Lyngdal

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Lyngdal kommune
Municipality
Lyngdal church

Coat of arms
Vest-Agder within
Norway
Lyngdal within Vest-Agder
Coordinates: 58°10′9″N 7°3′21″E / 58.16917°N 7.05583°E / 58.16917; 7.05583Coordinates: 58°10′9″N 7°3′21″E / 58.16917°N 7.05583°E / 58.16917; 7.05583
Country Norway
County Vest-Agder
District Sørlandet
Administrative centre Alleen
Government
 • Mayor (2007) Ingunn Foss (H)
Area
 • Total 391 km2 (151 sq mi)
 • Land 370 km2 (140 sq mi)
Area rank 240 in Norway
Population (2004)
 • Total 7,216
 • Rank 139 in Norway
 • Density 20/km2 (50/sq mi)
 • Change (10 years) 5.1 %
Demonym Lyngdøl[1]
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code NO-1032
Official language form Bokmål
Website www.lyngdal.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

 Lyngdal (help·info) is a municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. Lyngdal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). Austad and Kvås were separated from Lyngdal on 1 January 1909 but they were again merged with Lyngdal on 1 January 1964, together with the area of Spangereid west of Lenesfjorden.

It is a coastal municipality, and borders to the southeast Lindesnes municipality, Audnedal to the northeast, Hægebostad to the north, and Kvinesdal and Farsund to the west. Lyngdal declared township on 1 January 2001.

Major sources of revenue are wood processing, agriculture, and commerce. Tourism is also central to the community, with the beaches of Kvavik and Rosfjord being popular resorts during the summer.

General information

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Lygnudalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Lygna and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The river name is derived from logn which means "quietness" and so the meaning is "the quiet one".

Before 1908, the parish (but not the municipality) of Lyngdal was called Aa, named after the vicarage. The name of the vicarage was first mentioned in 1312 as "a Am", the dative plural of á '(small) river'. The farm lies between two rivers.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 27 March 1987. The arms show a cow. The local breed of cows (lyngdalsku) is very well known in Norway and at the yearly cattle fair traders from all over Southern and Western Norway visit the municipality.[2]

History

The island of Sælør on the southern coast of the municipality is mentioned in Snorre, as the king Saint Olav spent a winter here in 1028. Based around the port of Agnefest, Lyngdal prospered on maritime trade, and in 1771 an application was made for status as a small coastal town. Its coastal location also facilitated emigration; in the 17th and 18th century largely to the Dutch Republic, and in the 19th century to the United States.

Population of Lyngdal, 1900-2001 (SSB).

Even before the merger of the municipalities in 1964, the parishes of Austad and Kvås, together with Å (or Aa - Lyngdal proper), made up the greater Lyngdal parish. A census from 1801 showed 3529 inhabitants in the area that today makes up Lyngdal: 1850 in Å, 929 in Austad, 585 in Kvås and 165 in the eastern part of Spangereid. The number today is approximately double that of 1801: a little over 7000 inhabitants.[3]

Religious life and missionary work have always had a strong position in Lyngdal, and worthy of special note is the minister and Gabriel Kielland (1796–1854), who served in the parish from 1837–54, and his wife Gustava (1800–89). Known today as a missionary pioneer and a popular songwriter, Gustava also wrote one of the first autobiographies by a woman in Norway: her "Reminiscence from my Life" from 1880.[4]

Notable residents

References

  1. ↑ "Personnemningar til stadnamn i Noreg" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. 
  2. ↑ Norske Kommunevåpen (1990). "Nye kommunevåbener i Norden". Retrieved 27 September 2008. 
  3. ↑ "Folkemengde ved folketellingene, 1769-2001" (PDF). Statistisk Sentralbyrå. 2001. Retrieved 2008-01-09.  (Norwegian)
  4. ↑ "History". Lyngdal Municipality. Retrieved 2008-01-09. 

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