The 508-square-kilometre (196sqmi) municipality is the 208th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Nord-Odal Municipality is the 183rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 5,006. The municipality's population density is 9.9 inhabitants per square kilometre (26/sqmi) and its population has decreased by 2.5% over the previous 10-year period.[5][6]
General information
The parish of Nordre Odalen was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The borders of the municipality have not changed since that time (something that is relatively rare for Norwegian municipalities).[7]
Historically, the municipality was part of the old Hedmark county. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became a part of the newly-formed Innlandet county (after Hedmark and Oppland counties were merged).[8]
Name
The municipality was originally named Nordre Odalen (later Nord-Odal), after the valley in which it is located. The first element in the name is the word nordre or nord, both of which mean "northern". The last element of the name is the old district name Odalen (Old Norse: Ódalr). The first part of this is ǫ́ which is an alternate form of the word á which means "river" or "creek" (here it's referring to the Glåma river). The last part of this is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The prefix "Nordre" was added when the old Odalen parish was divided in 1819 into Søndre Odalen in the south and Nordre Odalen in the north.[9] On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Nord-Odal, using an alternate word for "north" and removing the definite form ending -en.[10]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 10 January 1992. The official blazon is "Or, two wood grapples sablein pale" (Norwegian: I gull to svarte tømmersakser, 1-1). This means the arms have a field (background) has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The charge is two grapple tools lined up vertically. This design was chosen to represent the historic traditions of forestry and logging in the municipality. This kind of grapple was invented by a local boy named Nell Gravlie (1897-1980) when he was only 12 years old, the design was copyrighted in 1928. The arms were designed by Einar Skjervold. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.[11][12][13]
The mayor (Norwegian: ordfører) of Nord-Odal Municipality is the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who have held this position:[15][16]
The municipal council(Kommunestyre) of Nord-Odal Municipality is made up of 25 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.
↑ Mæhlum, Lars; Thorsnæs, Geir, eds. (26 November 2024). "Innlandet". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Foreningen Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 8 June 2025.
↑ "Godkjenning av våpen og flagg". Lovdata.no (in Norwegian). Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet. 10 January 1992. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
↑ Hansen, Tore; Vabo, Signy Irene, eds. (25 November 2024). "kommunestyre". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Foreningen Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
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