Stordal Municipality

Stordal is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1892 until its dissolution in 2020 (except for a brief time from 1965-1977). The area is now part of Fjord Municipality in the traditional district of Sunnmøre. The administrative centre was the village of village of Stordal. Other villages in the municipality included…

Stordal had relatively good agricultural land, and the main source of income is livestock. Stordal was home to furniture production businesses. The historic farm and museum of Ytste Skotet lies along the Storfjorden in the western part of the old municipality. Most of the municipality was located on the eastern side of the fjord.

Prior to its dissolution in 2020, the municipality was the 306th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Stordal Municipality was the 398th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about 947. The municipality's population density was and its population had decreased by 5.4% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

thumb|left|View of the Stordal landscape

thumb|left|View of the [[Old Stordal Church]]

The parish of Stordal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1892 when the large Stranda Municipality was divided into two parts. The northwestern part became the new Stordal Municipality (population: 850) and the southwestern part continued as a much smaller Stranda Municipality (population: 1,459).

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, Ørskog Municipality (population: 1,664), Skodje Municipality (population: 2,048), and Stordal Municipality (population: 1,052) were merged to form a new, larger Ørskog Municipality. The merger, however, was short-lived, and on 1 January 1977 it was reversed and the three municipalities were once again separated.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the local Stordalen valley (). The first element is the plural genitive case of which means "chair" or "throne". The may be because two mountains located around the valley have the name Stolen (meaning "the chair"). The last element is which means "valley" or "dale". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Stordalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Stordal, removing the definite form ending -en.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 30 August 1991 and they were in use until the municipality was dissolved on 1 January 2020. The official blazon is "Azure, a pale dovetailed Or" (). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a pale with dovetailed sides. The charge 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 pale symbolises the forestry and furniture manufacturing in the municipality, which traditionally uses a dovetail system to join two pieces of wood. The same symbol also indicates the strong community feeling in the villages. The arms were designed by Jarle Skuseth. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches

The Church of Norway had one parish with one church, within Stordal Municipality. It also included the former church, Rosekyrkja, which was a museum. It was part of the Austre Sunnmøre prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Møre.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+ style="font-size:medium"|Churches in Stordal Municipality

!Parish ()!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built

|rowspan="2"|Stordal||Stordal Church||Stordal||1907

|Old Stordal Church<br />*||Stordal||1789

|colspan="4"|<small>*The Rosekyrkja has been a museum church since 1908.</small>

Geography

Stordal Municipality was located along the inner Storfjorden in Sunnmøre. The majority of the municipality was located east of the fjord, while a small uninhabited mountainous area on the west side of the fjord was also part of Stordal. Ytste Skotet is a preserved historic farm/museum that is located on the steep mountainsides on the west side of the fjord. Most of the municipality surrounded the Stordalen valley on the east side of the fjord. The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Sunnmøre District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council () of Stordal Municipality is made up of 15 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors

The mayor () of Stordal Municipality was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. The following people have held this position:

1892–1910: Lars Martinussen Kirkebøe (V)
1911–1919: Knut Johansen Hove
1920–1941: Ole Iversen Rødset (Bp)
1941–1943: Jens O. Moe (NS)
1943–1944: Ole Nygård (NS)
1944–1945: Peter Th. Moe (NS)
1945–1945: Jakob P. Hove (NS)
1945–1945: Ole Iversen Rødset
1946–1951: Jakob P. Hove
1952–1955: Knut Stavseng
1956–1957: Jacob Hove
1958–1961: Johan Lianes
1962–1964: Severin Flåen
(1965–1976: part of Ørskog Municipality)
1977–1979: Johan Dyrkorn (Sp)
1980–1987: Ole Johan Vidhammar (Ap)
1988–1993: Ingrid Løset (Sp)
1994–2003: Olav Bratland (H)
2003–2015: Charles Tøsse (H)
2015–2019: Eva Hove (Ap)

Settlers in Iceland

Some people from Stordal settled in Iceland and used Stordal as their last name. The Stordal family is quite known in Iceland but the siblings Sigurður Kristinn Stórdal and Lovísa Stórdal are the most known well-known Stordals currently alive. They are descendants of Egill "Sterki" Stórdal and Ásgerður "Fagra" Stórdal. Egill and his wife became farmers in Stordal which is now known as Skorradalur in Borgarfjörður, Iceland.