Evje is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The municipality existed from 1877 until 1960. It was located in what is now the eastern part of the present-day municipality of

Evje og Hornnes Evje og Hornnes is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Setesdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Evje. Other villages in the municipality include Åneland, Dåsnes ...

in the

Setesdal Setesdal (; older name: Sætersdal) is a valley and a traditional district in Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes. The Otra river flows through the ...

valley of

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("south ...

county. The

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

was the village of

Evje Evje is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1877 until 1960. It was located in what is now the eastern part of the present-day municipality of Evje og Hornnes in the Setesdal valley of Ag ...

where the

Evje Church Evje Church ( no, Evje kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Evje og Hornnes Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located at the north end of the Evje (village), village of Evje. It is one of the churches for the Evje og Horn ...

is located. The lake

Høvringsvatnet Høvringsvatnet or Høvringsvatn is a lake in the municipality of Evje og Hornnes in Agder county, Norway. It's located about northeast of the village area of Evje and about southeast of the village area of Byglandsfjord. The lake Homstølvatn ...

is located about northeast of the village.

History

The municipality of Evje was created on 1 January 1877 when the old municipality of Evje og Vegusdal was divided into Evje (population: 870) and Vegusdal (population: 935). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee ( no, Schei-komitéen) was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II. It convened in 1946, and its formal name was (The 1946 Committee on Municip ...

. On 1 January 1960, Evje (population: 1,646) was merged with the neighboring municipality of

Hornnes Hornnes is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway. Hornnes was located in what is now the present-day municipality of Evje og Hornnes in the traditional district of Setesdal in Agder county. The municipality of Hornnes e ...

(population: 1,280) to form the new municipality of

Name

The municipality (originally the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

) of Evje is named after an old ''Evje'' farm ( non, Efja), since the first church was built there. The name is identical with the word ''efja'' which means "

eddy Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle * Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...

", probably referring to the nearby river

Otra The Otra is the largest river in the Sørlandet region of Norway. It begins in Setesdalsheiene mountains at the lake Breidvatnet in Bykle municipality in Agder county, just south of the border with Vinje municipality in Vestfold og Telemark cou ...

Government

The

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

of Evje was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Notable residents

Torvald Haavardstad Torvald Haavardstad (21 November 1893 – 9 March 1965) was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Aust-Agder in 1931, and was re-elected on three occasions. Haavardstad was born in Evj ...

(1893–1965), a Norwegian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Helena Iren Michaelsen Helena Iren Michaelsen (born 2 June 1977) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter, known as the frontwoman for European symphonic metal band Imperia and her solo project Angel. She was the lead singer of the Gothic metal band Trail of Tears from 1997 ...

(born 1977), a Norwegian rock singer

References

External links