Meløy

Meløy kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Nordland within Norway
Meløy within Nordland
Coordinates: 66°47′17″N 13°40′33″E / 66.78806°N 13.67583°E / 66.78806; 13.67583Coordinates: 66°47′17″N 13°40′33″E / 66.78806°N 13.67583°E / 66.78806; 13.67583
Country	Norway
County	Nordland
District	Salten
Administrative centre	Ørnes
Government
– Mayor (2005)	Arild Kjerpeseth (Ap)
Area
– Total	873 km2 (337.1 sq mi)
– Land	798 km2 (308.1 sq mi)
Area rank	127 in Norway
Population (2004)
– Total	6,772
– Rank	145 in Norway
– Density	8/km2 (20.7/sq mi)
– Change (10 years)	-3.8 %
Demonym	Meløyfjerding[1]
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
– Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1837
Official language form	Bokmål
Website	meloy.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Meløy is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Salten traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ørnes, while Glomfjord is only slightly smaller. Meløy was separated from the municipality of Rødøy on 1 January 1884.

The municipality is situated just to the north of the Arctic Circle on Norway's west coast. It encompasses the island of Meløy and some 700 other islands of various sizes around the Meløyfjorden, Glomfjorden, and Holandsfjorden in the south, along with a stretch of mainland coast.

Kystriksveien, Spilder valley (Spilderdalen) in Meløy; July 2008

Engabreen (glacier) seen from above as it stretches down towards Holandsfjord

Water is collected from Svartisen to produce hydropower.

General information

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the island of Meløya (Old Norse: Mjölva), since the first church was built there. The old name of the island is probably derived from mjöl which means "flour" or "meal" (referring to fine sand on the beaches of the island). The last element øy which means "island" was added to the name around 1500.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 7 December 1984. The arms show a poppy plant (Papaver radicatum subglobosum). The village is near the second largest glacier in continental Norway, the Svartisen (black ice), and the plant is one of the plants growing closest to the ice. The colors symbolize the blue glacial ice and the yellow flowers.^[2]

History

Meløy has been inhabited for many centuries and still possesses various relics from the Viking period. The Benkestok family, one of Norway's original noble families, established one of its seats at Meløy gård (farm) in the 16th century.

Due to the expansion of the community during the 19th century, it was split from its southern neighbour Rødøy in 1884. Its administrative centre was later moved from the island of Meløy to the coastal community of Ørnes. Ørnes is one of the stops on the route of the Hurtigruten (coastal express boat), with a notably scenic entrance via the fjord. The second largest glacier in Norway, Svartisen, is a target for passenger visits. The mountains around Glomfjord are popular for fishing and hunting as well as skiing in the winter time.

Economy

The industrial development—and thus the main contributor to the economical development and growth of the Meløy community—started around the time of World War I. It was based on electrical power production in then new Glomfjord power plant from water coming from the Svartisen glacier and gathered in the mountains. In the bottom of Glomfjorden, Norsk Hydro (today YARA) started out producing fertilizers in Glomfjord. A conglomerate of industries is found there today in Glomfjord Industry Park. The municipality's overall industries are some light industry, agriculture, forestry, fishing, salmon production, and tourism.

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/m/meloy.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-24. 

External links

• Media related to Meløy at Wikimedia Commons
• Video from Engabreen • Svartisen