Herefoss is a village in

Birkenes Birkenes is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Birkeland, where about half the municipal population lives. Other 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 on the northeastern end of the

Herefossfjorden Herefossfjorden is a lake in the municipality of Birkenes in Agder county, Norway. The lake is about long and it is part of the Tovdalselva river. The Gauslåfjorden and Uldalsåna lakes flow into Herefossfjorden near the village of Herefo ...

which is a large lake on the river

Tovdalselva Tovdalselva (also known as the ''Tofdalselva'', ''Tovdalsåna'', ''Tovdalsåni'', literally: the ''Tov valley river'') is long and is one of the longest rivers in Southern Norway. The river flows through Agder county from the mountains on the nor ...

. The

Norwegian National Road 41 Norwegian National Road 41 (''Rv 41''; also known as the ''Telemarksveien'') is a Norwegian national road that runs through Vestfold og Telemark and Agder counties in Norway. The road runs between the village of Brunkeberg in Kviteseid munici ...

runs through the village connecting it to

Søre Herefoss Søre Herefoss is a village in Birkenes municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located on the southeastern shore of the lake Herefossfjorden, at the junction of the Norwegian National Road 41 and the Norwegian County Road 404. The vi ...

, about to the south, and to Hynnekleiv in

Froland Froland is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative center is the village of Blakst ...

, about to the north. The lake

Uldalsåna Uldalsåna is a lake on the border of the municipalities of Birkenes and Froland in Agder county, Norway. It is part of the Tovdalselva river drainage basin. On the southeastern end of the lake, there is a hydroelectric dam which releases water ...

lies about to the northwest. Herefoss used to have a train station along the Sørlandsbanen railway line. It was opened on 22 June 1938, but the use was discontinued in 1989. The station building is still standing. The village was 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 old municipality of

Herefoss Herefoss is a village in Birkenes municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern end of the Herefossfjorden which is a large lake on the river Tovdalselva. The Norwegian National Road 41 runs through the village ...

which existed from 1838 to 1967 when it was merged into

Herefoss Church Herefoss Church ( no, Herefoss kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Birkenes Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Herefoss, at the northern end of the Herefossfjorden, just west of the Norwegian Nat ...

is located in the village.

Name

The first documented occurrence of the name ''Hegrafoss'' stems from 1487, and 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 must then have been ''Hegrafors''. 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 bird name ''hegri'' (

grey heron The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern ...

) (same as the local river name, Hegra), and the last element is ''fors'' which means "

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

". Later, it was spelled ''Heirefos'' and ultimately ''Herefoss''.

History

Herefoss was historically the seat of public officials in this region. The ''fogd'' resided here from 1680 to 1820, and the ''sorenskriver'' (district judge) also lived here from 1724 to 1852. Herefoss was established as a

prestegjeld A ''prestegjeld'' was a geographic and administrative area within the Church of Norway (''Den Norske Kirke'') roughly equivalent to a parish. This traditional designation was in use for centuries to divide the kingdom into ecclesiastical areas tha ...

in 1875.

was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Jacob von der Lippe Jacob von der Lippe (27 September 1797–2 October 1878) was a Norwegian politician and priest who served as Bishop of the Diocese of Agder og Telemark, Diocese of Christianssand from 1841 to 1875. He was also a member of the Parliament of ...

in 1865.

Notable residents

Øyvind Bjorvatn Øyvind Bjorvatn (26 April 1931 – 9 February 2015) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party and later the Liberal People's Party. He was born in Herefoss. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Aust-Agder in 1965, and was re- ...

, a local

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 ...

* Nils Pedersen Igland, a local politician

References

External links

* {{use dmy dates, date=November 2020 Villages in Agder Birkenes