Å (, from ''å'' meaning "stream") is a village in Moskenes Municipality in

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

county, Norway. It is located about southwest of the village of Sørvågen on the island of Moskenesøya, towards the southern end of the Lofoten archipelago. It is connected to the rest of the archipelago by the European route E10 highway, which ends here. This part of the highway is also called King Olav's Road. Å i Lofoten

Until the 1990s, Å was mainly a small fishing village specializing in

stockfish Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage lif ...

, but since then tourism has taken over as the main economic activity. The town features the

Lofoten Stockfish Museum Lofoten Stockfish Museum (''Lofoten Tørrfiskmuseum'') is located in the village of Å in the municipality of Moskenes, in the Lofoten islands in the county of Nordland, Norway. The Lofoten Stockfish Museum is devoted to the production of N ...

and the Norwegian Fishing Village Museum as two big tourist attractions.

Name

The village (originally a farm) is first known to be mentioned in 1567 as "Aa". The name is from Old Norse word "''á"'' which means "(small) river". The name was spelled "''Aa"'' until 1917 when the Norwegian language reform changed the letter "''aa"'' to "''å"''. The village is sometimes referred to as Å i Lofoten (''"i"'' means "in") to distinguish it from other meanings that go by Å (see

Å (disambiguation) Å (historically ''Aa'') is a letter used in several Scandinavian, High German, and Finno-Permic languages. Å may also refer to: Places Å ( or ) means ''stream'' or ''river'' in Scandinavian languages. A number of places have been named Å: ...

In media

In 2008, Joanna Lumley visited Å in the Lofoten Islands, for the BBC One television documentary ''Joanna Lumley: In the Land of the Northern Lights''; where she learned about the village's fishing heritage, during her journey to see the Aurora Borealis.

Notable people

Hank von Hell Hans-Erik Dyvik Husby (15 June 1972 – 19 November 2021), also known as Hank von Helvete and Hank von Hell, was a Norwegian singer best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Turbonegro. Career Von Hell's former band Turbonegro is most we ...

, rock singer, brought up here.

References

External links

The Lofoten Stockfish Museum

Moskenes Villages in Nordland Populated places in Nordland {{Nordland-geo-stub