Notodden

Notodden kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Telemark within Norway
Notodden within Telemark
Coordinates: 59°37′46″N 9°11′29″E / 59.62944°N 9.19139°E / 59.62944; 9.19139Coordinates: 59°37′46″N 9°11′29″E / 59.62944°N 9.19139°E / 59.62944; 9.19139
Country	Norway
County	Telemark
District	Øst-Telemark
Administrative centre	Notodden
Government
- Mayor (2007)	Lise Wiik (Ap)
Area
- Total	914 km2 (352.9 sq mi)
- Land	852 km2 (329 sq mi)
Area rank	120 in Norway
Population (2005)
- Total	12,359
- Rank	90 in Norway
- Density	14/km2 (36.3/sq mi)
- Change (10 years)	0.5 %
Demonym	Notodding[1]
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-0807
Official language form	Neutral
Website	notodden.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

 Notodden (help·info) is a town and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Notodden.

Notodden was separated from the municipality of Heddal in 1913 to become a separate town and municipality. On 1 January 1964, the rural municipalities of Heddal and Gransherad were merged into Notodden to form a new enlarged municipality.

Norway's biggest stave church, Heddal stave church, can be seen a few kilometres from the town centre.

Notodden Airport, Tuven, is located west of the city centre. Norsk Hydro was founded in this town. Notodden is famous for the annual Notodden Blues Festival, which is considered one of the best blues festivals in Europe, but they also have a famous metal festival called Motstøy Festivalen.

General information

Name

The first element of the name is not which means "to fish using a seine" and the last element is the finite form of odde meaning "headland". Thus the general meaning of the name is "the fishing place".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 11 August 1939. The arms show a silver-colored river and four lightning strikes. One of the first hydroelectric power stations in Norway was established in the late 19th century at the Tinnfoss waterfall on the Tinn river which runs through Notodden.^[2]

Notable residents

Notodden is also the hometown of Norway's excellent organist Kåre Nordstoga, the internationally known author Hans Herbjørnsrud who was born in Heddal, and the Hardanger fiddlemaker Olav Gunnarsson Helland (1875–1939) who many consider the finest of the twentieth century. Composer Klaus Egge, born 1906 in Gransherad, also lived in Notodden.

American blues musician Seasick Steve, who is achieving fame in the United Kingdom, currently resides in Notodden.

Also, one of the most influential Norwegian black metal bands, Emperor, came from Notodden, as does Mortiis, Peccatum, Star of ash, Leprous and Zyklon. Emperor's singer, Ihsahn, still resides in Notodden.

• 

  Seasick Steve

• 

  Ihsahn

• 

  Mortiis

Sport

The Football club Notodden FK is headquartered here.

International relations

Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in Norway

Twin towns — Sister cities

In 2008, Notodden city council decided to end the twin city agreements with Ilisalmi, Nyköping and Stelle. At the same time Suwałki was approved as a new twin city. ^[3][4]

The following cities are twinned with Notodden:

• Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States
• Suwałki, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland

Former twin cities of Notodden:

• Iisalmi, Eastern Finland, Finland
• Nyköping, Södermanland County, Sweden
• Stelle, Lower Saxony, Germany

References

1. ^ "Personnemningar til stadnamn i Noreg" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. http://www.sprakrad.no/nb-no/Sprakhjelp/Rettskrivning_Ordboeker/Innbyggjarnamn/. 
2. ^ Norske Kommunevåpen (1990). "Nye kommunevåbener i Norden". http://www.ngw.nl/int/nor/n/notodden.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-17. 
3. ^ "Ny vennskapsby". Telen. http://www.telen.no/nyheter/ny-vennskapsby-1.4684180. Retrieved 2011-01-16.  (Norwegian)
4. ^ "Vennskapsbyer". Notodden kommune. http://www.notodden.kommune.no/Organisasjon/Sentraladminsitrasjon/Internasjonalt-arbeid/Vennskapsbyer. Retrieved 2011-01-16.  (Norwegian)

External links

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
• Telemark travel guide from Wikitravel
• Notodden on Flickr
• 1908 in Notodden: Of course the workers must have houses, from Norsk Hydro