Åseral Municipality

Administrative history

For centuries, the large parish of Bjelland encompassed the northern half of the Mandalen valley which spanned parts of Lister og Mandal county in the south and Nedenes county in the north. The northern part of the parish was called Aaserald (in Nedenes) while the main part of the parish was in Lister og Mandal county. When the formannskapsdistrikt law went into effect on 1 January 1838, each parish was created as a municipality, however, since Bjelland covered areas in two counties, it had to be split into two municipalities. The northern part became the new Aaserald Municipality (later spelled Åseral) in Nedenes county and the rest became Bjelland og Grindum Municipality in Lister og Mandal county.^[4]

On 1 September 1880, Aaserald Municipality was transferred from Nedenes county to Lister og Mandal county (later called Vest-Agder county). From 1880 until 2020, this municipality was part of the old Vest-Agder county. In 2020, there were many municipal and county mergers across Norway due to the work of the Solberg cabinet.^[5] On 1 January 2020, the municipality became a part of the newly-formed Agder county (after Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder counties were merged).^[6]

Other than changing counties twice, the borders of the municipality have never changed (which is pretty rare among municipalities in Norway).

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old name for the area (Old Norse: Ásaráll). The meaning of the name is somewhat uncertain. One theory is that the first element comes from the word áss which refers to "Æsir", the old pagan Norse gods and the last element is áll (Old Norse) or alhs (Gothic) which means "gods' temple". Another theory is that the first element the genitive case of the word áss which means "hill" or "mountain ridge" and the last element is áll which means "long strip" or "eel-shaped", which likely refers to the long, narrow lake Øre which is surrounded by mountains and hills.^[7]

Historically, the name was spelled Aaserald or Aaseral.^[7] On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aaseral with the digraph "Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Åseral, using the letter Å instead.^[8][9]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 20 January 1989. The official blazon is "Vert, a horseshoe argent" (Norwegian: På grøn grunn ein sølv hestesko). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a horseshoe. The horseshoe has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The green color in the field symbolizes the importance of forestry and the horseshoe was chosen to represent the historical importance of horses in the farming culture of Åseral as well as the symbol of good luck. The arms were designed by Ulf Dreyer. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

Churches

The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within Åseral Municipality. It is part of the Otredal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark. Until 2019, it was part of the old Mandal prosti.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Åseral Municipality is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors

The mayor (Nynorsk: ordførar) of Åseral Municipality is the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. The following people have held this position:^[35][36]

Climate