Grong

Grong kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Nord-Trøndelag within Norway
Grong within Nord-Trøndelag
Coordinates: 64°31′53″N 12°37′12″E / 64.53139°N 12.62°E / 64.53139; 12.62Coordinates: 64°31′53″N 12°37′12″E / 64.53139°N 12.62°E / 64.53139; 12.62
Country	Norway
County	Nord-Trøndelag
District	Namdalen
Administrative centre	Mediå
Government
– Mayor (2003)	Erik Seem (Sp)
Area
– Total	1,136.17 km2 (438.7 sq mi)
– Land	1,097.65 km2 (423.8 sq mi)
– Water	38.52 km2 (14.9 sq mi)
Area rank	87 in Norway
Population (2011)
– Total	2,357
– Rank	301 in Norway
– Density	2.1/km2 (5.4/sq mi)
– Change (10 years)	-8.4 %
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
– Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1742
Official language form	Neutral
Website	grong.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

 Grong (help·info) (Southern Sami: Kråangke) is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Medjå. Other villages in the municipality include Bergsmoen, Formofoss, Gartland, and Harran.

General information

Grong was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1901, the northwestern district of Høylandet (population: 1,046) was separated from Grong to form its own municipality. On 1 January 1923, the northeastern district of Røyrvik (population: 392), the northwestern district of Namsskogan (population: 469), and the central district of Harran (population: 630) were all split from Grong to form separate municipalities. This left a vastly smaller municipality of Grong with only 1,272 residents. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Harran (population: 1,085) was merged back into Grong.^[1]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Grong farm (Old Norse: Granungar), since the first church was built there. The first element is grön which means "spruce" and the last element is the plural form of the suffix -ungr.^[2]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were granted on 6 February 1987. The arms show three green triangles on a silver/gray background. The green triangles represent spruce trees (gran), making them canting arms. The name is supposedly derived from Granungar. The number three symbolizes the three main villages in the municipality: Harran, Bergsmoen, and Medjå.^[3]

Churches

The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Grong. It is part of the Namdal deanery in the Diocese of Nidaros.

Churches in Grong

Parish (Sokn)	Church Name	Location of the Church	Year Built
Grong	Grong Church	Medjå	1877
Harran	Harran Church	Harran	1874
	Gløshaug Church	Gartland	1689

Geography

Grong is located along the river Namsen in the Namdalen valley. Two major tributaries of the Namsen flow through Grong too: the river Sanddøla and the river Neselva. The Bangsjøene lakes lie at the extreme southern border with Snåsa and Overhalla. The Blåfjella–Skjækerfjella National Park covers a small part of the southeastern part of Grong.

Transportation

The European route E6 highway follows the river Namsen across the municipality, as does the Nordlandsbanen railway line. The two main stations on the Nordlandsbanen are Grong Station in Medjå and Harran Station in Harran. The old Namsos Line railway used to run from Grong to Namsos, but that is now closed.

Media gallery

• 

  The high school in Grong

• 

  Train station in Grong

• 

  County road from Grong to Sweden

• 

  The old Gløshaug church in Gartland

References

1. ^ Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå. http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf. 
2. ^ Rygh, Oluf (1903) (in Norwegian) (dokpro.uio.no). Norske gaardnavne: Nordre Trondhjems amt (15 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 295. http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/rygh_bla.prl?enhid=249246&avid=55312&s=n. 
3. ^ Norske Kommunevåpen (1990). "Nye kommunevåbener i Norden". http://www.ngw.nl/int/nor/g/grong.htm. Retrieved 29 October 2008. 

External links

• Nord-Trøndelag travel guide from Wikitravel
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway