a lake or a river ford). This combination led to the name Haðareid which in time has been simplified to Hareid. The suffix, -landet, which in Norwegian means “the land” has probably been added in later times. Other linguists claim that the name Hareid actually could have arisen separately from Höð and from completely other origins, and that it in later centuries has replaced the old name.