Rolvsøy is an island and a former municipality in Østfold

Østfold

is a county in southeastern Norway, bordering Akershus and southwestern Sweden , while Buskerud and Vestfold is on the other side of the bay. The seat of the county administration is Sarpsborg, and Fredrikstad is the largest city.Many manufacturing facilities are situated here. Moss and...

 county, 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 created by a split from Tune

Tune, Norway

Tune is a former municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The former municipality originally covered the current Sarpsborg municipality with the exception of Skjeberg and with the addition of Rolvsøy.-History:...

 on 1 January 1911. At that time Rolvsøy had a population of 2,381. On 1 January 1994 Rolvsøy was incorporated into the municipality of Fredrikstad

Fredrikstad

is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad....

, the neighboring municipality to the south. Prior to the merger Rolvsøy had a population of 5,947.

The Tune ship

Tune ship

The Tune ship is a Viking era ship exhibited in the Viking Ship Museum in Bygdøy, Oslo.The "karv" type ship was found at Haugen farm on Rolvsøy in Tune, Østfold, Norway. The ship was built around AD 900, and is made of clinkered oak planks. It was found in a boat burial mound...

, a viking ship

Viking ship

Viking ships were vessels used during the Viking Age in Northern Europe. Scandinavian tradition of shipbuilding during the Viking Age was characterized by slender and flexible boats, with symmetrical ends with true keel. They were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together...

 dating from ca. 900 and now exhibited in the Viking Ship Museum

Viking Ship Museum

Viking Ship Museum may refer to:* Viking Ship Museum * Viking Ship Museum...

 in Bygdøy

Bygdøy

Bygdøy or Bygdø is a peninsula on the western side of Oslo, Norway. Administratively, Bygdøy belongs to the borough of Frogner.Bygdøy has several museums, like the Kon-Tiki Museum, which shows all year long the legendary expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl; the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History ; the...

, Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

  was found in Rolvsøy in 1867. It was so named because at was found at in a boat burial mound (Norwegian:Båthaugen, from the Old Norse word haugr meaning mound or barrow) on Rolvsøy which was a part of Tune at that time.

The name

The 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....

 form of the name was (probably) *Rolfsøy. The first element is then the genitive case of the male name Rolf

Rolf

Rolf is a male given name. It originates in the Germanic name Hrolf, itself a contraction of Hrodwulf , a conjunction of the stem words hrod + wulf .The Old Norse cognate is Hrólfr.Notable Rolfs/Hrolfs include:...

r, the last element is øy f 'island'.

Development

Rolvsøy has been and is still under heavy development, especially the street called Dikeveien. Before 1990, the street was just a street with a few factories. To day the street i full of life, and with over 100 stores, everything from tiles, groceries and clothing. Dikeveien is located in Fredrikstad, and lies 6 km north of the city centre.