Nissedal

Nissedal kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Telemark within Norway
Nissedal within Telemark
Coordinates: 59°4′35″N 8°31′6″E / 59.07639°N 8.51833°E / 59.07639; 8.51833Coordinates: 59°4′35″N 8°31′6″E / 59.07639°N 8.51833°E / 59.07639; 8.51833
Country	Norway
County	Telemark
District	Vest-Telemark
Administrative centre	Treungen
Government
- Mayor (2007)	Anne-Nora Oma Dahle (Sp)
Area
- Total	905 km2 (349.4 sq mi)
- Land	788 km2 (304.2 sq mi)
Area rank	123 in Norway
Population (2004)
- Total	1,429
- Rank	377 in Norway
- Density	2/km2 (5.2/sq mi)
- Change (10 years)	-3.2 %
Demonym	Nissedøl[1]
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-0830
Official language form	Nynorsk
Website	nissedal.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Nissedal is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Vest-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Treungen. The municipality of Nissedal was established on January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt).

A man in a traditional red hat by F. C. Lund.

Etymology

The modern form of the name stems from Old Norse Nizidalr. The first element is the name of the lake Nizir, possibly from *Nið-sær, which is now called Nisser, and the last element is dalr "valley, dale".^[2][3]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on October 30, 1992, and was designed by Halvor Holtskog jr. The arms shows three red nisseluer, traditional red woolen hats often associated with the nisse, which were commonly worn until the late 19th century by farmers and common folk. It is a canting arms, as the name Nissedal has been "translated" into a visual pun with the three woolen hats, in spite of the name having nothing to do with the folkloric nisse.

Notable natives

• Jan Gunnar Solli - footballer
• Monika Nordli - singer/songwriter

• 

  Jan Gunnar Solli

Notes

1. ^ "Personnemningar til stadnamn i Noreg" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. http://www.sprakrad.no/nb-no/Sprakhjelp/Rettskrivning_Ordboeker/Innbyggjarnamn/. 
2. ^ Stemshaug (1973:117).
3. ^ Cleasby and Vigfusson (1874:95).

References

• Cleasby, Richard and Vigfusson, Gudbrand (1874). Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Stemshaug, Ola (1973). Norsk stadnamngransking. Samlaget. ISBN 8252101607