Rendalen is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bergset. Other villages in the municipality include Hanestad, Otnes, Sjølisand, Unset, Åkre, and Åkrestrømmen.[3]

Rendalen kommune
Municipality
View of the village of Otnes and the lake Lomnessjøen
Flag Coat of arms Innlandet within Norway
Rendalen within Innlandet
Coordinates: 61°51′34″N 11°10′34″E
Country	Norway
County	Innlandet
District	Østerdalen
Established	1 Jan 1965
• Preceded by	Ytre Rendal and Øvre Rendal
Administrative centre	Bergset
Government
• Mayor (2019)	Linda Døsen (Ap)
Area
• Total	3,179.51 km2 (1,227.62 sq mi)
• Land	3,060.83 km2 (1,181.79 sq mi)
• Water	118.68 km2 (45.82 sq mi)  3.7%
• Rank	#13 in Norway
Population  (2022)
• Total	1,722
• Rank	#294 in Norway
• Density	0.6/km2 (2/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−12.1%
Demonym	Rendøl[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Bokmål
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-3424
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

The 3,180-square-kilometre (1,230 sq mi) municipality is the 13th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Rendalen is the 294th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,722. The municipality's population density is 0.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (1.6/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 12.1% over the previous 10-year period.[4][5]

General information

The municipality of Rendalen was established on 1 January 1965 when the old municipalities of Ytre Rendal (population: 1,913) and Øvre Rendal (population: 1,629) were merged. On 1 January 1984, the unpopulated Spekedalen valley was transferred from Tynset Municipality to Rendalen.[6]

Name

The municipality is named after the Rendalen valley (Old Norse: Reindalr) which is located within the municipality. The first element of the name is the word rein which means "reindeer" and the last element is dal which means "valley" or "dale". The river Rena runs through the valley and it is not known if the valley was named after the river or if the river was named after the valley. A nearby mountain Renafjellet also has a similar name.[3]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 2 June 1989. The arms show two white or silver reindeer on a blue background. They symbolize the importance of reindeer farming in the community. The arms are a canting since the name Rendalen is derived from the word for reindeer. The two heads represent the two former municipalities of Øvre Rendal and Ytre Rendal which were merged in 1965 to form this municipality. The arms were designed by the artist Arvid Sveen.[7][8]

Churches

The Church of Norway has four parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Rendalen. It is part of the Nord-Østerdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar.

Geography

The municipality has an area of 3,180 square kilometres (1,227.8 sq mi) which makes it the 2nd largest municipality (after Ullensvang) in Southern Norway. The 11 largest municipalities are all in rural Northern Norway and they are followed by Ullensvang and Rendalen. Rendalen municipality is bordered on the northwest by the municipalities of Alvdal and Tynset, in the north by Tolga, in the east by Engerdal, in the south by Trysil and Åmot, and in the west by Stor-Elvdal.

Rendalen municipality encompasses most of the Rendalen valley, a side valley of the large Østerdalen valley which dominates Eastern Norway. In addition, the municipality encompasses the northern part of the lake Storsjøen as well as the lakes Sølensjøen, Galtsjøen, Harrsjøen, and Lomnessjøen. The mountains Elgspiggen and Sølen are in Rendalen as well. The rivers Glomma and Renaelva both flow through the municipality.

Government

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Rendalen is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:

Mayor

The mayors of Rendalen have included:

Economy

The primary occupations are in farming and logging, but tourism is also important. The Renåfjellet mountain area provides for excellent alpine hiking.

Notable residents

• Johan Reinhardt (1778 in Rendalen – 1845) professor of zoology at Copenhagen University
• Gustav Storm (1845 in Rendalen – 1903) a Norwegian historian and academic
• Jacob Breda Bull (1853 in Rendalen – 1930) a Norwegian author, journalist and editor
• David P. Kvile (1861–1918) a teacher, farmer and politician; teacher in Øvre Rendal from 1885
• Peder E. Vorum (1884–1970) an educator and politician, Mayor of Ytre Rendal from 1913 to 1934; joined Nasjonal Samling 1940, collaborated in WWII, convicted of treason in 1948[22]
• Ottar E. Akre (1896 in Ytre Rendal – 1992) a Norwegian accordionist, composer, and educator
• Sigurd Akre-Aas (1897 in Ytre Rendal – 1968) a Norwegian fencer, competed at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics
• Oddbjørn Hagen (1908 in Ytre Rendal – 1983) a Norwegian skier, at the 1936 Winter Olympics he won one gold in the Nordic combined and two silvers in cross-country skiing
• Kjell Borgen (1939–1996) politician, former Minister of Transport, secondary school teacher in Rendalen, 1962 to 1966
• Ola Otnes (born 1951 in Rendalen) a Norwegian actor [23]
• Guren Hagen, (Norwegian Wiki) (born 1959 in Rendalen) musician

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Rendalen has sister city agreements with the following places:[24]

• - Aalborg, Region Nordjylland, Denmark[25]
• - Liperi, Itä-Suomi, Finland
• - Orsa, Dalarna County, Sweden

Media gallery

• 
  Hanestadnea kraftverk
• 
  Øvre Rendal
• 
  Rendalen kraftverk

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rendalen.

Look up Rendalen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)
• Municipal website (in Norwegian)

На других языках

[de] Rendalen

[ru] Рендал