Country Norway County Hordaland Municipality ID NO-1229 | Region Western Norway District Hardanger Adm. Center Røldal | |
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Røldal is a former municipality in the southeastern corner of Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until 1964 and it is located in the eastern part of the present-day municipality of Odda. The administrative centre was the village of Røldal, where the Røldal Stave Church was located. The municipality encompassed the Røldalen valley and some small side valleys, as well as a large area up on the vast Hardangervidda plateau. Historically, Røldal was an important trade and transportation route between Eastern and Western Norway.
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History
Historically, the Røldal area was part of the parish of Suldal (to the south), with Røldal being an annex to the main parish. Suldal and Røldal each had their own churches, but they shared a priest since Røldal was a sparsely populated area and could not support their own priest. Suldal was located in Stavanger county and Røldal was located in Søndre Bergenhus county.
This arrangement was not a problem until 1837 when the formannskapsdistrikt law was passed. The law called for each parish to become a municipality led by a self-governing council. It also said that each municipality must be within one county, not two. Therefore, Suldal and Røldal had to be divided and starting on 1 January 1838, Røldal became its own municipality. The sparsely-populated municipality existed until 1 January 1964 when Røldal (population: 676) was merged into the neighboring municipality of Odda (population: 9,487).
Name
The municipality was named after the main village in the parish, Røldal. The village in turn was named after the valley in which it is located. The Old Norse form of the name might have been Rœrgudalr. The first element would then be the genitive case of the local rivername Røyrga (derived from røyrr which means 'rocky ground') and the last element is dalr which means 'dale' or 'valley'.