Sokndal is a municipality

Municipalities of Norway

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...

 in Rogaland

Rogaland

is a county in Western Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%...

 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 is part of the region of Dalane

Dalane

Dalane is a traditional district in the south-western part of Norway, consisting of the municipalities Lund, Sokndal, Eigersund and Bjerkreim. Dalane is one of the 15 districts in Western Norway....

.

The parish of Soggendal 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...

). The small lading place of Sogndal

Sogndal, Rogaland

Sogndal is a former small seaport and municipality in Rogaland county, Norway, lying in the traditional district of Dalane. It was comprised by the two harbor villages Sogndalsstrand and Rægefjord...

 was separated from Sokndal as a municipality of its own in 1858, but again merged with Sokndal in 1944.

Sogndalstrand is a picturesque, old fishing village, which may have inspired the municipality in becoming Norway's first member of Cittaslow

Cittaslow

Cittaslow is a movement founded in Italy in October 1999. The inspiration of Cittaslow was the Slow Food organization. Cittaslow's goals include improving the quality of life in towns by slowing down its overall pace, especially in a city's use of spaces and the flow of life and traffic through them...

.

The fjord Jøssingfjord

Jøssingfjord

Jøssingfjord is a fjord located within the municipality of Sokndal in south-western Norway.The fjord is known as the location of the Altmark Incident, where, during World War II, on February 16, 1940, the British destroyer Cossack managed to free prisoners taken by the Admiral Graf Spee from the...

, known for the Altmark Incident

Altmark Incident

The Altmark Incident was a naval skirmish of World War II between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany, which happened on 16 February 1940. It took place in what were, at that time, neutral Norwegian waters...

, is also located in Sokndal. The lake Eiavatnet

Eiavatnet

Eiavatnet is a lake in the municipalities of Eigersund and Sokndal in Rogaland county, Norway....

 borders on the municipality.

Name

The 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....

 form of the name was Sóknardalr. The first element is the genitive case

Genitive case

In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...

 of the river name Sókn (now Sokna) and the last element is 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...

" or "dale". The river name is derived from the verb sœkja which means "seek" and so the meaning is "the river which seeks (finds/forces) its way". Before 1918, the name was written "Sogndal".

(See also Sogndal

Sogndal

Sogndal is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Sogndalsfjøra is the administrative center of Sogndal municipality. Other main villages include Kaupanger, Kjørnes, and Fjærland...

)

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is from modern times. They were granted on 8 July 1988. The arms show three pickaxe

Pickaxe

A pickaxe or pick is a hand tool with a hard head attached perpendicular to the handle.Some people make the distinction that a pickaxe has a head with a pointed end and a flat end, and a pick has both ends pointed, or only one end; but most people use the words to mean the same thing.The head is...

s to symbolize the importance of mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 and agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 in the municipality. It was designed by Johan Digernes of Haugesund

Haugesund

is a town and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.-Location:Haugesund was separated from Torvastad as a town and municipality of its own in 1855. The rural municipality of Skåre was merged with Haugesund on January 1, 1958. Haugesund is a small municipality, only 73 km²...

.

Economy

At Tellnes near Hauge i Dalane

Hauge, Rogaland

Hauge i Dalane is the administrative center of Sokndal municipality, Norway. The origin of the name Hauge is from the Old Norse word Haugr meaning mound. Its total area is 2.35 km². Its population is 2,182, with a population density of 929 residents per km²...

, there is an ilmenite

Ilmenite

Ilmenite is a weakly magnetic titanium-iron oxide mineral which is iron-black or steel-gray. It is a crystalline iron titanium oxide . It crystallizes in the trigonal system, and it has the same crystal structure as corundum and hematite....

 mine run by Titania AS, supplying 10% of the world production of ilmenite. It's also the world's largest opencast ilmenite mine.

External links

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
  Statistics Norway
  Statistics Norway is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876.Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All releases are published both in Norwegian and English...
  
  
• Sokndal
• A presentation of Sokndal Municipality
• cittaslow.no
• Google map satellite views:
  • Hauge i Dalane, also clearly visible is the large rock quarry
    Quarry
    A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
    
    on both sites of the Rekefjord.
  • The Titania open pit mine (top right) and the Jøssingfjord (bottom left)