Eidfjord

Infobox_Kommune
name = Eidfjord

---

idnumber = 1232
county = Hordaland
landscape = Hardanger
capital = Eidfjord
demonym = Eidfjøre
language = Nynorsk


munwebpage = www.eidfjord.kommune.no
governor = Ola B. Hereid (Tverrpolitisk Bygdeliste)
governor_as_of = 2003
arearank = 53
area = 1493
arealand = 1388
areapercent = 0.46
population_as_of = 2008
populationrank = 409
population = 933
populationpercent = 0.02
populationdensity = 0.7
populationincrease = -10.4
lat_deg = 60 | lat_min = 26 | lat_sec = 6 | lon_deg = 7 | lon_min = 16 | lon_sec = 38
utm_zone = 32V | utm_northing = 6701100 | utm_easting = 0405194 | geo_cat = adm2nd

Eidfjord is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Eidfjord was separated from Ulvik May 1, 1891. (Eidfjord was merged with Ullensvang from January 1, 1964 to January 1, 1977.)cite book | title=Kulturhistorisk Vegbok Hordaland| last=Brekke| first=Nils Georg| coauthors=Skaar, Ronny B and Nord, Svein| date=1993| publisher=Nord4]

Eidfjord has two townships, Eidfjord and Øvre Eidfjord. Eidfjord is the municipality center situated by Eidfjorden, and is a major cruise harbour. Eidfjord has several tourist sites, like the Sima Power Plant built into the mountain itself, the waterfall Vøringsfossen with a free fall of 182 m and large parts of Europe's largest mountain plateau, Hardangervidda. Here is also the Hardangervidda Natursenter.

General information

Name

The municipality is named after Eidfjorden (Old Norse "Eiðafjörðr"). The first element is the genitive case of the name of the farm "Eiðar", the old church site. The second element is fjord. The name of the farm is the plural form of "eið" which means "land between two waters" (in this case: the fjord and the lake of Eidfjordvatnet).cite book|title=Kulturhistorisk Vegbok Hordaland|last=Brekke|first=Nils Georg|coauthors=Skaar, Ronny B and Nord, Svein|date=1993|publisher=Nord4]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 13 July 1984. The arms show a reindeer antler, as the first known settlers in the area were reindeer hunters. The reindeer has been of importance for the population here for many centuries. The antler also symbolizes the rivers that run from the mountain into the fjord. [cite web|url=http://www.ngw.nl/int/nor/e/eidfjord.htm|author=Norske Kommunevåpen|date=1990|title=Nye kommunevåbener i Norden|accessdaymonth=21 September|accessyear=2008]

References