Evje og Vegusdal
Encyclopedia
Evje og Vegusdal is a former municipality in Aust-Agder
Aust-Agder
is a county in Norway, bordering Telemark, Rogaland, and Vest-Agder. In 2002, there were 102,945 inhabitants, which is 2.2% of the total population in Norway. Its area is . The administrative center of the county is in Arendal....

 county
Counties of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It was located in the Setesdal
Setesdal
Setesdal is a valley and a traditional district in Aust-Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes....

 region
Districts of Norway
The country Norway is historically divided into a number of districts. Many districts have deep historical roots, and only partially coincide with today's administrative units of counties and municipalities. The districts are defined by geographical features, often valleys, mountain ranges, fjords,...

 in Southern Norway.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

) of Evje og Vegusdal is named after the farms Evje and Vegusdal. The old Evje farm (Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

: Efja) is where the first church was built. The name is identical with the word efja which means "eddy
Eddy current
Eddy currents are electric currents induced in conductors when a conductor is exposed to a changing magnetic field; due to relative motion of the field source and conductor or due to variations of the field with time. This can cause a circulating flow of electrons, or current, within the body of...

". The old Vegusdal farm (Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

: Veikolfsdalr) is derived from the old male name, Veikolfr meaning "weak Ullfr" and the second part is the word dalr which means "valley
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

".

History

The parish of Evje og Veigusdal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt
Formannskapsdistrikt
Formannskapsdistrikt was the name for a Norwegian local self-government districts put into force in 1838. This system of municipality was created in a bill approved by the Storting and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January 1837...

). According to the 1835 census the municipality had a population of 1,627.

On 1 January 1877, Evje og Vegusdal was split to create two separate municipalities: Evje
Evje
Evje is a village and former municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. The village of Evje is the administrative center of the current municipality of Evje og Hornnes in the Setesdal valley region...

 with a population of 870 and Vegusdal
Vegusdal
Vegusdal is a former municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. It is located within the present-day municipality of Birkenes in the Sørlandet region. Norwegian national road 405 runs from Vegusdal to Mosby.-Name:...

 with a population of 935. These two municipalities later became parts of Evje og Hornnes
Evje og Hornnes
Evje og Hornnes is a municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional region of Setesdal. Evje og Hornnes was created as a new municipality on 1 January 1960 after the merger of the two older municipalities of Evje and Hornnes....

 and Birkenes
Birkenes
Birkenes is a municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The village of Birkeland is the administrative center and about half of the municipality's residents live there...

respectively.
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