Gransherad is a former municipality in

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

county, Norway, located north-west of the city

Notodden Notodden () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city and List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold og Telemark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Øst-Telemark. ...

. ''Grandsherred'' was created in 1859 by the merger of the parishes Hovin in

Tinn Tinn is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Rjukan. The parish of ''T ...

and Gransherad in

Hjartdal Hjartdal is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sauland. The munic ...

. On January 1, 1886 Hovin was separated from Gransherad to form a municipality of its own. The split left Gransherad with a population of 1,393. On 1 January 1964 the district of Øvre Jondalen with 132 inhabitants was moved to

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production ...

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardan ...

county. The rest of Gransherad, then with 1,115 inhabitants, became a part of Notodden. Composer

Klaus Egge Klaus Egge (July 19, 1906 – March 7, 1979) was a Norwegian composer and music critic. Background Egge was born in Gransherad, Telemark, Norway. He was the son Rasmus Klausen Egge (1874-1962) and Rakel Abrahamsdatter Iversen (1877-1986). He g ...

was born in Gransherad.

The name

The

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 ...

form of the name was ''Grandalsherað''. The first element is the genitive case of a name ''Grandalr'', the last element is ''herað'' n 'rural district'. The name ''Grandalr'' is a compound of ''gran'' f '

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

', and ''dalr'' m 'dale, valley'. Until 1867 the name was written "Gransherred", in the period 1867-1888 "Grandsherred", in the period 1889-1917 (again) "Gransherred", from 1918 on "Gransherad". Villages in Vestfold og Telemark Notodden Former municipalities of Norway {{Telemark-geo-stub