Romedal

Romedal is a former municipality in Hedmark county, Norway

Romedal was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). It was merged with Stange January 1, 1964.

History

Bishop Sigurd of Hamar, who died in 1418, was a native of Romedal. He had an excellent reputation, as reported in "The Hamar Chronicle" of 1553.

Kristen Steffensen Bang was priest at Romedal in 1643, when he joined with Kjeld Stub to set up the first printing press in Norway, located in Oslo. Pastor Bang wrote copiously to feed his printing press and died a pauper in 1678 at the age of 98. The press is most famous for printing the "Aggerhus-Acter" which were accounts of the progress of the ongoing Gyldenløve War with Sweden.

The name

The Norse form of the name was "Ruðmudalr". The first element is (probably) the genitive case of an old rivername ("*Ruðma"), the last element is "dalr" m 'valley, dale'.

References

* "East Norway and its Frontier" by Frank Noel Stagg, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1956.