Gjerstad is 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 ...

Gjerstad Gjerstad is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional region of Sørlandet, in the southeastern part of the county, along the border with Telemark county. The administrative centre of the municipality is the villa ...

municipality in

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,

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 village is located at the northern end of the lake Gjerstadvatnet at the northern end of the

Norwegian County Road 418 Norwegian county road 418 (Fv418) is a Norwegian county road in Agder county, Norway. The long road runs between the junction of Norwegian County Road 416 at the Aspelund farm in Risør municipality and the junction with Norwegian County Road ...

. The Sørlandsbanen railway line passes through the village and it stops at the Gjerstad Station. The village has a population (2017) of 289 which gives the village a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of .

Gjerstad Church Gjerstad Church ( no, Gjerstad kirke, locally: ''Gjerstad kjørke'') is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Gjerstad Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Gjerstad. It is the church for the Gjerstad parish ...

is located in the village along with a school and several stores.

Name

The village is named after the old ''Gjerstad'' farm (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

: ''Geirreksstaðir''), since the

was built there. One explanation of the name says that the first element is the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

of the male name ''Geirrekr'' and the last element is ''staðir'' which means "homestead" or "

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

". Another possibly explanation of the first part of the name says that it comes from the word ''geirr'' which means "spear". Historically, the name has been spelled Gerikstadum (c. 1400), Gierestat (c. 1567), Gierrestad, and Gjerrestad.

Media gallery

Gjerstadvatnet 2.jpg, View of the village from the train station Gjerstad kirke 20120826-15.JPG,

Gjerstad stasjon.JPG, Gjerstad Station Egddalstunnelen2.jpg, Tunnel leading into the village

References

Villages in Agder Gjerstad {{Agder-geo-stub