Nisser is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

Nissedal Nissedal is a rural municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Treungen. The ...

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 ...

. It is the 13th-largest lake in the nation by area with a surface area of , the 10th largest by volume at 7.19 km³, and the 13th deepest at . It is located in

and

Kviteseid Kviteseid is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Telemark in the Counties of Norway, county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative ...

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 ...

Vestfold og Telemark Vestfold og Telemark (; ) is a county under disestablishment in Norway. The county is the southernmost one of Eastern Norway and consists of two distinct and separate traditional regions: the former counties of Telemark and (most of) Vestfold. T ...

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 ...

, and is Telemark's largest lake. Part of the

Arendal Arendal () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county in southeastern Norway. Arendal belongs to the Districts of Norway, region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the munici ...

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

, water enters from the discharge of Vråvatn, and its outlet is the Nisserelva river. In 1914, a canal was constructed between Nisser (which is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

) and Vråvatn (which is above sea level). This makes it possible to travel the long stretch from

Tveitsund Tveitsund is a village in Nissedal municipality, Norway. The urban area Tveitsund, which consists of Tveitsund and Treungen Treungen is a village in, and the administrative centre of Nissedal municipality, Telemark county in Norway. Located just ...

to Vråliosen by boat. The Norse form of the name was ''Nizir'' - probably from an older form ''*Niðsær''. The meaning of the name is 'the lake (''sær'') of the river ''Nið'' (now

Nidelva (Aust-Agder) Nidelva is the main river in the Arendal drainage basin in Agder county, Norway. The long river begins at the confluence of two rivers: Nisserelva and Fyreselv. The confluence is located by the village of Haugsjåsund in Nissedal municipalit ...

)'. Fish species in the lake include the

Brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...

, European whitefish,

European perch The European perch (''Perca fluviatilis''), also known as the common perch, redfin perch, big-scaled redfin, English perch, Euro perch, Eurasian perch, Eurasian river perch, Hatch, poor man’s rockfish or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply th ...

Stickleback The sticklebacks are a family of ray-finned fishes, the Gasterosteidae which have a Holarctic distribution in fresh, brackish and marine waters. They were thought to be related to the pipefish and seahorses but are now thought to be more closel ...

, and

Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes and arctic and subarctic coastal waters. Its distribution is Circumpolar North. It spawns in freshwater and populatio ...

. The widest fjord at Lake Nisser is found immediately south of Lauvlunduten, which is situated on the border between Nissedal and

municipalities. This is also a location where the lake resembles the sea as one can not see across the lake to the other side at this location. The largest island in Lake Nisser is Trontveitøya. Several vacation homes are located on the island. Fjoneferja (M/F Nissen), which connects the west- and east sides of Nisser, is the last operating

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

in Norway.Tveit, Olav Jakob (2016). ''Turguide Nissedal''. Friluftsrådet Sør. Page 44. .

References

Lakes of Vestfold og Telemark {{VestfoldTelemark-geo-stub

See also

References