Hafslo is a former municipality in the old

Sogn og Fjordane Sogn og Fjordane (; English: "Sogn and Fjordane") was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the cou ...

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 1838 until its dissolution in 1963. It is located in the present-day

Luster Municipality Luster is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative centre is the village of Gaupne. Other villages in Luster include Fortun, Hafslo, Indre ...

(in

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

county) in the traditional district of

Sogn Sogn is a traditional district in Western Norway ''(Vestlandet)''. It is located in the county of Vestland, surrounding the Sognefjord, the largest/longest fjord in Norway. The district of Sogn consists of the municipalities of Aurland, Balestra ...

. The former municipality included the villages of Kinsedalen, Ornes, and Kroken on the east side of the

Lustrafjorden The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden (, en, Sogn Fjord), nicknamed the King of the Fjords ( no, Fjordenes konge), is the largest and deepest fjord in Norway. Located in Vestland county in Western Norway, it stretches inland from the ocean to the sma ...

. It also included the villages of

Solvorn Solvorn is a village in Luster Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the western shore of the Lustrafjorden, the innermost part of the Sognefjorden. The village sits directly across the fjord from the village of Orne ...

Hafslo Hafslo is a Former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Sogn og Fjordane Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1963. It is located in the present-day Luster Municipal ...

, Joranger, and the whole

Veitastrond Veitastrond is a small village in the western part of the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. It is located near the Jostedalsbreen glacier, and Jostedalsbreen National Park surrounds the village on three sides. Veitastrond is lo ...

valley on the west side of the Lustrafjorden. The municipality surrounded the lakes

Hafslovatnet Hafslovatnet is a lake in the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. The lake lies at an elevation of , has a surface area of , and a water volume of . It serves as a reservoir for the hydroelectric power station in Årøy. The prima ...

and Veitastrondvatnet. 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 ...

of the municipality was the village of

, where

Hafslo Church Hafslo Church ( no, Hafslo kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Luster Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Hafslo. It is the church for the Hafslo parish which is part of the Sogn prosti ( de ...

was located.

Name

The name comes from the old ''Hafslo'' farm ( non, Hafrsló), since Hafslo Church is located there. The first element of the name comes from the old male name ''Hafr'' or from the word for "

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

" (also ''hafr''). The second element of the name comes from the old word ''ló'' meaning "

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

", probably due to the excellent farming areas nearby.

History

Hafslo was established as a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January ...

law). 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 1963, the municipality of Hafslo (population: 2,384) was merged with the neighboring municipalities of Luster (population: 2,674) and

Jostedal Jostedal is a former municipality in the old Sogn og Fjordane county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1963. It was located in the Jostedalen valley in the northern part of the present-day municipality of ...

(population: 796) to form the new, larger municipality of Luster.

Government

Municipal council

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 Hafslo was made up of 21 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

Sylfest Lomheim Sylfest Lomheim (born 11 March 1945 in Hafslo) is a Norwegian philologist. He was the director of the Norwegian Language Council from 2003 to 2010. He is also associate professor (''amanuensis'') in the Norwegian language at the University of A ...

(born 1945) – Norwegian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

* Jens Sterri (born 1923) –

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

* Kjellfred Weum (born 1940) –

hurdler Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

Media gallery

File:Hafslovatnet Norway.jpg, The Hafslo village area in the central part of the municipality File:Urnes ornes lustrafjorden sognefjord norway.jpg, The Ornes area in eastern Hafslo municipality File:Veitastrondsvatnet og Jostedalsbreen (0395).jpg, The Veitastrondsvatnet lake and the Jostedalsbreen glacier (northern end of the municipality File:Hafslo kirke, Sogn og Fjordane - Riksantikvaren-T284 01 0602.jpg, Hafslo Church

References

External links

* {{Authority control Luster, Norway Former municipalities of Norway 1838 establishments in Norway 1963 disestablishments in Norway